(MACON, Ga.) – In 2003, if someone told Jake Goldowski’s parents that their son would play his 100th game for his team, they may have laughed. It took six months of taking him to his sisters’ figure skating rink and trying to get him into a pair of skates before he took to it. But once he skated onto the ice, he never looked back. It wasn’t long before he picked up a stick and found a love for shooting.
“This may be a little cliché,” he says, said. “I think it was just mostly being on the ice and scoring goals and just watching the puck. You know it gives you that joy and happiness.”
In 2013 he and his parents were approached by one of his coaches at Wilkes-Barre to transition to online school, something that would allow him to practice not only during the day, but with older team members as well.
It paid off when, in 2016, he was selected for the U.S. National Team, uprooting him from his hometown of Thornhust, PA, to Plymouth, MI, a place he still considers a home away from home. He started back at public school and spent two years playing with the best of the best in the country before getting drafted into the OHL, for three years.
Then COVID hit. No hockey, no ice, just basement workouts and isolation.
Restrictions lifted and for a year found himself in a country where the only thing on the TV was soccer: Finland.
Less than year later and he would sign to the SPHL and after four trades and what he would consider to be an up-and-down season, he found himself in Macon. A city he has found an appreciation for, from the hospitality to the food, to getting to give back by things like reading to kids in the area.
Three and a half weeks in, and the Mayhem are up against his former team. The game goes into a shootout, and he’s called up. He takes the shot and scores, securing a win against his former team and lighting a fire under him. That was the moment it was clear he could do it. From there he’s gotten numerous call ups to the ECHL to play in over 20 games and has had numerous accomplishments within the Mayhem franchise.
Fast forward to this year and on Feb. 22 and he played his 100th game with the Mayhem, something that just 13 other players have done in the league’s team’s history. Ranked No. 7 on the league’s team’s leaderboard, with 26 goals under his belt, he has more than proved to be an asset to the Mayhem.
It’s through the support of his family and his team that are the reason for his success.
“Even when I’m far away they try and find ways to come support me,” he said. “You know they’re just a really big support system for me.”
It’s not the teams he’s made or games he’s won that made it worth playing, rather the friends and teammates he’s made along the way that have been his favorite memories. The little things like discovering a new love for a sport like soccer through playing the game he’s loved most of his life. These are the things that have led to his ability to play over 100 games for the Mayhem.
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