St. Jude Physical Education Teacher, Pat Goedde, becomes Head Basketball Coach at La Salle HS
MONFORT HEIGHTS - The search is over, ultimately, in the same place where it began: at La Salle High School.
The Lancers announced Tuesday that longtime assistant basketball coach Pat Goedde, a 1991 La Salle graduate, will succeed Dan Fleming as the fourth head basketball coach in school history.
“It’s just the greatest thing that could ever happen to me,” Goedde told Cincinnati.com Tuesday morning. “I really can’t express it in words other than telling you that for 40 years of my life I’ve been a part of La Salle High School … 40 years. I’m 45.
“Just to get the opportunity to become the fourth head coach in La Salle history, it’s unbelievable. Totally unbelievable. It’s a dream come true. I know what the La Salle community is about. I know the alumni. I know the past players. I know the administration … it’s just unbelievable.”
Goedde played on Fleming's first team at La Salle. The day the season ended Goedde said Fleming offered him a job as an assistant coach, a position he held proudly for the last 26 years.
“The day after I graduated, actually the last game that we played, Dan Fleming asked me to come back and coach,” said Goedde, who joins Fleming, Hep Cronin and Bill Cady as the Lancers’ only basketball coaches.
Being offered a coaching position while he was still in high school, Goedde said is something that only happens “in the great city of Cincinnati,” he laughed.
“We were his first class and he created a brotherhood with the guys that I played with and that’s probably the most unbelievable time I had as a student-athlete,” said Goedde, who could have been a head coach elsewhere long before Fleming retired earlier this month. “A lot of the guys that were on that team either work at the school or are still involved in the school. That’s the cool part — there’s so many deep-rooted things that occurred back when I was going to school there and it’s just blossomed into this and it’s just wonderful to have that experience.”
Fleming, La Salle’s career wins leader, said Tuesday afternoon that Goedde will elevate the program and take it to new heights with his work ethic and knowledge of the game.
“I’m indebted to Dan Fleming,” Goedde said. “He gave me my first opportunity. I’m 18-19 years old and he comes to me and says — cause I could have went to Cincinnati State and played there for two years — ‘If you don’t do that, I want you to come back and coach.’
“I’m indebted to him, man. That was one of them destiny moments. Like they said if God gives you a few of them and you make a decision: I’m gonna go do that or go do that. That’s one of those destiny moments he gave to me and it’s paid off.”
In regard to offering a high schooler a coaching position, Fleming said, “Yeah, he’s just a natural.”
When Goedde's phone rang Tuesday morning with the news, fittingly, he was at breakfast surrounded by his family.
“I was out to eat with my family,” said Goedde. “Nobody understands this, but my dad goes to every game and he was sitting across from me and I got to tell him.
“He was so pumped.”