Goebel, Short making adjustment to new lives

The final Sidelines column of the academic year traditionally catches up with the DuPage sports staff's selections as male and female senior athletes of the prior term. The choices for 2007-08 were Garrett Goebel of Montini and Casey Short of Naperville Central.

Reached Tuesday at his new off-campus apartment near The Ohio State University, where he enters the summer as a redshirt freshman defensive tackle for the Buckeyes, Goebel had one final test on Thursday, for a class in theater.

"You have to learn about the directors, the designing process, the actor's role, stuff like that," said the 2007 Suburban Catholic Conference lineman of the year and two-time state heavyweight wrestling champion. "I wished I wouldn't have taken it. I thought it would be an easy A."

Such are college life's harsh realities. Goebel, however, wasn't handcuffed by his classes as a freshman, earning an honors-worthy 3.59 grade-point average going into a final quarter in which he carried 17 credit hours. Nearly as important, the newly independent young man felt compelled to clean up his room without his mother, Judi, hounding him.

"It's been different," Goebel said of his post-Villa Park experience.

Heading perhaps to a degree in construction systems management or business - his father, Greg, is in construction - Goebel said most of this year was spent either practicing football, training or studying. Occasionally he'd get a kick out of playing video football with new friends like dorm roommate Zach Domicone, a redshirt safety from Xenia, Ohio.

The 6-foot-5, 280-pound Goebel said he's a second-team defensive tackle on Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel's depth chart. Goebel felt good about spring football, he said, and likes defensive line coach Jim Heacock, also Ohio State's defensive coordinator.

"It's completely different from high school, especially that my high school team only has 40 people on it and Ohio State has 105 guys or something," said Goebel, who as a Montini senior two-way lineman made 63 tackles with 16 tackles for loss plus 4 sacks. "Everything's just so much more organized and so much more time consuming.

"It was pretty regimented."

He doesn't plan on continuing in wrestling, in which his flat-out dominance at Montini set state records for career victories (201) and falls (131). Goebel does say the wrestling coach has invited to him to "roll around" on the mat if he wants, but right now he's 100 percent football.

It sounds like his greatest challenge this year was the distance between Columbus and home. Soon younger brother Grant will leave for college in California. His parents visited him, but friends...

"No one really wants to drive the six hours," Garrett said, understandingly.

"It definitely has its positives," Goebel said of the Big Ten student-athlete scenario. "Then there's other times you wish you were a normal student. But overall, definitely, it's been fun."

A lot of fun has been had by Casey Short, who picked up at Florida State University where she left off at Naperville Central - top student, ace soccer player.

Starting at midfield in 18 of 23 games - all 10 in Atlantic Coast Conference action - for a Seminoles team that finished 17-3-3 and reached the NCAA Tournament for the ninth straight season, Short was named to the ACC all-freshman team. She scored 2 goals with 6 assists, 3 of them on game-winning goals.

"It was great, everything I expected and more," Short said on Tuesday back in Naperville. "I love my coaches (head coach Mark Krikorian, assistants Eric Bell and Paul Rogers) and the training was awesome.

"It was a lot more fast-paced. I did have to adjust to it, it was very competitive. Great soccer."

As many collegiate student-athletes interviewed for this annual feature have stated, time management became a priority.

"I think the biggest thing is just to stay focused to your sport and staying on top academically, because at times it's hard to stay focused," she said. "And to remember your future in life, where you want to go and what you want to be."

A former Illinois State Scholar - and three-time state track titlist before concentrating full-time on soccer - her studies didn't suffer. Short made the Florida State dean's list both semesters her freshman year, though she shifted majors to criminology from nursing as a concession to her soccer schedule and her future in the sport.

"It would have been too hard missing so many days throughout the fall," she said.

Then there's spring soccer. A veteran of five national teams upon entering college, in March Short started four games for the U.S. Under-20 National Team that played at the 10 Nations Tournament in Spain. (Neuqua Valley senior Alexa Gaul played a game in goal.) Short scored the tying goal in the 90th minute of a 1-1 draw against France.

Currently playing for the Chicago Red Eleven, an amateur club affiliated with the Chicago Red Stars Women's Professional Soccer team, she said she'll rejoin the U-20 nationals on a trip to Hamburg, Germany, June 19-27. She'll return to Florida State Aug. 2, and while she had no problem with the dorms, she'll take an apartment with Seminoles teammates Toni Pressley and Tiffany McCarty.

There were times this year when her parents, Kerrwin and LeeShelle, visited Tallahassee or came to the Notre Dame game. A few leisurely times when Casey took in a movie or a mall, or simply embraced the warm breeze of the South.

"I think it's a lot more laid back," she said, "and I like that."

doberhelman@dailyherald.com