George Goodwin is a forward for the University of Georgia hockey team and serves as one of the captains this season. He is a junior management major from Alpharetta, Georgia.

He is a Pittsburgh Penguins fan like his dad, and his jersey  No. 15 is not only a throwback to the number he wore in Wisconsin in junior hockey but also the same number his mom wore when she played softball.

“My dad was a huge Pittsburgh fan, so we’re all Pittsburghers.”

Goodwin started playing roller hockey when he was 8 and began playing ice hockey at 9. He continued playing roller hockey during the summer until two years ago, but this past year, his younger brothers, Xavier and Christopher, convinced him to play one last tournament with them.

“As a kid watching hockey, you grew up watching it and it’s always ice not roller, so of course I just gravitated towards it, because I wanted to try it. Once I got into it I was like ‘Oh, I really like it,’ but I also liked playing roller. Then when I did my first year of hitting I really liked it because the physicality’s really fun. It’s really fun destroying people from time to time. Getting destroyed is not fun, but getting to hit people when they go down.”

Goodwin started taking hockey seriously when he was 13, five years after he first started playing. He was homeschooled in middle school so he could focus on his training schedule.

“When I was playing for the (Atlanta) Fire at the Cooler, when it was still around, it was my first year of hitting, I knew the coach and I was homeschooled at the time, so he actually gave me lessons when I was supposed to be doing school work. So I would get all the work before going to the rink at maybe 2 or 3 p.m. and skate with him for an hour or an hour and a half, and then wait until practice started and practiced with both my team and the older team.”

After middle school, he tried to return to public school, but it did not fit with his training schedule. He then attended a private school until he joined the school at his rink.

“I think my parents wanted me to get that like actual being in school and what it’s really like to help me out when I came to college and I actually had to do that again.”

Before coming to UGA, Goodwin played two years of club hockey at George Mason University. He also played two years of junior hockey before that.

“Mason was great but this is a better school overall, it looks good on applications and resumes and all that. Then also I was tired of not having the ‘college experience’ really.”

Former Ice Dawg David Everly was a big advocate for Goodwin coming to play at UGA.

“He asked me years ago to come play, actually in juniors he asked me to come and play, but I told him no a couple of times, but well look at me now.”

After Goodwin told Everly he was finally coming to UGA, Everly was excited for him.

“He was like ‘It’s gonna be the best years of your life, the school is great, the football games are great. Like you’re gonna have such a good time.’ So far I’ve really enjoyed it. I haven’t gotten to my first football game yet but.”

Goodwin wants to make the playoffs and beat his current single-season scoring record of 25.

“First I want us to make playoffs of course. I’m not really sure how it works in the SEC, but I’m trying to be well over a point per game for the team. Then I’m trying to break my curse of 25 in one year so I’m trying to get 26 goals or more.”

Goodwin wants to work in supply chain and has taken lessons from hockey, including professionalism and learning whom to trust, to help him in his professional career.

“When I was in Idaho (playing junior hockey) we were the talk of the town, because there was nothing there, we were the thing. Everyone knew who you were, so I learned how to basically talk to fans and groups of people at one time.”

Fun fact: Goodwin was a Macy’s model when he was younger.