Merrimack's Shea Goodwin is a standout on offense, defense and special teams. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MERRIMACK – Shea Goodwin was upset a couple of weeks ago.

It’s his first year returning kicks for the Merrimack High School football team, and in the season opener, Londonderry wasn’t kicking to him.

“I was talking to my Dad (Mike Goodwin), I’m not a Curtis Harris (the former Nashua North standout),” he said. “Why wouldn’t they kick to me?”

Well, Nashua North made that mistake twice last week, and the highly regarded Merrimack senior may not see another kick again after returning two to the house vs. North for a total of 187 yards.

But anytime the Tomahawks take the field, Goodwin is a player the opposition, including Nashua South tonight, has to pay mega attention to. As a receiver, he’s second to none; and defensively he’s a standout in the secondary at 6-foot-1.

“I just saw some openings and took them,” he said of the returns, added he worked on his speed during the pandemic shutdown at the YMCA.

“I was trying to get faster, more explosive,” he said. “My freshman year, I was lanky and slow, sophomore year, I got a little taller.”

Goodwin has been playing football since he was in the third grade, for the Pop Warner Merrimack Cardinals. His older brother Jack played soccer and baseball.

“I liked the brotherhood, just being part of a team,” he said. “A surreal experience.”

Tomahawks coach Kip Jackson knew he had something special when he first saw Goodwin as an underclassman.

“Just his approach and maturity,” Jackson said is what he noticed. “A pretty even-keel kid. When you’re explaining something, he would think through it and he’s also extremely competitive. He’s always trying to get improve and get better, and those are all special qualities for us.

“Like I said, the way he carries himself is most different than kids his age.”

Goodwin has a cerebral approach but don’t let that fool you.

“In spite of his size, people don’t know he’s extremely tough,” Jackson said.

“For me it all comes down to being really competitive, and really competing for the ball,” he said. “There’s that certain thing in my head that won’t let someone else catch it.”

Basketball helps for that, with his length he enjoys the defensive part of the game. But with football, his instincts come from his competitive nature.

“It takes competition, I do feel I have that sort of instinct to be in the right spot to make a play,” he said.

And, what Jackson loves, is he knows is role as a leader, plus the value of the community service the team does, which is why the coach says he’s a great representative of the program.

“This season, we have a young team, a lot of sophomores that have to play, our junior class was struggling. So we always bring it back to being a Tomahawk, focus on the little things. Do everything the right way, that’s what we try to do. I had some good role models. (from previous senior classes).”

But now Goodwin is the role model. He and fellow senior QB Kyle Crampton have been teammaes for a long time, and have a great rapport, that unspoken communication between QB and receiver.

“In youth, I was never really the greatest,” Goodwin said. “I played tight end, I’d catch a couple of passes here and there. But freshman year, me and him started getting a little connection, then sophomore year, more connection, but that junior year was big, a couple of games and we made it work.”

“He has great body control,” Jackson said, “and he has incredible hands. Like I said, he’s the real deal.”

Goodwin is the ultimate three-sport athlete, adding lacrosse to his football and baseball portfolio. Will he chose one for college? You bet.

“I’m looking to play football,” he said. “Hopefully at at least the D-II level.”

And he knows where. Goodwin, when out in Colorado on fishing trips with his father, fell in love with the state and wants to go to college out there, hoping to draw the attention of a couple of schools there – Western Colorado University in Gunnison and Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction.

And of course he’ll draw some interest from schools in the New England region, although last year’s pandemic-related limited schedule and thus limited film.

“But if he continues to progress, they’ll be interested,” Jackson said. “And they should be. He’s a special kid.”

And an outdoorsman as well, plus someone who always loves science as he possibly wants to study environmental biology in college.

He enjoys basketball because that, too, brings out his competitive spirt. “I can bust my butt and the four other guys around me can really follow me,” he said. “It’s a good way to be a leader. I can fly around.”

He had a neighbor that got him into lacrosse, and he began playing it in the seventh grade. Freshman year he thought that might be his college sport, “but then I started focusing more on football.”

Goodwin certainly wants to make the most of his senior football season, but also feels a sense of responsibility to the Merrimack program.

“It is a lot of fun,” he said. “But this year, it’s about getting these guys (going). We have a good freshman class coming in, and those sophomores, they can be pretty good.”

Starting to sound like a coach, no?

“I think I could coach,” he said. “Coach Kip’s a good mentor.”

And he has a very, very good player. Just look back at last Friday’s returns.

“I’ve never seen two returns like that,” Jackson said. “Especially the way he did it. He outran an angle from a couple of kids we all know are really fast. … He was upset at a little breakdown in our defense. So he took the ball, had it in his mind he was going to return it to the house, and he did. That’s the kind of competitor he is.”

We’ll see if South kicks to him tonight.