What do you get when you take a hummingbird and cross it with a spark plug? I’m not really sure, but it would look a lot like the human dynamo known as freshman tailback Talin Goheen (1). The Douglas football two-way player runs like a pinball on Redbull.
Talin is fast. He hasn’t been clocked recently, but this summer he ran a 4.9 second forty yard dash. But track speed is not all he has as he spins off hits and senses the endzone. “I feel like I run faster when I’m carrying the football” Goheen said. “It’s like I have adrenaline pumping and I want to get away.” The freshman runner doesn’t just try to get away, he can bruise his way into the open field by knocking down a defender or two or three or, you get the picture.
Goheen started the season as the first-string freshmen team quarterback. There was a lot of pressure to distribute the ball and make quick decisions that didn’t quite feel natural for Talin. At halftime of the Reno Huskie game, Goheen met with Douglas’ Freshmen Offensive Coordinator Matt Tretton and expressed his concerns. The coaches decided to put Garrett Campbell in the QB1 slot and let Talin use his speed and skills taking handoffs, not making them.
Talin Goheen also plays in the secondary and on special teams. Opposing squads have to decide either to kick to him or the slippery Romaine Smokey (2). Typically, they choose option number three, kick the ball to an up man and avoid the dangerous burners. Smokey is Goheen’s secondary mate as well! Galena’s freshmen quarterbacks had trouble going downfield against the two of them and lost a few interceptions to the tandem.
For now, Goheen enjoys running the ball for the Freshmen team on Thursday afternoons in Minden and throughout Northern Nevada. Someday though, he’d like to run the field of Athens, Georgia that is! He would like to play in the SEC for the University of Georgia. Although his speed is reminiscent of the greek running god Mercury. Mercury himself would probably think Goheen is Talinted.
Scott Riley has a Senior daughter playing for Douglas High Ladies Varsity Lacrosse and a Freshmen son on the 9th grade Football team. He is married and has a 5th grade son who plays almost everything through Douglas County Recreation. Scott roots also for the Carson High Senators & the Sierra Lutheran Falcons as the Student Pastor of LifePoint Church in Minden.