The Golden West High School softball team is enjoying one of its best seasons in a decade.
Behind a coaching staff that includes a father-daughter duo — head coach Eli Carter and Alexus Carter — and two additional assistants who played softball at the NCAA level, the Trailblazers entered April 17 with a 17-4 overall record.
Golden West has already surpassed last season’s win total of 11 victories with seven games remaining in the regular season.
During their breakout campaign, the Trailblazers (17-4, 2-1 East Yosemite League) have outscored their opponents a combined 175-76 while averaging 8.3 runs per game.
How have they been able to sustain that type of success?
“My strategy is always, ‘One week at a time. One game at a time,’” Eli said. “I don’t worry about the next week or the week after. Saturday games, I don’t worry about that until that next game. It’s kind of snuck up on me that we already have more wins than last season. I was like, ‘Did that just happen?’ We just got lucky. We just have a great talent pool.”
A family connection
Eli knew early on his daughter, Alexus, had softball in her veins.
One year when she was playing T-ball, with the bases loaded, she fielded a ball, beat the runner to home plate, and completed the throw to first base for the double play.
“I was like, ‘This kid is something different. She’s fast. She’s incredible,’” Eli said.
Alexus would go on to play at Golden West, including one season under her dad during her senior year before suiting up at Pacific University in Oregon.
The 2022 Golden West grad played immediately as a true freshman at the NCAA Division III program, making 27 starts at catcher while batting .274 with seven RBIs and seven extra-base hits (six doubles, triple).
Alexus returned back to Visalia after her freshman year in 2023, citing homesickness, but found a new calling shortly after — coaching.
“She’s always been a high I.Q. player,” Eli said. “I’ve always been watching her do stuff, and I always felt, ‘Gosh, that was brilliant.’ No matter where she’s playing, she’s always been one of the smartest players on the field. When she was playing, I always said, ‘She’s going to be a good coach. This kid knows where to be, what to do, what to say.’ Her energy level is top-notch.”
Why did Eli add his daughter to his coaching staff?
Well, he needed a catcher's coach, and Alexus was a good fit. She had experience in the position and could relate to the team as a former Golden West standout.
“I’m not crazy,” Eli said. “I know my weaknesses. I’ve never played this sport. I played baseball and I played a version of slow-pitch, so I’m not naive. I don’t know what these girls are going through. I can pretend, but I don’t. So I like to surround myself with people who can fill my weaknesses, and one of my weaknesses is where she shines — the energy level in the dugout, her excitement for a play. What they thrive on is each other, and when everybody is engaged and everybody is excited, coach Lexi is over here screaming about a play that was just made, everybody just feeds off her.”
That has made their father-daughter connection even stronger.
“It’s trippy,” Alexus said. “Now we're both coaches coaching with each other, working together but it’s actually really incredible, and I prefer it that way than him being my coach. I feel like we work better that way together.”
Alexus had a memorable 2022 senior season playing for her dad at Golden West, hitting .370 in 26 games with 29 runs, 30 hits, 26 RBIs, six doubles, three triples and a home run.
That helped Golden West qualify for the playoffs for the first time in four years.
“Softball has been a part of our lives ever since I was a little girl,” Alexus said. “It’s kept our relationship extremely close and extremely tight. Our love and passion that we both share, that’s always been there. Both of our separate lives. Not just that he’s my dad and I’m his daughter. It’s both big passions in our lives separately. The fact that we can share that as a daughter-and-father relationship, it’s incredible.”
How special is it to share a dugout nearly every day with his daughter?
“Call me sappy but when her career ended and she went off to college, and I wasn’t able to travel with her, it was hard,” Eli said. “As a full-time dad, we used to travel and go to every game with her. I went to every game, so we were always on the road together, spending these weekends on these trips and, you know, I was always there for after-games, conversations. When that ended, there was a void I didn’t have.
"So when she came on as a coach, it was kind of cool because we’re kind of doing that again. We’re traveling on buses and vans and we’re doing that. We have that ability of doing what we’ve been doing our whole lives together again. It’s really nice to be able to talk about, like, after a game now as a coach, be able to talk about softball still. We still have that in our life. It’s been amazing. I’m lucky to have it.”
Alexus echoed similar sentiments.
“I feel very blessed,” Alexus said. “I feel extremely blessed to be in this position and be able to be a part of something so incredible and magical, it’s truly awesome. This has just been fantastic.”
A breakout season
Under a program centered around family values and team chemistry, Golden West is in the midst of a breakout season under the leadership of the Carters, lead assistant Sue Macumber and Natalie Rendon.
The Trailblazers' 17 victories this season mark the most wins for the program since 2013 when they went 20-8 under then-coach Rod Schonbachler.
“Our whole coaching staff has worked so well together,” Alexus said. “Just the way this whole thing has blended, it’s been awesome.”
Golden West last won a league championship in 2009 when then-skipper Stephen Green directed the Trailblazers to a 22-win campaign, including a 10-2 record in West Yosemite League play.
One of Eli’s goals as head coach is to elevate the program back to that level.
“Every year, we want to keep growing,” Eli said. “Keep growing, keep getting better and better, keep improving our schedule because, hopefully, one day, we’re going to be one of the top teams in Visalia that everybody talks about. That’s where we want to be. That’s where our program wants to be.”
Golden West is one of the top-hitting teams in Tulare County.
The Trailblazers are batting a collective .361 behind 20 players who have at least 20 hits:
- Hayden Oliveira (.493 batting average, 33 runs, 35 hits, 17 RBIs, six doubles, home run)
- Alondra Magallanes (.409, 25 runs, 27 hits, 19 RBIs, four doubles, two homers)
- Khianna Hardwick (.415, 13 runs, 27 hits, 23 RBIs, two doubles, two homers)
- Reann Boyd (.338, 17 runs, 22 hits, 10 RBIs, five doubles, triple)
- Tristan Perez (.379, four runs, 22 hits, 16 RBIs, two doubles)
- Karly Aguilar (.408, 14 runs, 20 hits, 19 RBIs, five doubles, triple, four homers)
In the circle, the Trailblazers are led by freshman Erin Fawkes and Hardwick. Fawkes leads the team with a 1.73 ERA, an 8-1 record, two saves and 93 strikeouts. Hardwick is 7-3 with 44 strikeouts.
Hardwick and Magallanes anchor Golden West as the team captains.
“Alondra and Khianna are both great captains,” Eli said. “They’re both great leaders.”
Part of the Trailblazers’ success this season can be traced to team-bonding activities off the field, which is something Alexus emphasized when she joined the coaching staff.
Golden West has weekly team dinners and recently returned from a coast trip. The Trailblazers completed a two-game series at Nipomo in San Luis Obispo County, sweeping the Titans 4-2 and 19-8.
What has Alexus brought this season that has helped spark the Trailblazers?
“Attitude and energy,” Alexus said. “My biggest thing has been helping these girls use softball as an escape and a safe place for them and be kids. Actually, have fun and also I've just been a big help in getting these girls to see that they’re one out there. It’s just not one player who can make something happen. It takes all nine communicating, pre-pitch.
"I just helped show these girls to use it as an escape instead of using the problems outside their lives kind of cloud in. Just giving them the reason to be themselves and stop playing for other people.”
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