Golden West College, state’s lone unbeaten team, preps for SoCal football championship
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The thought of it makes Nick Mitchell a little misty-eyed.
He’d thought all of this would be simple, turning Golden West College’s reviled football program into a winner — “You don’t even know what you don’t know,” he says now — but state champions? That’s silly talk.
Twenty years later, his Rustlers stand two wins from the impossible and are favorites, per the polls, to pull it off. They’re No. 1 in California, unprecedented across 57 seasons. Golden West is the state’s lone unbeaten team and ready to crown two decades of heady toil with an achievement that, even when it appeared easy, still seemed too great a reach.
If Golden West beats Saddleback on Saturday afternoon on the home field’s tight confines, the team (11-0) heads to its first state championship game the following weekend at Orange Coast College’s Lebard Stadium, where, everyone expects, dynasty-building defending champion College of San Mateo would await.
And if they were to win again?
“I don’t even know how it would feel,” said Mitchell who, since taking charge in 2006, has rebuilt “the worst JC program around” into a burgeoning powerhouse. “I will probably cry. That would be nuts. It would be crazy. It really would. It would be nuts.
“I’m actually kind of tearing up right here.”
The Rustlers are 48-8 since the pandemic waned and were here before, on the verge of the state final, four years ago. That ended at the 2-yard line in a four-point loss to Riverside City.
Saddleback (10-1) won’t be a simple foe, and San Mateo (10-1), which takes on Modesto (9-2) in the Northern California final, is looking for a its third championship in four years.
“The reason we are No. 1 is because they lost [a tight game to City College of San Francisco in late October],” Mitchell said. “Otherwise. they probably would not have voted us above San Mateo. Who knows? We’re probably nowhere near as talented to be able to go and compete with San Mateo, but we’re in that conversation.
“We’re consistently in that realm each year of potentially winning it. I always wanted to be in the conversation. Let’s be around.”
Mitchell has had better talent, but this year’s might be his best team, in every sense of the word. It’s the most-balanced offensively. Not the finest defense, but what a linebacking corps. Rare chemistry, remarkably aligned. Good character.
They “play hard and are resilient,” and believe that they will overcome.
“Combine those things together, you’re going to have a chance,” Mitchell said.
It’s a broadly capable bunch — 19 Rustlers made the All-National Central Conference team — led by difference-making receiver Tucker Schmidt, quarterback Kauna’oa “Oa” Kamakawiwo’ole and linebacker Brandon Soleau, a Huntington Beach High product. Kamakawiwo’ole, a Lewis & Clark transfer from Honolulu, and Schmidt, a Minn.-Duluth transfer from suburban Minneapolis, arrived in the offseason and quickly built a deep rapport.
It nearly didn’t happen. Kamakawiwo’ole went down with a thumb injury three drives into the season opener, “and we think he is done,” Mitchell said. “We had extremely high expectations for him.”
“I was really leaning toward surgery,” said Kamakawiwo’ole, who missed four and a half games, with former Fountain Valley quarterback Noa Banua ably taking his place. “I thank God that I didn’t.”
His connection with Schmidt, his roommate, was transformative.
“Throwing Tanner, it’s automatic,” he said. “Even if it’s a bad ball, if it’s in his vicinity, he’s going to go and get it.”
They’ll head together next year to Tarleton State, a Division 1 FCS school in Texas.
Mitchell says Schmidt, who has 53 receptions for 1,017 yards and has scored 16 touchdowns, is “probably the best receiver that we’ve had” in his tenure and a catalyst within the group.
“He’s a friend-maker,” Mitchell added. “He’s a bringer-together. He literally has a smile on his face 24/7, and he’s legitimate. I mean, he’s smart, he’s tough, he’s a great kid. He’s an excellent teammate to everybody. He’s kind of everything you want.”
Soleau, the conference’s defensive player of the year, leads Golden West with 82 tackles and 30 tackles for a loss. His third interception, a 47-yard pick six, sealed last week’s five-TDs-in-eight-minutes rally from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to rout Ventura, 56-31, in the Rustlers’ playoff opener.
“Arguably, the best linebacker that we’ve had in my time here,” Mitchell said. “So quick, so explosive, so physical, such a good tackler. And he’s a really smart football player.”
There have been other big contributors: defensive linemen Javon Taylor and Dallin Sauni, linebackers Kruz Wheeler and Josh Clark, cornerback Drew Faulkner and safety Nigel Mills, center Inoke Amita and tight end Will McKissick, running backs Aaron Mitchell and Kendrick Thomas.
Golden West is two wins away.
“We haven’t done nothing yet,” Soleau said. “We may be 11-0. It feels good, but we haven’t done nothing.”
Said Schmidt: “We’re trying to make history. We’ve had a great season, but we’re far from satisfied, and it’s never been done before. That has a nice ring to it.”
*
11-0
Golden West’s 2025 results
Aug. 30 at Mt. San Jacinto W 31-13
Sept. 6 Riverside City W 42-35
Sept. 13 Allen Hancock W 55-0
Sept. 20 at Bakersfield W 21-13
Sept. 27 East Los Angeles W 56-14
Oct. 9 at Pasadena City* W 28-21
Oct. 18 at Orange Coast* W 69-6
Oct. 25 Cerritos* W 27-19
Nov. 1 College of the Canyons* W 58-14
Nov. 8 at Fullerton* W 33-22
Nov. 29 Ventura+ W 56-38
* National Central Conference
+ Southern California semifinals
