It was a busy weekend for T.J. and Liz Goelz.
This past weekend, the couple went to Mexico for the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge to watch oldest daughter, Kinsey, get her first collegiate start for Mississippi State.
The redshirt freshman, who has come back from two tough injuries and surgery her freshman year on her elbow, worked her way into the starting lineup at shortstop and went 4-for-9 in the three games with her first collegiate hits being a pair of doubles.
She also made several outstanding defensive plays, which she has been known for as well as her work ethic and heart.
The kickoff to the college season for the Goelz family was just a prelude to the heavy softball schedule that the family of four will be facing starting this week.
T.J. and Liz are co-coaches as well as proud parent spectators—they manage not just one, but two teams and both are considered the best of the nation.
The husband and wife tandem coach the Tampa Mustangs-TJ club team which has three Top 5 PGF Premier Nationals finishes in the past four years—including the 16U Premier championship in 2015 when it amazingly went 12-0 after losing a play-in game and was facing elimination with a second loss the rest of the week.
But that is months away—first, starting on Wednesday, the parents of two talented softball daughters, will be coaching the Lakewood Ranch High team, east of Bradenton, Florida, which will be announced this week by Extra Inning Softball as a Top 20 team in the nation as the prep rankings are rolled out.
And, tying it all together is the fact that the many of the players on the Mustangs high school team also play for the Mustangs club team including the parents’ youngest daughter, Avery, a junior first baseman/outfielder committed to Florida who made both Extra Inning’s 2020 Extra Elite 100 list and the 1st Team All-American list last year.
The Goelz softball story began in 1991 when T.J. and Liz first met at the University of North Florida, specifically, in the weight room.
It was the fall of T.J.’s junior year on the UNF baseball team and Liz was a new freshman on the UNF softball team.
“She caught my eye immediately,” he remembers. “She was a natural beauty with that ‘girl next door’ look and had a little sass which is what got me hooked!”
On the other side, Liz recalls of T.J., “He always seems to have it put together and was very confident in himself. He had a plan–he always has a plan,” she says laughing.
The couple supported each other through their sports careers at UNF with T.J assisting the softball team the final two years Liz played.
After three and a half years of dating, T.J. dropped to a knee and proposed on July 4, 1994—appropriately enough in front of the North Florida weight room.
Both good athletes, the couple often were egged on by the baseball and softball teams to compete, “which brought a lot of laughs,” T.J. remembers fondly, especially when they raced on foot.
“Liz can fly,” he continues, “and fortunately our girls got her athletic ability!”
T.J. was 19 and Liz was 18 when they met and they have been inseparable since, celebrating 23 years of marriage this past September.
Their love for fastpitch softball never waned and when they had two daughters, the couple’s love for the game grew into a full-blown passion.
Known for running a fine-tuned, well-structured program, the Goelz’s took their volunteer coaching from club ball to high school in 2018.
This year the husband/wife team is again aided by an all-world coaching staff that includes Ed Davis, who’s been part of a PGF National Championship and Florida 9A State title; Craig Toler, winner of a PGF National Championship and Florida State high school finalist and Brian Clark, part of two PGF Top 5 finishes and a Florida high school state finalist
In their first year, the Lakewood Ranch Mustangs went 23-5 and made it to the Florida state Final Four, losing in a close battle with perennial power Oakleaf (Clay County, Florida) High, a team they had defeated earlier in the year 1-0.
T.J says this Lakewood Ranch High team could be the best prep softball team his area—and maybe the state—has ever seen on paper as the roster is, literally, a nationally-elite club team.
“On paper means nothing though,” he cautions. “We have to win our last game to meet expectations. We won’t sneak up on anyone, we’ll get everyone’s best game and have a tough schedule by design facing some of the best pitchers in the state. We were close last year but have added some incredible firepower to hopefully put us over the top.”
*****
Here’s a breakdown of the 2019 Lakewood Ranch Mustangs lineup, which, though not officially finalized, could look something like this:
