Penn State’s Tyler Kasak grew up raising goats in Doylestown. It helped him become one of the NCAA’s best wrestlers.

Tyler Kasak wrote a list of goals onto a sheet of paper and posted it on his bedroom door in Doylestown, a reminder each morning of where he wanted to go.

“I didn’t make his goals for him,” his father, Joel, said. “You make your goals. You write them down. You cross them off. When you wake up in the morning, you’re responsible for your own life. It’s right there. It’s right in front of you.”

Kasak won district wrestling titles, state titles, and nearly every other tournament while at Bethlehem Catholic, which is an hour from his home in Bucks County. He kept crossing off the goals on his door. Kasak finished third last year at the NCAA championships as a Penn State freshman and is the No. 1 seed at 157 pounds when the tournament returns this week to the Wells Fargo Center.

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So what’s the secret?

“That’s what everyone always asks,” his father said.

Maybe it was the goats that Tyler woke up every morning to feed, opening his bedroom door — the one with the list of goals — before dawn to work on his family’s 11-acre farm. He told his father as a teenager that he wanted goats. Fine, his dad said, but they’re your responsibility.

So Tyler was on the farm every morning, feeding his animals and making sure they had enough water. He put up fences, cleaned the goats, and made sure their hair was trimmed. He started with two goats and now has 100 on his farm.

His father believes his son’s passion helped him become one of the nation’s elite college wrestlers.

“That’s what the secret is,” he said. “It’s easy. You have to hold your kids accountable. Teach them to be accountable. There’s all sorts of responsibilities that come with that. As you grow as a young man, you can look back on life and say, ‘This is what shaped me and showed me who I was.’ It’s all things that make you accountable in real life. It doesn’t have to be goats. It could simply be making sure the trash gets taken out. Be accountable.”

There is no denying Kasak’s wrestling skills as he finished 17-1 this season and dominated earlier this month at the Big Ten championships. Those skills are matched with the dedication of an athlete who learned what it means to be accountable by waking up every morning to feed animals before traveling nearly an hour for high school and then feeding them again at night after wrestling practice.

“Those are the tough times,” Joel Kasak said. “Those are the times where you don’t want to do it because you’re tired. But having that in your belly, being able to do that, is discipline and pride. You can write goals on the door and then not do any of them. Or you can write goals on the door and go do them. Go get them, live life, and accomplish things. Don’t follow the herd. Make your own path.”

Tyler was 5 years old when he went to his first wrestling practice, running through drills in a pair of socks just like the other kids on the Bucks County Storm. He told his father immediately afterward that he needed headgear and wrestling shoes. From then on, he was all-in.

“Not too many 5-year-olds are like, ‘Hey, this is what I want to do,’” Joel said.

Joel and his wife, Janeice, channeled their son’s passion, even if it meant enrolling him in a high school nearly an hour away. Bethlehem Catholic is one of the region’s premier programs, and Kasak grew up wrestling against kids from the Lehigh Valley. If an hour drive could help their son cross goals off, the Kasaks were going to do it.

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“Nothing in life is easy,” Joel said. “No one is going to be doing it for you. If you have to wake up earlier, and that’s what you want to do, go get it. We’ll support you 100%. I always told him that. Go get it.”

Tyler fed his goats, went to school and practice, and returned home to feed them again. He quickly learned that farming can be lucrative. He sold goats, using some of the profits to buy more fences or buckets as the herd continued to grow.

“It’s like a commodity,” his father said. “If you talk to an investor, everyone is saying, ‘If you can touch it, hold it, or feel it, then that’s what you want.’ It’s hard work, but at the other end of this, you’re doing this to have a great little nest egg. You can always sell them, and, worst case, you can eat them. We eat them all the time. We love them. They’re great animals. That’s what we do.”

Joel operates a meat processing company on the farm, a business so successful that he said he does not advertise. Kasak Kuts pulls in enough customers through word-of-mouth. The butcher can handle nearly any meat and will bring his own food to tailgate this week in South Philly. They grilled hot dogs, steaks, and kielbasa last week in suburban Chicago that were processed in Doylestown. That’s how the kid who raises goats grew up.

“For us, it’s just a normal lifestyle,” Joel said. “That’s what we’ve always done. Grow your own vegetables in your own garden. That’s the way you should do it. That’s the way we all used to do it.”

Kasak lost his first-round match last March at the NCAA championships, which easily could have ruined his weekend. His father simply told him afterward to just enjoy it. Kasak won seven straight matches in wrestle-backs to finish third at 149 pounds, becoming the first true freshman to do so after losing his first match.

“This is the best thing about this sport,” his father said. “You can get humbled any day of the week. You can win or lose at any given time. There’s no guarantees in wrestling. That loss is going to be there, you’re going to reflect on it, and look inside and say, ‘How did I get better?’”

He enters this weekend as the favorite to win his weight class for the team expected by nearly everyone to win its fourth straight national title. In 2011 in Philadelphia, Penn State won its first national championship in 58 years. Ten more followed. Penn State has not lost a dual meet in five years, and Kasak is one of four Nittany Lions to enter the NCAA championships as the No. 1 seed in his weight class. The program coached by wrestling icon Cael Sanderson — arguably the G.O.A.T. of college wrestling — is now a dynasty. And the wrestler who raises goats in Bucks County could help the Nittany Lions win another title.

“I think this program is doing things, regardless of the sport or the level, that anyone couldn’t possibly do,” Tyler told reporters earlier this week.

The goats are still in Doylestown. Tyler’s younger siblings chip in to help. They’re a family, his father said.

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“We love that stuff,” he said. “If one guy can’t do it, then the rest of us step up and come together to take care of whatever needs to be taken care of. That’s the way it should be.”

And the list of goals — the one Tyler walked past every morning before feeding his animals — is still on the door. But is “NCAA champion” waiting to be crossed off?

“I would love to tell you all the goals on the door, but I have to keep some things personal,” his father said. “But you tell me. I think you can answer that question. He’s very goal-oriented and motivated. When he speaks it, he really means it. When he says that’s what he wants to do, you better prepare yourself because that’s what he’s doing.”