Pictured: the Tampa Mustang-TJ team poses in front of a spectacular sunset during their cruise in the Bahamas.The Tampa Mustangs team coached by T.J. Goelz
Jan 16, 2016 by Brentt Eads
Pictured: the Tampa Mustang-TJ team poses in front of a spectacular sunset during their cruise in the Bahamas. The Tampa Mustangs team coached by T.J. Goelz had twice come so close in ASA National Championships but fell just short.
So when the team traveled cross-country last summer for the PGF 16U Nationals, Coach Goelz made an offer to his team: "Win the title and you get a team cruise to the Bahamas!"
It looked all but a pipe dream at the start of the week in Huntington Beach, California when the Mustangs lost the play-in game, but then the team caught on fire and 12 victories later had earned the improbable PGF National Championship.
Good to his word, Goelz and 43 other people including 13 players, four coaches and 27 family members sailed to Nassau, Bahamas from January 1-4 and the coach made good on a promise he made before the first trip to Nationals in 2013 that he would pay the way for all the players.
The very lucky athletes included Denali Schappacher, Kinsey Goelz, Kylie Toler, Myah Moy, Kyra Klarkowski, Avery Goelz, Bethaney Keen, Kaylee Misiti, Brooke Leistl, Maddie Biggs, Claire Feldman, Hannah Pridemore and Cassidy Davis.
Coach Goelz said some of the highlights of the excursion were “snorkeling, going to the Atlantis resort and walking around the Nassau straw markets. We were recognized as National Champions during the first night’s main show.
“The formal picture night and three nights of team dinners was pretty special too. We all dressed up and it was fun to celebrate in that fashion.”
Three of the athletes on the team—Kylie Toler (2016, ETSU), Cassidy Davis (2016, FSU) and Kinsey Goelz (2017, USF)—got together and, in an exclusive for FloSoftball, detailed their once-in-a-lifetime cruise… here’s their recap!
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Many of us Mustangs had been dreaming of this for the past three years!
Ever since Coach TJ made us the promise that if we won a national championship he would take us on a cruise. After coming in second two years in a row, we knew it was finally “OT2BNC” (Our Time To Be National Champions!).
When the final out was made in California at PGF, we could not contain our excitement. We knew what this meant—we knew we had won our cruise—and we counted down the months, days, hours, and minutes until the day finally came!
And when January came, our cruise was finally here; our National Championship cruise.
Before getting on the ship, we had to stop to take a picture and little did we know this was only the first of many snapshots. As we walked onto the ship we were overwhelmed with it all.
There were so many people and so many things going on. We couldn’t wait to explore. We spent the first couple hours finding each other. That wasn’t really very hard. All we had to do was keep our eyes open for anyone in a “Tampa Mustangs National Champions” shirt.
There were waiters walking around with champagne and bright fruity drinks and tons of food! There’s Coach Tom. And look, there is a waiter handing him another drink. This should be a fun few days!
We went to our rooms and got settled, and started exploring the ship. Some of us didn’t hesitate to take a plunge into the pool and race down the slides, while others began the trip sunbathing.
As the sun began to set, we all gathered on the top deck in the back of the ship and watched as the boat sailed away from the port. All cell phones went into airplane mode. We were finally on our way! We felt the ship as it moved free from the pier and floated way.
Our only question was, “Is anyone going to get seasick?”
Later that night we all met for dinner. The food was incredible and we all probably ate more than we needed, but who cares? It’s free (thanks again, Coach TJ) and we could get whatever/however much we wanted!
We ate so many different meals—from steaks and fish to salads and pastas. Photographers came to our table and took pictures of each of us. After dinner we had to rush to make it to the 10:15 show. The cruise director talked about all kinds of things on the ship and the many different people and the reasons they were on the cruise. Then he welcomed a group of ladies who were on the cruise to celebrate their National Championship… he was talking about us!
He told everyone about our journey through the tournament and what we had accomplished. There was a lot of applause from the other cruisers. It was a surprise to us and it felt really cool to get that kind of recognition!
After the show we went with the crew from the show to “Rock the Promenade,” which was basically going around to all the different venues on the ship singing and dancing. Brooke won the air guitar competition and Kylie and Kinsey sang along with the band at the rock show.
We competed in a girls versus boys battle at the karaoke bar. Of course the girls kicked butt (that’s what we do!). It was an exciting first night on the ship!
But just when you would think the excitement was over, it found another level.
At 4am, we were abruptly awakened by the captain coming on the intercom and telling everyone to go to the front of the ship to make sure everyone was accounted for. While at the guest services desk, Kaylee and Claire, earlier that morning (2 am – guess they hadn’t reached their excitement limit) had heard a woman report that she thought someone fell overboard. Every few minutes there was an announcement from our cruise director with an English accent that always started with his ridiculously cheerful, “A very good morning to you all.” And we grumbled, “Very good for whom?”
The Mustang players: (back, l-r): Kaylee Misiti, Kylie Toler, Brooke Leistl, Hannah Pridemore, Maddie Biggs, Bethaney Keen, Claire Feldman, Cassidy Davis; (front row, l-r): Kyra Klarkowski, Kinsey Goelz, Denali Schappacher, Myah Moy.They moved us through like herding cattle, except we were more like zombies as the mass of exhausted and bewildered cruisers moved through the line as they scanned each card to make sure everyone was accounted for. That 4 am muster made us want to jump overboard, which would be insensitive if someone actually went overboard, but fortunately no one did.
Later that Saturday morning, after getting a little more sleep, we all got up at our leisure and enjoyed more of what the ship had to offer. Some played in the pool and tanned and some played games like corn hole, giant checkers, and mini golf.
Some just enjoyed the unending supply of soft serve ice cream!
Because of the impromptu zombie conga line, we all had to participate in that morning, we were late getting to the Bahamas and all the excursions were postponed to Sunday.
The Mustangs decided to explore the island that afternoon. All of the team and many of the parents got off the boat to shop and walk around and, what do you know, they stopped us to take another picture getting off the ship!
We started by walking through the town and our first stop was the straw market. We went inside where it was dark, cramped, and filled with people who try to draw you in if you even look at one of their items.
Coach Ed walked around and bartered with the sellers to get the best deals. Many girls followed in his footsteps to get souvenirs at low prices. Some of us were able to avoid getting lured in by the people selling—until we made it back outside.
Then a cute little seven-year-old girl pleaded with us to look at her key chains. Yeah, we fell for it. She was too cute!
Some families stayed in the straw market, some went to a beach and others ventured on to Senor Frogs, a popular restaurant and souvenir shop. Senor Frogs was a crazy fun atmosphere! It’s always a party. Some of the adults participated in a completely different type of conga line (they certainly weren’t acting like zombies!). Myah almost got a random dance partner from just walking across the floor to get to the bathroom!
All too soon we had to head back to the ship to get ready for dinner.
It was formal night. We all spent time doing our hair and makeup, putting on our dresses and heels and preparing for the night. Kinsey and Kylie ran into problems when they realized their hair would not be dry in time to style it. Necessity is the mother of invention.
They went into one of the public bathrooms on the ship and used the electric hand dryers to dry their hair! They were amazed by how effective it was. This is not the first time these machines were used unconventionally either.
Kylie and Denali had used them the day before to dry their bathing suits before putting their clothes on over them. What’s good for one end is good for the other! Luckily no one walked into the bathrooms in either situation, because that would have been a strange sight.
Once everyone was ready we met up in the dining room for dinner. It was shocking to see everyone dressed up and out of t-shirts and softball uniforms. Everyone looked stunning, we cleaned up really well!
Of course they took pictures of us during dinner, but afterward we went to get pictures taken to capture this rare moment.
Looking back, we were happy that none of us got seasick or hungry and we can’t thank Coach TJ enough for this unforgettable experience!
