Western Illinois University welcomed Alisa Goler as its head softball coach on June 23, 2020. She has served as the Leathernecks' fourth head coach in program history, after experience on staff at Pennsylvania State University, Syracuse University, and Roosevelt University.
In 2026, Western Illinois made program history by qualifying for the OVC Tournament for the first time ever, with Payton Brown and Ruby Tarr both earning First Team All-OVC honors.
In 2025, the Leathernecks earned the OVC Sportsmanship Award marking the first team in Western Illinois history to receive the honor. Payton Brown had a standout season, earning OVC Player of the Year, First Team All-OVC, and OVC Newcomer of the Year honors, while also earning Third Team All-Region recognition. Ruby Tarr also earned OVC Newcomer honors.
Also in 2025, Goler was named the Head Coach of the AUSL Blaze in Athletes Unlimited's inaugural season. That same year, Goler served as an assistant coach for the USA Softball Junior Women's 15U and 18U National Teams. With the 15U team, she earned a bronze medal at the WBSC Championship in Italy, and with the 18U team, she brought home a gold medal at the WBSC Championship in Oklahoma City.
In 2024, Western picked up three OVC honors, as senior corner infielder Bella Alvarez was named the conference's player of the week on Feb. 26. Freshman center fielder Malia Robertson was named to the All-OVC Second Team, also being named to the All-Newcomer team. The Leathernecks also picked up a signature win over Northern Iowa in the UNI-Dome early in the season, a victory over a Panther squad that finished 77th in the nation in the NCAA's RPI metric. On March 10 at UT-Martin, coach Goler and Western grabbed their first OVC win in a gritty two-to-one victory.
During the 2023 season, pitcher/utility Savannah Rodriguez was named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association 2023 NFCA DI All-Central Region First Team.
Prior to her time at Western Illinois, Goler was responsible for boosting Penn State's offensive production at the plate as an assistant coach. She spent two seasons in Happy Valley, and the first highlighted several single-season milestones alongside two All-Big 10 selections. Under her tutelage, the Nittany Lions hit a program-record 49 home runs in 2019, while also combining for a .261 batting average (sixth all-time in program history) and a .427 slugging percentage (third all-time).
Prior to her stop at Penn State, Goler spent three seasons at Syracuse (2016-18), where she served as recruiting coordinator and the infield and hitting coach. She was named associate head coach ahead of the 2017 season, and the year resulted in single-season records in batting average (.307), hits (433), and on-base percentage (.388). Four players were named National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region that year, which tied a program record, and Goler also had a hand in Sydney O'Hara's historic 2017 season. The NFCA Third Team All-American owned a .476 batting average, .626 on-base percentage, and .833 slugging percentage that set single-season records at 'Cuse.
A three-time All-American at the University of Georgia, Goler began her coaching career at Roosevelt University in 2014, where she served as the hitting coach. Her highly-decorated playing career included four first-team All-Southeast Region selections, three first-team All-SEC honors, and finalist recognition for the 2009 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. She also set UGA single-season records for batting average (.455), slugging percentage (.994), on-base percentage (.551), home runs (24), extra-base hits (41), RBI (83), and total bases (164).
Off the field, Goler was a four-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member and a member of the SEC Community Service Team. She earned first-team Lowe's Senior CLASS Award honors and CoSIDA Academic All-District first-team honors in 2011. She enjoyed seven years of professional play in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF), after being drafted by the Chicago Bandits in 2011. She was named Rookie of the Year in 2011 and was a two-time All-NPF Team honoree.
Goler graduated from Georgia in December 2010 with a bachelor's degree in recreation and leisure studies and a master's of education in the same field in May 2012.
