Off Road Angler

Hello World!

May 25, 2008 on 11:44 pm | In Personal | No Comments

My name is Doug Goddard and I’m a c5-6 quadraplegic who loves my Faith in Jesus, wife Leanne and family, Tennessee football and fishing in God’s great outdoors!

Recently after I went bank fishing at a local park, got stuck in the mud in a remote area, could not be located by the park staff, got a bit over heated, was visited uneccessatily by local paramedics and then had a solid luch of three bottles of water, a pack of M&Ms and a McDonald’s double cheese burger at the park office, a friend of my wife’s suggested I start a blog for my many fishng adventures…….so here I am.

Before I get to far along though I’d like to tell you a bit of my story…….you see I had a diving accident in 1983 before I was 16 that resulted in my being paralized from the chest down with no movement in my hands either. This was a life changing event for me as I not only had lost the ability to play football, basketball, baseball, etc. that had been my life’s focus but God graciously used this situation to show me how much I needed Him as I trusted Jesus as my Savior while in the hospital. My life was still tough but with God’s promises as my strength I felt called to be and do the most I could with what I had.

Again by God’s grace I finished high school - was even elected president of the student body, went on the attend and graduate from Vanderbilt University with a BA in Economics before being bless by marrying my best friend and soulmate Leanne……we’ve been married for 16 years to date!

After we got married we moved to Dallas, TX for me to attend and eventually graduate from Southern Methodist school of law in 1995. While in school there I managed a sports card and memorabillia store and fell in love with the industry as it was a unique combonation of economics and the games I played and loved growing up. In turn I spent the next 10 years working for various manufactures like Topps, Donruss, Playoff and Pinacale doing product deveopment, marketing and working with players and the leagues……I even recieved an industry man of the year award while I was the VP of product developnent at Donruss/Playoff.

While in Texas I was able to renew my love for fishing as there were several ponds in a nature center a few block from our house. It was one of those things where I knew how to fish in my head from going with my uncle lots growing up but had not figured out how to do it given my current physical challenges. You know to this day my biggest memories and fishing milestones are not the biggest fish I’ve caught but the day I figured out how to tie my own hook/baits on with a clinch knott like my uncle showed me when I was 10 and when I first took the hook out of a fish and threw him back into the pond by my self. I tell you God I good and really will give you the desires of your hart as we follow and focus on Him and are persistant and patient.

In any case, to make a long story short I am now able to give back and help others affected by disabilities as the Florida area director for a Christian non-profit ministry called Joni and Friends (www.joniandfriends.org) and work with professional anglers and tackle manufacturers through my own sports marketing firm Synergy (www.synergybusiness.net).

I went fishing a couple of times this weekend and am going out tomorrow…..all bank fishing at local parks here in Soth Florida and will post on this soon.