Morgan Goodrich
As a second-year program this past season, Goodrich’s EMCC rodeo teams made significant improvements among the NIRA’s Ozark Region team standings. The EMCC men’s team concluded the 2011-12 campaign ranked fourth among the 11 teams of the Ozark Region. Along with the men making a two-place improvement from the previous year, the EMCC women climbed four notches from their inaugural season to land in fifth place among the nine women’s teams competing in the region.
Individually, Lion cowboy Will Lummus made back-to-back appearances in the steer wrestling event at the College National Finals Rodeo, while EMCC cowgirl Kellie Hailey competed in the CNFR as well this past June in Wyoming.
Prior to assuming the school’s rodeo coaching duties in 2010, Goodrich served a four-year stint as an assistant basketball coach on Sharon Thompson’s Lady Lions staff at East Mississippi Community College. She was a staff member on the 2008-09 EMCC women’s basketball team that posted a 25-7 overall record and participated in the NJCAA Tournament in Kansas.
A life-long resident of Scooba, Miss., Goodrich lettered for the Lady Lions during the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 basketball seasons under the direction of former EMCC basketball coach and current golf coach Dale Peay. She earned Phi Theta Kappa academic honors and graduated with honors from East Mississippi Community College in 2001.
Goodrich went on to hone her rodeo skills at the collegiate level as a member of the rodeo team at the University of West Alabama, having earned Reserve Champion status as an All-Around Cowgirl during the 2001 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s Ozark Region event. She went on to qualify in the barrel racing competition at the NIRA’s national event held that year in Casper, Wyo.
Goodrich competed in basketball and rodeo during her high school career at Kemper Academy in DeKalb, Miss. Earning all-state and all-district basketball honors as a senior, she helped lead coach Mike Luke’s 1997-98 Lady Rams to a runner-up finish in the Mississippi Private School Association (MPSA) state tournament. During the state tournament, she set an all-time school record by scoring 42 points in a single game. As the school’s all-time leading rebounder, Goodrich capped her prep career by earning the prestigious Keyes Currie Award following her senior campaign.
Having participated in rodeo competitions since the fourth grade, Goodrich most recently claimed the title as the 2011 Champion Breakaway Roper at the La Honda Rodeo in California for the second time in a four-year span. She was also the 2010 Pat Deaton Memorial Team Roping Champion. Goodrich previously earned the title as 2000 Rookie Champion in the breakaway roping event by the Professional Cowboy Association.
Formerly Morgan Gully, she is married to Wes Goodrich, who is a 19-year member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. Formerly a top 20 performer in the PRCA circuit during the 2001 and 2002 seasons, he most recently won the 2008 PRCA Heartland Finals Qualifier. He has also claimed the International Finals Rodeo California Circuit Championship as well as the PRCA Southeast Circuit Finals Qualifier during his professional rodeo career.
Morgan and Wes are the parents of one daughter, Shadow, 8, who has also competed in rodeo events.