Kinsey Goelz preps for national spotlight of All-American softball game

Kinsey Goelz was standing in line at a pizza joint Thursday, grabbing a quick lunch between games at the Premier Girls Fastpitch National Championship in California, when a local police officer struck up a conversation.

He noticed Goelz’s Birmingham Thunderbolts jersey and asked the Bradenton native how her team was faring.

The officer had a reason to be interested: His daughter is playing in the 14U championship next week, the same one Avery Goelz, Kinsey’s younger sister, is playing in with the Tampa Mustangs. When Kinsey mentioned Tampa, the officer recognized the team name right away.

All the way across the country, the Mustangs are a known name in the softball world.

“We showed what we can definitely do in Manatee County,” said T.J. Goelz, Kinsey’s father and the 14U Mustangs head coach. “There’s tons of talent there.”

The county will get another chance for a national showcase Friday. Lakewood Ranch High School graduate Kinsey Goelz will suit up for the East in the Premier Girls Fastpitch (PGF) High School All-American Game, a game that will be nationally televised live from Irvine, Calif., on ESPNU.

Goelz will get air time, too. The Mississippi State signee is one of 10 players chosen to have action shots or close ups used as bumpers coming in and out of commercial breaks.

The selection to the game is a fitting cap to a standout high school and club career, and an acknowledgment of the sport’s strength in the area. Preliminary lists for the All-American Game included Braden River High School’s Myah Moy, and Lakewood Ranch teammates Logan Newton and Denali Schappacher, who is playing for Birmingham with Goelz this week.

Goelz’s selection — made by a committee including representatives from USA Today, FloSoftball, the Gatorade Player of the Year awards, OnDeck Softball and PGF — was a cumulative honor for her four standout years of high school and her travel-ball success. She batted better than .400 during three of her seasons with Lakewood Ranch, while playing stellar defense at shortstop. As the anchor of her 16U Tampa travel ball team in 2015, she won a PGF National Championship.

“Kinsey’s complete body of work throughout her high school career, throughout her travel-ball career was just so impressive,” T.J. Goelz said.

The selection even caught Kinsey off guard. She was happy being named to the Southeast Region All-American team in June and figured she would be on the fringe. Her parents were the first to learn about Goelz’s spot on the team when they saw the final roster pop up on social media. Subtly, they tried to get Goelz to take a look herself.

“I thought it would be close, but I didn’t think I was going to make it to the final cut,” Goelz said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I got selected! I’m going to be on TV!’ ”

The coaching staff for her East team is star studded, too. Jennie Ritter, a former national champion at Michigan, and two-time Olympic gold medalist Crystal Bustos will coach alongside Suzy Brazney, an assistant for the United States national team.

Goelz will have one last thing to prove. When her father began coaching her in softball 10 years ago, he always heard about how much better the game was out west. In the second PGF All-American Game, Kinsey can disprove that.

“This whole experience is going to be really cool. I’m playing against the best of the best competition,” Goelz said. “I really hope the East comes out on top because all I’ve heard is, ‘West Coast is the Best Coast.’ We’ll see about that.”

This story was originally published July 27, 2017 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Kinsey Goelz preps for national spotlight of All-American softball game."