Since 2009, Ken Goodman has been the man behind the microphone. You may not know his face, but Dragon fans are rather familiar with his voice. Ken is not only the announcer for football but also a majority of the Dragon’s sports teams, graduation and sports banquets. So we sat down with him to learn about how he got his start with announcing and what keeps him coming back season after season.
WE CAME TO SOUTHLAKE … back in 2000. I opened Goodman’s Taekwondo USA, the first taekwondo school here in Southlake. We sold that in 2008, and that’s about the time I started doing the announcing thing.
I GOT INTO ANNOUNCING … because my daughter played softball for Carroll. So we were at those games, which used to always be announced by students. When they didn’t show up, people would ask, ‘Who can announce?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I will do it!’ I don’t want the girls not to have announcers. So it all took off from there, and I started adding on different sports.
I ALWAYS LOVED … sports. I played football in high school and college. I actually graduated from Richland High School, so I grew up around here. I played 5A ball there and loved it all my life. Unfortunately, it didn’t love me back. After I got two injuries, I couldn’t play anymore. But I love the Cowboys, love football, baseball, all of it!
I DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS … when I started in 2009, so I went to the only place I could find that taught how to be an announcer, the National Association of Sports Public Address Announcers (NASPAA).
EVERY FOOTBALL GAME … is an event. Obviously, it’s a big sport in Texas, and it’s a big sport in Southlake. We only have five home games and every football game is an event. We have Senior Night, Pink Out, Homecoming and Dragon Youth Football night. We have the UIL Lone Star Cup presentation — thankfully we win that a lot. We have check presentations and recognize students. It’s a lot.
IT IS DIFFICULT TO BE ON THE SIDELINES … because I love watching the games. That’s where I get into trouble sometimes. But you can’t do that; I have to pay attention. It’s rewarding, but it is extremely difficult because I am juggling most sports for Southlake. Already I have the volleyball schedule and have two conflicts with football on the same night. So I have to figure all those things out. I also do pep rallies; I emcee the sports banquets; I do graduation every year; and I do the Carroll Medical Banquet.
FOOTBALL … definitely takes the longest. It takes me 8 to 10 hours on Fridays from start to finish just to get everything ready to go and to know what I’m doing.
I LOVE BEING ABLE TO … put the spotlight on these kids. That’s what’s fun about all of this. Because you want it done right and you want to punch their names some times. Because it really burns my toast to follow the basketball team to away games and there are all of 10 people, and the announcer is just slaughtering our kids’ names. That’s the dad in me. That’s my pride — I am going to know your name and how to pronounce it.
EVERY YEAR … Dragon Youth Football hires me to do their Super Bowl. And my wife will tell you: I take coffee, food, a heating pad and medical kit because I go at 8 a.m., and I don’t finish until 10:30 or 11 at night. It’s game after game all day. I usually can’t talk after that, but the kids absolutely love it.
MY GAME DAY REMEDIES … are stay away from cold stuff, like don’t drink ice water or iced tea because it can affect your voice. Just have room temperature water and stuff like that. Or do it well before the game.
IT’S ALWAYS EXCITING … to see how the lineup is going to play out. When we had the taekwondo school, I trained all these Dragons. So they started with me. We started seeing our previous students take the field when Greg McElroy was the quarterback. When he hit 13 years old, he picked up football and was done with taekwondo. And I started announcing during Kenny Hill’s first year. But I trained Kenny as a black belt starting when he was five years old all the way up. We are just now seeing the last people that we trained when they were kids graduate. It’s weird. I feel old.
SOUTHLAKE IS SO … dominant because once a Dragon, always a Dragon. From kindergarten, every school is the Dragons. What really got me is that the high school coaches have their systems taught in Dragon Youth Football.