Cowgirls' Loryn Goodwin Acing Master's, Big 12 Basketball

Monday, February 26, 2018

By John Helsley

Loryn Goodwin found herself looking for another school last spring. Again.

Oklahoma State’s Master’s in Entrepreneurship program lured Goodwin to Stillwater, where she’s thriving both on the basketball floor and in the Spears School of Business nearing the end of a career she aptly describes as a “journey.”

As the Cowgirls drive toward a place in the postseason, Goodwin leads the way as the team’s starting point guard and leading scorer. The Cypress, Texas, product is driving toward another goal, too – a master’s degree in entrepreneurship – after arriving for her final season of college basketball as a graduate transfer from the University of Texas-San Antonio.

And yes, it’s quite the juggling act, managing grad-school books with bouncing balls.

“I learned pretty quick that you have to be super disciplined,” Goodwin says.

She learned the hard way, by a self-imposed accident, enrolling in 12 hours of graduate classes for her first semester at OSU.

“I’m thinking 12 hours is just 12 hours, like it was with undergrad, when you’re required to take 12 hours to be eligible,” Goodwin says. “You don’t have to take all that for a master’s. Now I know why.

“So I learned that you have to be super disciplined and use your resources. I was in the writing lab, writing 20-page research papers with the academic writing lab staff. Revise. Edit. Send it again. Revise…

“But I wanted to do it all, so I could get it paid for before I leave here.”

Goodwin did it all and aced it all, posting a 4.0 grade point average through those initial 12 hours.

She’s backed off – a bit – this spring, dropping back to nine hours, although that’s still a hefty load. Yet her focus remains sharp, even in the midst of a grueling basketball schedule of practices, games and weekly road trips.

“I told myself I wanted to graduate with a 4.0 with my master’s degree,” Goodwin says. “It’s a super hard process, but I figured out that if you want something, you can make it happen.

“Once we really got rolling with school, I’m in the hotel rooms, in the books. When I’m here on campus, there’s no time to really go out to eat with friends and just talk for hours.

“I’ve learned how to manage my time a lot over the years.”

Goodwin has learned to manage much more than her time.

She’s managed adversity and disappointment from the outset of what has been a circuitous path involving five coaches at four different schools spanning six years, moving always for reasons beyond her control.

Twice – at her first stop at North Texas, then Butler – the coaches she signed to play for either left or were fired. Goodwin figured UTSA would be her final college home, until questions surrounding her transfer credits left her short of the business degree she coveted.

So, she decided, the next best thing would be a master’s degree in entrepreneurship, except UTSA couldn’t offer that.

OSU did.

“At some point, the ball’s going to stop bouncing and I’ll need a career,” she says.

Somehow, Goodwin remained driven to succeed, both on the floor and in her classes. She was prepared, too, if not for all the adversity, for putting her head down and charging forward, thanks to a strong support system back home.

“Throughout her entire life, we told Loryn, ‘No matter what happens, you have to out-work everybody else,’” said Loryn’s mother, Laura. “And that’s what she’s done. We told her, ‘Do the right thing. Be a good person. Follow what the Lord wants you to do. Be kind.’ And she did those things.

“As a parent, it’s hard to watch a child go through lessons. It’s easy to become frustrated with the process. While it broke my heart for her a couple of times, at the end of each of the little stops in her journey, I knew that Loryn had grown in a way that she may not have grown, if that journey had not gone that direction.

“So at the end of the day, while the journey may have been challenging, for sure, Loryn came out of it a better person and a better basketball player. And a better all-around person who is ready for society. I guess it was God’s plan.”

Loryn recognizes the gains, amid the pain, too.

“It’s not necessarily what I wanted to do, but for me it’s helped me become a better player and a better person, I think,” she says, “just meeting a ton of new people that I wouldn’t have met.”

Goodwin has always been a good player, with accolades to prove it.

She was Conference USA’s Newcomer of the Year last season at UT-San Antonio. At Butler, she was the team’s leading scorer and an All-Big East honorable mention selection in 2015. Before that, Goodwin was named Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year at North Texas.

Now at OSU, she's been named to the watch list for the Wade Trophy, the oldest and most prestigious Player of the Year award in women’s college basketball. And Big 12 honors are sure to come.

“She’s been a great player for us, an outstanding leader,” Cowgirls coach Jim Littell said. “She’s just a very talented young lady who loves to play the game and is very passionate about it.”

When her time at OSU is over, Goodwin may try extending her basketball career by playing professionally overseas. But, like always, she’s focused away from the court as well.

Her dream is to one day own a physical therapy clinic, putting her master’s degree to good use. And she'd like to do that back home in the Houston area, near the family that has supported her so well.

Her classes in the Spears School are preparing her for the next step.

“I’ve met a lot of people and much of them are much older than me, so it’s a new environment for me, being around people who are already into their careers and seeing what they’re doing right now,” she says.

“There’s a guy who is in engineering, but he wants to open his own firm, and he’s married with two kids. And there’s a woman who wants to open her own boutique, and she’s currently working for a computer software company.

“Those are the kind of people I’m meeting now, compared to before, with people on the same route as me and in the same year as me. I’m meeting people who are wise beyond my years. And it’s been great.”