Goff wins Country Showdown for second time
CHRIS ROUSH/DAILY FORUM
Burlington Junction native Michael Goff won the 34th annual Country Showdown during the Nodaway County Fair Friday night. This was the second time Goff has won the competition, and he will move on to the Missouri State Country Showdown in Farmington, Missouri on Oct. 17.
Singing has been in Michael Goff’s blood for his entire life and it showed on the 34th annual Country Showdown at the Nodaway County Fair Friday night.
“A couple of years ago my uncle told me that this country showdown was coming into town and he wanted me to try it,” Goff said. “I was thinking I had never done anything like that, I don’t know if I want to try it, I just like to sing with the family and stuff.”
Goff’s first time competing in the Showdown came in 2013, the first time the competition was at the Nodaway County Fair. The Burlington Junction native’s performance didn’t disappoint as he won the local competition that year.
Winning the local competition and competing at the state level opened doors for Goff. Soon after the competition, he started a local band and has been playing with the group ever since.
“After winning, I started a band, Michael Goff and Broken Spoke, which is mostly friends and family getting together and just started playing more shows and local fairs,” Goff said. “I had written a few original songs and I thought that I should compete again this year.”
Goff’s passion singing dates back to when he was a little kid singing with his sister, but his passion for singing almost disappeared whenever he was a teenager.
“I started singing when I was 5 and early on my sister and I sang together,” Goff said. “We’d go over to the country shows in Stanberry and the local opries. It’s kind of kept going and I backed off of it for a while in high school, I guess I thought I was too cool or something, I don’t know how you’d think you were too cool to sing, but I just picked it up again after that.”
Goff grew up in Burlington Junction and graduated from West Nodaway R-1 in 2000. He played football during high school and one of the original songs he performed Friday night in the 2015 Country Showdown is about playing under the lights on Friday nights.
“It’s called Football Friday Night and I played football in high school and we went 9-1, we had a really good team,” Goff said. “It was life to us and my nephews play for North Andrew and they won the 8-man state championship this year. I just enjoy going to their games and the feeling of it.
“I was thinking of way to illustrate that feeling so people can feel it over again. It’s the feeling you get on a Friday night, my dad always said that come September, you can just smell football in the air.”
After performing Football Friday Night, Goff followed up with his other original song, Things Worth Doing.
“It’s kind of my life story right now,” Goff said. “I was sitting in church and one of our leaders said that if there’s something worth doing, you should do it every day. I thought that was a great song lyric so I kept it in my head and built off that. Things are kind of crazy in our country and my dad taught me to be a man and I think that’s important. The message is be man, take care of your wife and kids and family.”
Goff competed with 11 other hopeful singers and bands for a spot at the state competition in Farmington, Missouri and a $500 prize.
After waiting with friends and family for nearly two hours to figure out if he would be moving on to the state competition, Goff found out his dream had come true. He would be once again moving on to the Missouri State Country Showdown on Oct. 17.
“There’s nothing like having the crowd yelling at you or singing along with you,” Goff said. “The feeling of entertaining people and I really enjoy the Showdown. I think Tim (Clark) was right, it’s an outlet for us and I didn’t know any of these guys before I participated in this, now we schedule shows together. We did a Toys for Tots benefit before Christmas. It’s great that we can come together and put on a benefit for kids and help out the community. I wouldn’t have known any of them before the Showdown.”
Goff has won the competition and is moving on, but that’s not all Goff has going on right now. After buying the house he grew up in from his parents, Goff, his wife and three kids live two blocks from West Nodaway, which comes in handy, now that he works there.
“Well, I worked at Clarinda Academy and I started working there when I was 19 years old,” Goff said. “I had a goal of special education and behavior is what I like to work with, so up at the academy, I fit really well there, I’ve learned a lot and I got my degree from Northwest Missouri State University. I just want to help kids and just pursued that when the West Nodaway job came open.”
Goff will be in charge of special education and is happy to be “going” home to be a Rocket once again. However, Goff’s responsibilities at West Nodaway don’t stop there.
The school district has been searching for a high school volleyball coach for the past few months and even though Goff is relatively new to the sport, he will be the new high school volleyball coach. He said taking the job was important because he wanted to do his part and help out the kids.
“They needed a head volleyball coach and I was just being a team player and stepped in to help out,” Goff said. “I knew I could help out by setting up things, organizing parent meetings, and now, I’m the volleyball coach. I’ve coached football and even cheerleading at West Nodaway because I cheered one year over at Northwest my freshman year.”
The job will be a new adventure for the singer/teacher, but he said that he wants the girls to have fun and be a part of something bigger than themselves.
“I think it’s important to be a part of a team and that’ what I’m going to teach those girls,” Goff said. “I want them to have that same feeling like in my song ‘Football Friday Night.’ I want them to have camaraderie with each other and have fun as a team.”
While singing, teaching and now coaching will take up a lot of Goff’s time, he still finds time for more hobby- auctioneering.
“It started a little bit with the singing,” Goff said. “I always thought that singing and cheerleading, I was always up in front of a crowd and my grandpa was an auctioneer. I always had an interest in it and I never thought I’d go to school for it. One day I had the though and I looked it up, so I went to the Missouri Auction School and it’s been seven or eight years. After school, I called up every local auctioneer and asked them to let me work their auction for free, just kind of working the auctioneer for five minutes just to sell and practice. I’ve been learning the business part of it and there are a lot of great auctioneers in the area so it’s very competitive. I think my auction chant is just like my singing, people enjoy it and I enjoy it.”
A day in the life of Michael Goff can seem busy and stressful, but he enjoys every second. He loves to sing and that passion is why he’s now a two-time local Country Showdown winner, but even above that, there’s one thing more important than anything else — his family.
“They are everything to me,” Goff said. “All of the things I do makes life busy, but I try to involve my family. I have my nephews and my son help me set it up. I want all of us to work together, I just like to find things to do to teach my kids’ work ethic, the value of work and that’s important to me.”
