Taking His Victory Lap
“A lot of people doubted me coming back for the fifth year. There was a lot of ‘Why don’t you get your career going?’ But I only get one chance to play college football again. So why not?”
Colin Goodfellow, UK’s starting punter and a recent UK College of Nursing graduate, is making the most of every moment of his time at UK. He’s currently in his fifth year, taking advantage of the NCAA ruling that allows student-athletes one additional year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There’s more than one reason why Colin pushed to make this season his best yet. His dad, Dr. Don Goodfellow, an orthopedic surgeon, had his third heart attack and quadruple bypass surgery in July 2021, shortly before Colin’s football season was about to begin. The team supported him fully as he took time off to be with his family—and since his recovery, Dr. Goodfellow has been able to come see Colin play in his fifth season.
“I’m very grateful for my coaches and the whole staff here that said, ‘Take as much time as you need, we’ll support you and give you a chance when you get back,’” said Colin. “That’s when I knew I made the right decision to come back for a fifth year. It drove me even more to be like, ‘Okay let’s go do this; let’s make this fifth year worthwhile.’ My dad has been able to come to the home games, which has been really special.”
That fifth year is also allowing him to expand the skills he learned as a nursing student, living up to his longtime goal of working in health care.
“In seventh and eighth grade, I was looking up what I wanted to do and exploring things,” said Colin. “Since my mom’s a nurse, I looked up who has the best nursing programs, and UK was in the top three at that time. Plus, I liked the color blue.”
As Colin progressed to high school, his professional goals began to crystallize, and his career on the football field was also starting to take off. Several schools recruited him, but UK was the only Division I school that would allow him to pursue nursing and football at the same time.
“I had to be stern and step up for what I really wanted to do with my life,” said Colin. “I put ‘student’ before ‘athlete,’ and that was definitely a challenge.”
“The last semester of nursing school is very intense and demanding,” said Brittany Hernandez, a nurse, clinical instructor and preceptor at UK College of Nursing. “Colin would be at football practices as early as 6 a.m., practice for a few hours and then come in and work with me until 7:30 or 8 at night to get his hours in. He always said, ‘Let’s keep going.’”
Despite those challenges, Colin completed his studies, passed the NCLEX, and is now a registered nurse—but, true to form, he kept going. He’s embarked on a unique fifth-year independent study with the Dean of Nursing at UK College of Nursing, Dr. Janie Heath. When Dr. Heath and Colin first met last spring, he was just six weeks away from graduation. Dr. Heath had never realized one of their nursing students was a key player on the UK football team.
“There was a part of me that was like, why didn’t I know about this?” said Dr. Heath. “And then there was the other part of me that was like, maybe Colin didn’t want the world knowing about it. And that’s the Colin I’ve come to know. He’s very humble. You spend any time with him, and he’s not all about the football, the football, the football. He went into nursing for all the right reasons.”
Dr. Heath worked with Colin on an independent study in the graduate nursing program, focusing on mindfulness strategies for resiliency in high-stress careers like nursing. As part of the study, Colin worked with first-year nursing students, giving feedback, advice and helping them practice their skills.
“When I talk to younger nursing students, I tell them, ‘You can’t go through nursing school alone,’” said Colin. “It’s too rigorous, it’s too hard and you’re so stressed. You need to let it out with somebody—plus you never know when nursing school is going to bring you your best friends.”
Colin’s ability to prioritize, commit, and take advantage of the support of his teammates and mentors is a big piece of what has made UK such a remarkable experience for him, both on and off the field. His immediate future includes finishing out his final season as the Wildcats punter and then diving into his career in nursing—hopefully at UK.
“I’m going to do my best,” said Colin. “That’s my attitude. I know I’m leaving it all out there—nursing, football, life, whatever it is. I’m going to be the best version of myself.”
