Patrick Goodpaster, a lieutenant in the Gardena Police Department and football coach at 10-time City Section champion Narbonne High, should have turned on his police car siren to celebrate his first win as a high school coach on Thursday night, 28-18 over Fairfax.
“No, no,” he said.
Then he acknowledged, “It meant a lot.”
He took over a program this year that remains banned from the City Section playoffs for three years pending an appeal of sanctions imposed in 2024 for repeated rule violations. This is Year 2 of the sanctions.
That caused an exodus of players and support.
The first session Goodpaster had with the 16 players who showed up involved teaching them what a hash mark was.
“It is starting from scratch,” he said. “It’s really hard to change a culture. When you’re trying to break bad habits and teenagers need to buy into someone who just shows up, it takes time.’’
Narbonne lost 43-0 to Cleveland in its season opener, then 32-14 to North Torrance before beating Fairfax.
“I think they saw we’re getting better,” he said.
Goodpaster, a former Narbonne player, was receiving congratulations day and night. “My phone was blowing up,” he said.
The Gauchos have a roster that fluctuates among 24 varsity players, but more and more are showing up to join the team. and others are waiting to be cleared depending on the 10-week report cards.
“My goal is to have 45 kids next year,” said Goodpaster, a longtime youth coach in the community.
Narbonne is scheduled to appeal this month to have sanctions removed for the playoffs. With a policeman in charge of the program, there’s no more off-the-field games being played — only hard work trying to get back to the top.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.