Education and athletics lead the way for Tulare’s Powell family.
Mike Powell is the athletic director at Tulare Western High School.
His wife, Wendi, is in her first year as Mission Oak’s principal.
Together, the husband-and-wife duo are administrative leaders at their respective campuses and emphasize academics and sports to drive their students.
“Education is important, obviously, because that gave us all what we both wanted to do in the long run,” Mike said. “Wendi played college sports. I played college sports, so the sports might have gotten us there, but if we didn’t do what we needed to do in the classroom, we would never be where we are today without our education.”
Linking up
Growing up in Lodi, Mike rode the strength of his arm to college.
His pitching prowess landed him a baseball scholarship to Fresno State in the 1990s, playing for the late Bob Bennett. Because one of his goals was to play professional ball, Mike kept up with his grades so he could stand out on the mound.
That paved the way to two college degrees — a Bachelor’s and a Master’s.
Although his playing career was cut short due to an injury, because he focused on school and graduated, he was able to explore other avenues using his education.
That eventually led him to coaching, where he joined former College of Sequoias’ baseball coach Jody Allen’s staff as an assistant pitching coach in the early 2000s.
It was there that he met his future wife through a mutual friend, Brett Miller, who was married to Wendi’s older sister. Miller coached with Mike at COS.
Wendi, a Tulare native whose maiden name is Van Hooser, had been told about a fiery coach who played collegiate baseball at the NCAA Division I level.
A standout athlete herself, Wendi was also a Division I softball player, starring as an infielder at the University of West Georgia, just outside of Atlanta.
In October 2001, Mike and Wendi officially linked up at a COS baseball fundraiser golf tournament. Wendi’s family was working the event because they were longtime friends with Allen.
At the 13th hole, where Wendi was volunteering, Mike approached her and asked, “I heard you play softball in Georgia.”
From Wendi’s perspective, Mike had previously done his research, and she was flattered. Later that night, the two went on their first date at the Green Olive, a bar in Visalia.
About two months later, on Dec. 8, Mike proposed, taking Wendi on a scavenger hunt throughout Visalia and Tulare at the locations of their first dates, hiding clues for Wendi to find, before returning to the green on the 13th hole at Tulare Golf Course, where they first met. There, he dropped down on one knee and popped the big question, “Will you marry me?”
Wendi, of course, said yes, and eight months after they originally introduced themselves to one another, they became “The Powells.”
That family name didn’t stick right away, though.
Because Mike was an outsider, he was known as “Wendi Van Hooser’s husband” in the Tulare community.
That went on for about four years until Mike became entrenched in Tulare, and Wendi soon became “Mike Powell’s wife.”
Today, the Powells have been married for 24 years.
“I think when you know, you know,” Mike said. “We felt comfortable. We both felt it.”
Building a family
Mike and Wendi are the proud parents of two children — Faith and Easton.
Faith graduated from Tulare Western in 2024 and is now a college student at Boise State.
Easton is a senior at Tulare Western.
The two Powell kids both played sports for the Mustangs.
Faith was a dual-sport standout, excelling in volleyball and softball.
In the gym, as a setter, she culminated her volleyball career with 1,341 assists while playing in over 200 sets. During her final two seasons with the Mustangs, Tulare Western won 44 matches, including 25 in her senior season in 2023.
On the softball field, Faith was a four-year varsity player who saved her best for last. In one of the final games of her high school career in the spring of 2024, she launched a home run to lead the Mustangs to a 9-2 playoff win over Bakersfield.
In that victory, she went 3-for-4 batting, with five RBIs, two runs, a double, and a triple, falling just a single shy of hitting for the cycle.
Today, Faith has used her experiences in athletics to help her navigate college.
“I think a lot of the things in sports go into your life in general,” Faith said. “There are a lot of things in sports that you learn that you can’t really get in the classroom, like, teamwork, the bonding, and being able to build those kinds of relationships. I think that’s all super important in college, so you don’t feel alone in any way, and it helps you build those relationships super easy.”
Easton has played football, soccer, and baseball at Tulare Western.
As the team’s starting goalie, he helped guide the Mustangs soccer team to a 17-win season this winter.
With Easton in front of goal, Tulare Western advanced to the 2026 Central Section Division II semifinals, posting playoff wins over Madera South and Clovis East.
Easton registered a clean sheet in the quarterfinal victory against Clovis East, making seven saves as the fifth-ranked Mustangs upset the No. 4 Timberwolves on the road.
In three varsity campaigns, Easton compiled 290 saves, including 96 this year.
Easton is also a starter on the baseball diamond.
As of March 19, he’s currently on a four-game hitting streak, producing six hits with three runs during a strong start to the spring baseball season.
Easton gets it done off the field, too.
In October, Easton received the Tulare County Office of Education’s Character Counts pillar for Citizenship, which is awarded to a student who best exemplifies what it means to be an engaged, responsible, and service-driven member of the community.
“I wouldn’t be able to do it without my parents,” Easton said. “They’re always on me with my academics. They always check my grades and stuff, which is good for me, because without them, I don’t know what I would be doing in school. It’s been pretty good. I enjoy them being here. My dad’s always here if I ever need help with anything.”
Putting academics first is a big reason the Powell family has been an instrumental member of the Tulare community.
Mike began his athletic director career in Tulare County at Exeter before joining the administration team at Tulare Western in 2015.
Wendi has served in education in Tulare for the past 24 years, having spent time as a teacher, counselor and assistant principal.
“Education, it serves its purpose,” Mike said. “We have to have it to be able to work later on in life, to be productive parts of society, and that’s what we tell our kids is, ‘Do your work. No missing assignments. If you get an F on a test, we’ll make it work. We’ll figure it out. But you can’t have a missing assignment.’ That’s our rule in our house is no missing assignments.”
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Education, sports lead the way for Tulare’s Powell family
Reporting by Vongni Yang, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
