State Wrestling competitor and wrestling captain Payton Goodrich has been involved in the BSM community for all four years; he has participated in sports such as football and track and clubs RKVC, Red Carpet Club and National Honors Society. Not only is Goodrich a well-rounded athlete and student, but also a spiritual person with a gift in poetry.

Coming to BSM from Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Goodrich found it difficult to start fresh in his new Red Knight community. “I really hated freshman year, and even a little bit of sophomore year. Later on I felt more welcomed into the wrestling team. This season was my best wrestling season performance wise,” said Goodrich.

Not only has Goodrich’s talents shown through by his representation of BSM at State this year, but his passion for poetry has gained him recognition among his peers. “I’ve always been a huge fan of poetry. Staring last spring it sprang up. I started writing poetry more excessively out of desire to write. I originally wanted to become a better writer in general, so I thought it would help with my writing techniques,” said Goodrich, who regularly stops in with Mrs. Brew to gain perspective on his writing.

Although Goodrich wrote his first poem in the eighth grade, he has been a writer from early on.

“I keep a diary in my room and it’s kind of spurty how much I write in it. I started writing in it in the first grade,” said Goodrich. “It’s not daily, but maybe once a month. I throw in some stories every once and a while with some drawings.”

Apart from his passion for wrestling and writing, Goodrich loves to spend time outside as a form of therapy in the madness of high school. “I’ve always had a thing for the nighttime starting about three years ago. It became a tradition that I would sneak out every full moon and go on a walk in the park by my house. I would just walk and sit around and enjoy the ambiance,” said Goodrich.

Even with a rocky start to his high school career, Goodrich has had many great experiences at BSM and has been able to discover who he really is. “I think there is a phobia to being artistic or doing things like wrestling, the play or theater. People think you have to do the cliche activities like basketball, lacrosse or football and all, but really you can do whatever you want. People will accept you because in reality, no one is really the classic high school figure that everyone expects people to be,” said Goodrich.

Goodrich has admitted to falling victim to the notorious “senior slide” but insists he wants his memory to live on within the BSM walls. “I want to be remembered as the stud wrestling captain that’s every girls dream and every boy’s nightmare,” said Goodrich. With his talents traveling to Iowa State to pursue engineering, there is no doubt that Payton Goodrich is a tremendous student in the class of 2011.