In his remarks last spring when Goldner received the Class of 1915 Award — presented to the senior male student-athlete who best exemplifies the spirit and tradition of Penn athletics — Murphy noted that many people gauge success based on winning championships, accolades and other external validations. In reality he believes a truer measure is when you look back on your career and ask yourself how close you actually came to meeting your potential.
“In 30 years of coaching, I'm not sure I've been around too many people that have done more to maximize their abilities and prepare for games like Adam has,” Murphy said. “He’s highly talented and skilled, but how thoroughly he works to improve and prepare himself is what sets him apart.”
Whenever Penn defenseman Mark Evanchick arrived at practice last fall or in the spring, he’d noticed Goldner was already out there practicing shooting with one or two freshmen. He’d spend time after practice, too, helping the younger players pick up on the intricacies of assistant coach Mike Abbott’s offense.
“Adam is as great of a leader as I’ve been around in my lacrosse career,” Evanchick said. “He’s constantly pushing everybody else to be better and bringing kids along, especially underclassmen, to do the right thing the right way, as Coach Murphy says.”
“One of our mantras is, ‘All In,’” Murphy said. “Nobody is more all in than Adam.”
Though usually reserved in his demeanor, every day after stretching and before practice, Goldner hammered home the point to his teammates that as hard as they worked in 2019 to make the NCAA quarterfinals, it wasn’t enough. The Quakers had one of the most successful seasons in program history and became just the third team in Ivy League history to sweep the regular season and tournament championships.
Still, they needed to work harder if they wanted to take the next step and finish what the class of 2019 started. They needed to treat every practice as if it were their last. Even in the huddle when they had what felt like a comfortable lead against Duke — a 14-11 win Feb. 22 — Goldner told his teammates not to get complacent.
“Coach Murphy taught us that your friend isn’t going to help you get better, but your teammate will,” Evanchick said. “Adam takes that to heart. He’s going to tell you what you need to hear whether you like it or not. You have to respect that.”
Goldner said he’s been impressed by the entire team’s commitment to an “entrepreneurial” approach to this fall. Since Penn did not announce all classes would be held virtually until Aug. 11, almost all of the team had already signed housing leases. The freshman wanted to be in the area, too, so the upperclassmen helped them find apartments in Philadelphia.
Because the campus and its training facilities have been closed, many scavenged weights and equipment from home to build a makeshift gym in the basement of the Locust Street house where most of the sophomores live.
Even though they can’t all be together in person, they’ve organized film sessions to break down more recent Penn games and historic ones like Syracuse’s stunning comeback win over Cornell in the 2009 NCAA championship game. That was the first college game Goldner ever watched. As a kid, he dreamed of playing on that type of stage.
“We’ve definitely done what we can with what we have,” Goldner said of the Quakers’ resourcefulness and positive outlook. “We’ve been trying to spend time together because guys’ mental health is very important. It feels good to lean on someone who’s going through the same thing.”
While Goldner said he feels like a member of the current senior class, one of the ways he stays connected with the class of 2020, including Gallagher and Thornton, is through their fantasy football league called “Alumni Quacks.” Goldner is currently tied for second with Evanchick. They face each other this weekend.
“Adam is projected to win by two points, but I don’t look too much into projections,” Evanchick said. “I believe I’ll be coming out on top.”
The fifth year is no longer a fantasy for Goldner. But after the long and winding road of the past seven months, he has tried not to dwell on what it will feel like to play on Franklin Field again with the teammates that mean so much to him.
“That is the end goal,” Goldner said. “But I’ve tried to focus more on the process of how to get there first and doing everything I can to be ready when that day comes.”