Hometown star making immediate impact in Pensacola

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - Last year, Cadence Goeden was stacking up the highlight tapes at Arnold. Just one year later, that killer instinct is still there, she’s just having to work harder to keep it.

“She’s like a breath of fresh air for the team.” says Patricia Gandolfo, Pensacola head coach “It’s crazy because she’s such a nice person, and you wonder... can a nice person be cutthroat competitive? And she is.”

“It’s a big change from high school.” Goeden tells us “It’s a lot of training, we workout a couple times a week, we have practice 5 or 6 days a week and then we’re, we’ve been on the road a lot. But the girls are great and Coach Patchy does a great job so it’s been fun.”

Hours of training to create better bonds. Better bonds that have helped Cadence, she says, become a better baller.

“The team has given me a lot of confidence. From the beginning they kind of hyped me up a little bit. So, I was like okay, I could big things. How can I take the next step? How can I be a better player?”

By letting her actions speak louder than her words.

“She’s like the silent killer.” adds the coach “She’s not the one that talks a lot, she’s not the loudest voice but she backs it up with the game.”

In fact, Cadence’s actions spoke so loud this season, she had other teams making her talents a focus in their game plan, not that that helped much though, says Gandolfo

“She’s has a whip of an arm, like you know, she brings the velocity, that people don’t even know how to defend. One of the matches at the Conference tournament, a team changed the way they were playing defense against her and then when they FINALLY were digging her, they didn’t know what to do with the ball afterwards, so the ball would just drop in the middle of the court.”

So the writing is on the walls all across the state, Cadence Goeden is pretty good at volleyball. Everyone knows it. Well... almost everyone.

“It’s humbling watching her play, so I want her to just understand that she’s good and embrace it.” says the coach.

Cadence just finished a freshman year where she recorded 293 kills, that was 3rd best in the entire league and you’re telling me she’s yet to reach her full potential? Scary. She and her teammates are in Iowa this week competing in the NJCAA Division II National Tournament.

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