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When former Major League Baseball Pitcher Doc Gooden was a teenager, he made a habit of dominating hitters on a regular basis, winning 17 games as a member of the New York Mets and appearing in the 1984 MLB All-Star at just 19-years-old.
Now, his son, Dylan, is also starting to dominate at a young age. Instead of toeing the rubber and striking people out with ease, Gooden is wreaking havoc as a pass rusher at Our Lady Good Counsel High School in Maryland.
Gooden, a 6-foot-6, 200-pound defensive end, broke into 247Sports’ latest class of 2023 Top247 rankings on Wednesday afternoon, checking in No. 143 in his class. Gooden started his sophomore year at Our Lady Good Counsel as a wide receiver, but made the switch over to defense midway through the season and instantly reaped the benefits. Gooden notched four sacks in just two games, with one of those matchups coming against national powerhouse St. Frances Academy.
“The coaches wanted him on defense,” Dwight Gooden said in an interview with 247Sports’ Brian Dohn. “I told him, ‘I think defensive end is probably your thing.’ He said, ‘Yeah, but I want to play wide receiver.’ I told him, ‘Good, and I am not telling you not to, but I don’t want you to cheat yourself.’
“If the coaches at Good Counsel see you that way, if the coaches who recruited you (into high school) see you that way, get better at it. Play wide receiver as well, but learn the defense because the higher up you go, the tougher it gets.”
The younger Gooden’s newfound stardom as a pass rusher has garnered the attention of college football coaching staffs across the nation. Arizona, Boston College, Kentucky, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Penn State, Texas A&M and West Virginia have already offered Gooden and that list figures to only grow as he continues to familiarize himself with his new position.
“It’s exciting,” Dylan Gooden said. “I’m blessed. They came out of nowhere because I wasn’t expecting it. I only played two games. It all happened so fast.”
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