Syracuse's Fantasia Goodwin travels a long, daunting road

2/29/2008 4:41 PM

By JOHN KEKIS
AP Sports Writer

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -In her quiet moments, Fantasia Goodwin marvels at her life.

``What I've been through, people who think they can't make it, I'm showing them that you can,'' she said.

Goodwin is a senior forward on the Syracuse women's basketball team. She is a big reason why the Orange have been ranked this season for the first time in the program's 37-year history.

And the road she's traveled in her 22 years has been daunting: foster care, group homes, juvenile homes, the death of her mother. She also became a mother herself.

``I grew up in the system all my life,'' said Goodwin, her effervescent personality giving no hint of a childhood of abandonment and mistreatment. ``It's been rough. I'm just trying to overcome all that right now by doing good things.''

The turnaround began after her mother, Alice, died in 1997 at age 31 from complications of drug abuse.

``I was real angry, blaming the world, blaming myself for her death,'' said Goodwin, who was living in a group home at the time. ``I was feeling real bad. I didn't have a family support system, and my behavior didn't help, either. I was pretty over the top, always fighting and getting into trouble.''

Goodwin began meeting with a counselor, and a breakthrough soon followed. She went to a basketball tryout at the group home and made the team in Hastings, N.Y.

``Then everything else just fell into place,'' Goodwin said. ``We won a championship, and I made the winning basket to go into the championship game. That was exciting. I just loved that feeling.''

Goodwin went on to star at Martin Luther King High School in New York City, averaging 33 points a game. Thoughts of playing at a four-year college were out of the question, though.

``My grades were not good, and forget the SAT. I didn't know anything about the SAT until the last minute,'' Goodwin said. ``That didn't help my options of going to a big school.''

She enrolled at Monroe College in the Bronx and set Division III junior college records for points in a season (867), season scoring average (28), career scoring average (27) and career points (1,681). She completed her second year by leading the Lady Mustangs to a perfect record and the 2006 national championship, scoring 32 points in the title game and copping tournament MVP honors.

Still, big-time schools looked the other way.

``I remember going on a lot of visits and being denied,'' said Goodwin, who has an older brother, two younger sisters in foster care, and a 7-year-old brother living with her father in North Carolina. ``People were concerned about my background - 'We don't want to take the risk.'

``They weren't saying that to me, but you could tell they didn't want to take the risk with me. They'd rather have somebody with better grades and a better attitude, or whatever - a better background - rather than have somebody who's better, maybe, at basketball but is a head case.''

Syracuse's Quentin Hillsman was the exception. He offered Goodwin a scholarship and she accepted.

In Goodwin's first season there, she started the first 28 games and averaged 12 points and 6.8 rebounds. Respectable, but not up to her standards. There was a good reason, though. Before she sat out the season finale, she told Hillsman and her teammates that she was nearly seven months pregnant after having concealed it for so long with her loose-fitting uniform.

Goodwin delivered a girl last April and took five months off. She then had to get in shape again to meet the challenge of Big East ball.

``I was playing pregnant, so I knew I was going to come back. I had to come back,'' she said. ``But it was hard getting into basketball shape that I needed to compete at this level. I was 30 pounds overweight. I remember the first day of workouts. I couldn't do it. I was like passing out.''

She began losing weight thanks to diet and intense aerobics. Then Hillsman dropped a bombshell - she wasn't going to start this season.

``He told me that I could play four positions and no one else on the team can do that. I'm the perfect sub to come off the bench,'' Goodwin said. ``It made sense, but when you're starting all your life and you're the best player at what you do, it's kind of crazy. Being a player, being a competitor, I want to start. But I'm comfortable with it now. It's about the team. It's not about me.''

Goodwin has responded with a standout season. She's averaging 25 minutes and is second on the team in scoring (12.9) and tops in rebounding (9). And even though she might be 5-foot-10 in heels, Goodwin even set a school record with 25 rebounds against Saint Peter's in December, the second-highest one-game total in the nation this season.

``She's just been awesome, her work ethic and her leadership, her attitude,'' Hillsman said. ``She's always pushing her teammates. She's not made any excuses for anything.''

Goodwin keeps her private life private and is on track to graduate in May with a degree in communication and rhetorical studies.

``Basketball has taken a lot of time away from my responsibilities, but coach works it out with me,'' she said. ``I'm working on balancing it, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job. Some things I miss, and coach makes sure I get it done. I'm blessed. I feel grateful for everything.''

Her teammates are in awe.

``I have no words to explain what she's been through and how she's been strong about it,'' sophomore forward Nicole Michael said. ``I think everyone looks up to her.''