Broncos' Goebel ranks as one of best in wrestling, football

When Garrett Goebel arrived at Montini four years ago, he was known as a wrestler and never had played a down of football.

Four years later, Goebel has distinguished himself as one of the most highly recruited wrestlers and football players in the nation, drawing interest from some of the biggest athletic programs.

So it's no surprise that Goebel is the 2008 Sun-Times Male Athlete of the Year.

He has racked up a laundry list of honors, including:

• Goebel is ranked No. 64 nationally in Rivals.com's list of the top 100 football players for the Class of 2008 and is No. 6 nationally among defensive tackles.

• The 6-5, 280-pound Goebel won his second consecutive wrestling state championship at 285 pounds and helped the Broncos win the team state title. It was the second time in his career that Goebel had been on a state championship wrestling team.

• In wrestling 37 opponents in Illinois, Goebel pinned 35 of them -- and none of the 37 were able to score a point against him.

• He is the state's all-time leader in career wrestling victories with 201 and career pins with 131. He also shares the record for wins in a season with 57.

• He has been ranked nationally as one of the top wrestlers by various wrestling publications and polls and was a two-time champion in the Ironman tournament in Ohio -- competition regarded as the toughest prep wrestling tournament in the nation.

But he's going to play football at Ohio State and not wrestle.

The kid who never played the sport until he entered high school turned into a three-year varsity starter and is going to be a Buckeye next fall. His aim is to bring a national championship to Columbus.

''I'm really excited, and this puts into perspective all the hard work I did,'' Goebel said. ''I can't do both sports [in college], and it's depressing because it was hard to give up wrestling.''

Goebel started wrestling when he was 8, taking after his father, Greg, who was an All-American wrestler at Elmhurst College. But he started working at his father's concrete business, Goebel Concrete in Villa Park, when he was 11. Every summer since then, Goebel has worked in concrete, which enabled him to build up both mental and physical toughness.

''It's hot in the summer, and you're working outside,'' Goebel said. ''I'd take out chunks of concrete and carry lumber. No one really wants to do it.''

Montini wrestling coach Mike Bukovsky thinks none of the football workouts Goebel went through at Montini were as difficult as working concrete in the summer.

But it didn't seem to matter in Goebel's freshman year that he hadn't played football -- Garrett took his lessons from his dad.

''Garrett's father came to us the day before we started football practice,'' Bukovsky said. ''He wanted to borrow a helmet and shoulder pads. Greg said, 'They're for me. I'm going to teach Garrett how to block and tackle today.'''

Goebel turned into a hulking defensive tackle after getting called up to the varsity at the end of his freshman year during the playoffs. He stayed in the starting rotation for the next three years.

Bukovsky, a 22-year coaching veteran, knew right away that Goebel was special.

''As a freshman, you never expect the type of success he's had,'' Bukovsky said. ''He's one of the highest recruited athletes ever in two sports. To be one of the handful to be the best in the country in two sports, how could you ever predict that? But we knew the sky was the limit from Day One.''