WARSAW – Every great athletic team needs unsung heroes.

The type of athletes who go about their business successfully without attention and adulation.

The Warsaw boys track team is blessed to have a pair of those kind of standouts in brothers Ryan and Chad Goon.

The senior twins have played a huge part in helping set a new standard of excellence for coach Matt Thacker’s program over the last four years.

“I’ll never forget Chad coming up to me in the weight room as a freshman and telling me that we were going to win championships,” related Thacker.

The Goons, part of a stellar senior class, have helped Warsaw win plenty of championships. The Tigers made it four straight sectional titles at the Goshen Sectional last Thursday night after claiming their fourth straight Northern Lakes Conference crown at home on May 13.

The Goons, a pair of humble and soft-spoken leaders, will look to help Warsaw win the regional championship for the second straight year and for the third time in the last four years at South Bend St. Joseph Thursday night. The Tiger program had just one regional title prior to this outstanding senior class coming on board in 2011.

Chad and Ryan will look to earn a fourth straight State Finals berth at the regional. The pair teamed with senior Gabe Furnivall and sophomore Landan Perry to win the sectional crown in the 4 X 400 relay in a top time of 3:23.95 at Goshen. Ryan Goon, along with Furnivall, Nate Kolbe and Wyatt Jones were third in the event at the regional in 2013 and placed sixth at State, with Chad as the alternate.

“Every year you’d like to go back to State,” said Chad. “We want to beat Penn and win the relay at the regional. My main goal is to get the school record (which is 3:17.60).”

The Goons competed together at State as freshman in 2011 with Jones and Spencer Rheinhardt. They then teamed with Furnivall and Rheinhardt to place 12th at State in 2012. The pair are trying to become the only two members of the senior class to advance to State all four years. The Tigers earned a fifth-place team finish at State last year, the highest ever in program history.

“I just want to see us improve our time and do our best at the regional,” said Ryan. “The ultimate goal is that I would like for us to place in the top three at State.”

Chad, the older of the two, has overcome a lot to reach where he is today. He suffered a broken femur when part of a tree fell on him at age five. He was in a body cast for six weeks, had nine staples in his head from the accident and had to learn to walk again.

“It’s bittersweet in that it’s sad that the season is ending,” said Chad. “I’m going to miss it. I’m just trying to take every day and make the most of it.”

Chad also has to take plenty of ribbing from his good-natured brother.

“I tell him all the time that he’s slow,” said Ryan with a smile crossing his face. “But, we laugh together and work hard. We encourage each other and keep each other accountable. You have to trust each other a lot being part of a relay. I love track because you have the team aspect too with the individual part of it.”

Chad says it’s helpful to be teamed up with his twin brother.

“We have that twin telepathy going and we trust each other,” said Chad. “It’s a good thing too in that we’re always competing in everything we do.”

Thacker knows he has a special pair in his two selfless, team players.

“They are just a total class act,” said Thacker of the Goons, whose younger brother David was a sophomore member of the team this spring. “They are great kids. You can’t ask for a better effort than those two give.

“They both are confident and they have always accepted their roles on the team.”

The pair plan to attend the University of Indianapolis in the fall. They will not be rooming together, however, according to Ryan.

“Our Mom said no to that one,” he said with a laugh. “Plus, I would have to do all the stuff for Chad like laundry.”

Brotherly love.

You can’t beat it, especially when it comes to these two outstanding young men.