Extra Inning Softball is honoring those athletes across the country who have dominated at the high school level including the fall seasons in states like Georgia, Missouri and Oklahoma as well as those who have competed this spring and summer.
Last week we featured the 1st Team All-Americans by position and on Monday we wrapped up the extensive lists with the 2nd Team All-Americans.
Yesterday we revealed who is the National Player of the Year and today conclude our 2019 high school honors with the National Coach of the Year… here’s how to find all the previous selections:
2019 HIGH SCHOOL ALL-AMERICANS TIMELINE
- Monday, July 8 – Extra Inning Softball 1st Team All-Americans (Pitchers)
- Tuesday, July 9 – Extra Inning Softball 1st Team All-Americans (Catchers)
- Wednesday, July 10 – Extra Inning Softball 1st Team All-Americans (Infielders)
- Thursday, July 11 – Extra Inning Softball 1st Team All-Americans (Outfielders)
- Friday, July 12 – Extra Inning Softball 1st Team All-Americans (Multi-Purpose)
- Monday, July 15 – Extra Inning Softball 2nd Team All-Americans
- Tuesday, July 16 – Extra Inning Softball High School Player of the Year
- Wednesday, July 17 – Extra Inning Softball High School Coach of the Year
Those chosen as All-Americans and Player & Coach of the Year have been selected based on the following factors:
- accomplishments, stats and honors
- importance in the success of the team
- on-field abilities, skills & talent
- off-the-field resume, i.e. academic success, community involvement, etc.
Our list is the deepest and most researched you will find as we feel it necessary to honor all those who deserve to be recognized as an Extra Inning Softball High School All-American and National Player & Coach of the Year.
Congrats to all those who made this year’s lists!
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Extra Inning Softball High School Coach of the Year:
T.J. Goelz (Lakewood Ranch, Bradenton, Florida)
Any time you get an email from T.J. Goelz, it’s hard not to notice the eye-catching list of notable tournament placements and championships over the last decade.
In all, there’s over 20 lines of placements, everything from a couple of FHSAA State Final Four appearances, some ASA National Runner-Up placements, all the way to top placements across the PGF, TCS SE Nationals and USA Elite WFC 18U tournament landscapes.
“I think it all probably centers around the first national championship back in 2015,” Goelz said. “That’s what put Tampa Mustangs – TJ on the map. All those girls went on to play Division I college softball, we were the underdog, unknown, won 12 games in a row to win the national championship.”
Goelz added another championship to his lengthy list of accomplishments in the 2021 high school season, capturing Lakewood Ranch’s first-ever softball state championship in May, after reaching the state semifinals in each of the previous two seasons.
“Our motto was, ‘find a way,’” Goelz said of his Lakewood Ranch team. “When we went into January, into tryouts, we did not have one pitcher that had an inning of varsity, 7A, experience.”
Lakewood Ranch had since been reclassified into the FHSAA’s largest softball classification after reaching the 2018 and 2019 state tournaments in Class 8A, when the Association had nine classes for the sport. In 2021, Florida’s 7A division was well-stocked with nationally ranked ballclubs, like Park Vista (Lake Worth), Newsome (Lithia) and University (Orange City).
Goelz and his coaching staff developed lefty Olivia Laney and righty Ella Coiner into the pitchers that the Mustangs needed to compete, while a high-octane lineup hung 10.8 runs per game, including 31 in the two games of the state tournament.
“We were going to be a pretty successful offensive team,” Goelz said. “We were just going to have to find a way to win games. We wound up getting a pitcher that did a great job for us in Olivia Laney, and she and Ella Coiner did a nice job for us with us still scoring lots of runs with lots of run-rules by design.”
But what may have been more impressive to Goelz and his staff was the way his team adjusted when Laney went down with an injury ahead of the regional tournament.
“She had to basically miss regionals and states. And a great utility player, Ella, rolled with it and the team got behind her immediately and said, ‘we’ve got your back, we’re going to get you some runs, just go out and compete.’ That’s what she did,” Goelz said.
That scenario – and the way that Lakewood Ranch overcame it – was just one of the many reasons why Extra Inning Softball has awarded Goelz with the 2021 National High School Coach of the Year award.
“Very honored to accept that award on behalf of the entire coaching staff,” Goelz said. It’s not a one-man show at Lakewood Ranch High School. All of my coaches are instrumental in the program and in the mission that we do and everything that we’ve been working on over the last four years. I share this with them, and it’s very nice to be recognized.”
Goelz, with the help of his wife Liz and fellow assistants Brian Clark, Craig Toler and Paulo Reis, saw the Mustangs go 30-2 on the year on the way to the 7A State Championship. In four years as the Lakewood Ranch skipper, Goelz is 92-8 and has been to at least the State Semifinals in each of the last four seasons (2020’s tournament was canceled due to COVID-19).
The Mustangs were No. 1 in the country according to MaxPreps during portions of the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons, and Goelz was named the 2021 Florida Dairy Famers State Softball Coach of the Year, along with earning the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s Coach of the Year honor for the fourth straight season.
Although the Mustangs were seen as quite the powerhouse within the Sunshine State, as they have been since Goelz arrived, the roster complexion looked a touch different.
It was mostly underclassmen. Lakewood Ranch had just three seniors on its roster, including Colgate signee Jillian Herbst, who paired with sophomore Cassidy McLellan as the “Dynamic Duo” that combined for 103 hits, 82 RBI and 16 home runs at the top of the lineup.
But it wasn’t just those two that produced.
“We weren’t a one or two-person team all the way through the end,” Goelz said. “We had some really, really special players that are going to do some special things in the future, but we had some role players that really emerged. Amanda Lee, Grace Shaw-Rockey, as a freshman kept getting better and better.”
Credit that to the culture that Goelz and his coaching staff has instilled, creating competition up and down the 21-person roster that Lakewood Ranch had.
“There was a lot of competition on our team and belief in each other that they were going to be able to get it done,” he said.
On the travel ball circuit, Goelz has led a Tampa Mustangs – TJ team that has become one of the most recognizable brands across the United States and have set a precedent of excellence across the state of Florida for their play.
“My younger daughter, Avery’s, group finished Top 5 in the country every year and I think it’s because we knew how to do it. We knew what kind of athletes we needed, and the athletes kept coming and we kept developing them and good things happened. That team had three Top 5 finishes at PGF Premier – 14s, 16s and 18s – and there’s not too many programs in the country, at least the east side of the country that can say that, especially from Florida.
“We take pride in that,” Goelz added.
“We get a great return on investment by playing late into tournaments, I think that’s the one thing that I’m most proud of. You look at how many times we’ve gotten on a plane or gone out of state and how many times we’ve finished in the Top 4, or the Top 3, it’s ridiculous. Our parents feel good about their investment, they feel good about what’s going on, and that the girls get to face top competition.
“Winning always helps.”
— Will Turner, Extra Inning Softball
