Death of Bucknell Asst.'s Baby United Team

DALLAS, March 20, 2006 — -- A thin, beaded bracelet encircles Bucknell assistant coach Bryan Goodman's left wrist. It's called a Princess Sophia bracelet -- a remembrance of the daughter he barely got to know and rarely even got to hold.

A strong, tight team encircles Goodman in a larger sense. What should be the best of times for a young basketball coach is playing out amid the worst of times for a young father. The players he calls his "little brothers" are doing their best to help him through it.

"I've needed this team this season much more than they've needed me," Goodman said Saturday in the Bucknell locker room at the American Airlines Center.

On Monday, Sophia Goodman died in the neonatal intensive care unit at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., about 15 miles from the Bucknell campus in Lewisburg. She and her three siblings -- Grace, Reece and Clark, all weighing less than two pounds at birth -- had been there since the quadruplets were born 15 weeks prematurely to Bryan and his wife, Amy, on Jan. 12.

Sophia's short life was filled with health problems. She was given last rites 17 days after birth, and Clark received last rites the next day. Every day has been steeped in worry for the parents.

The past two months, in fact, have been a riot of conflicting emotions and experiences for the 33-year-old Goodman: the exhilaration of childbirth; the overwhelming responsibility of fathering quadruplets; the anxiety over his children's health; the daily trips to the hospital to see the kids and to hold them for about an hour a day; the thrill of earning an NCAA Tournament berth; the heartbreak of a baby's death.

They had a memorial ceremony for Sophia on Tuesday. Half of Lewisburg showed up. So did the entire team.

"It was a very emotional day," point guard Abe Badmus said. "It wasn't easy for anybody. Everyone knows how great Coach Goodman and Mrs. Goodman are. Those people deserve a lot more.

"But tragedy sparks awareness. When you gain awareness, it brings people together, I think. It's unfortunate it works like that, but it does."