Despite Health Problems, Griffins’ Local Boy Makes Good

You know, had Mike Good opted for popular perception this season instead of the truth, he might be making the talk-show rounds by now. He might be saying, “Yes, Oprah. It’s all true. It’s been horrible--I mean horrible!--trying to replace Tim Carey as quarterback at Los Alamitos High. The expectations? The pressure? You wouldn’t believe it. I have to do 10 shots of warm milk every night just so I can sleep. I’m telling you, the stress of replacing Tim Carey is nearly killing me!”

That would have been the more fashionable version of The Mike Good Story, anyway. Seems that a good portion of the Griffin football community wondered whether Good could handle the pressure of following a legend. Apparently, it didn’t matter that Good believed in himself or that his coaches and teammates supported him 100% or that the reality of the situation was, with Carey now at Stanford, somebody was going to have to play quarterback. People just couldn’t stop from popping the Carey question.

“Everyone--the newspapers, TV, people at school--everyone was saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got to fill Tim Carey’s shoes, Tim Carey this, Tim Carey that,’ ” Good says.

“You know, I guess that’s real interesting. I guess that’s a good story for people to talk about. But I’m sorry. The truth is, I didn’t feel any pressure at all. Tim was Tim. I am Mike. Now it’s my turn.”

If you think that’s teen-age bravado talking, think again. Good, a 6-foot, 195-pound senior, manages to exude confidence without being cocky. At 17, he has a surprisingly mature and realistic outlook on life, but he is also exceedingly optimistic. He knows how much Carey was revered last year. He says he revered him, too--most definitely. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to try to play even better.

The fact that he broke Carey’s school record for touchdown passes in a game Thursday night pleases him, though he rated his performance “just OK.” (Just OK as in 19 of 35 for 355 yards, six touchdowns and one interception.) He admits he was only feeling “about 50%” Thursday night, and it’s no wonder. Good was in a hospital emergency room until 12:30 a.m. the night before, and went back to the hospital right after the game.

Good has asthma. He says when the weather gets hot, and the skies get smoggy, he’s usually in for a miserable day. His lungs tighten, he has trouble breathing, sometimes to the point where he needs medical assistance. Wednesday and Thursday nights, he had to be hooked up to an oxygen unit at the hospital so he could breathe easier. He shrugs it off. No big deal, he says.

Perhaps, but Good, it turns out, also had a mild case of pneumonia last week. He gets that a lot, too, he says. He catches a cold, his lungs can’t handle it, and the next thing he knows, his doctor is prescribing another big dose of antibiotics. Pill after pill after pill.

“Now that I think about it, I guess that sounds pretty good, throwing for six touchdowns . . . with pneumonia,” Good says. “Gosh, I guess that is a pretty big accomplishment.”

His modesty is as sincere as it is refreshing. This is a kid who, instead of yelling or listening to loud music before games to psyche up, unfolds a letter his late grandfather wrote to him a month before he died and reads it for inspiration. Thursday night, Good wore under his football uniform a T-shirt that belonged to his grandfather. He believed it might bring him extra special luck.

This is a boy who says, in the most serious voice, that there can be no greater parents in the world than the two folks he calls Mom and Dad. This is a teen-ager who volunteers his time working with mentally handicapped children because it helps him to remember how lucky he is. “If I have a bad game, who cares?” Good says. “I could be in a wheelchair, you know?”

If he feels any pressure, to lead Los Alamitos to another Southern Section championship, to extend the Griffins’ 25-game winning streak indefinitely, he certainly doesn’t show it. Three years ago, he barely made the freshman football team, then ended up leading the Griffin ninth-graders to a 9-1 season. This season, through endless hard work over the summer, he was the No. 1 choice for quarterback.

Perhaps once the season’s over, only one question will remain:

How will anyone ever replace the legendary Mike Good?