Coach trying to turn team around, make final season memorable

After more than three decades in the dugout, LSU softball coach Yvette Girouard believes it’s time to sit back and relax.

The longtime LSU coach announced earlier this season that she will retire effective at the end of the season – a decision she stood by last Wednesday when her Tigers romped Nicholls State in an 8-0 five-inning mercy rule decision.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while,” Girouard said. “You know I always knew the day that I woke up and could tell myself that, ‘You’ve had enough,’ then this is probably it.”

The career Girouard will be leaving behind has been nothing short of historic.

The Broussard native broke into the collegiate ranks in 1981 when she helped found the softball program at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, a program she later guided to the College World Series.

After nearly 20 years with the Ragin Cajuns, Broussard took her clipboard to LSU in 2001.

In her 11th season with the Tigers, she has elevated LSU to elite status among college softball programs, winning three Southeastern Conference titles and advancing to a pair of College World Series.

But despite dedicating virtually her entire adult life to coaching, Girouard doesn’t flinch when asked if she’d backtrack and change her mind about coming back.

The coach said there hasn’t been “a single moment” where she sat in her home and wondered what she’ll do with her newfound free time next spring.

“I’m not thinking about that,” Girouard said before a brief pause. “Well, you know, I may be smiling. It’s just time for somebody else to do this. It’s been 35 years. And you know, I’ve been a lucky girl. This is a career that I never even dreamed I would have, so I’ve been really lucky.”

Retirement aside, Girouard said her biggest focus moving forward is making her final season a memorable one, something the Tigers have struggled initially to do.

LSU opened the SEC schedule losing six-straight games. Granted, they played the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country in Georgia and Florida in those two weekends.

But don’t tell that to Girouard who said another team’s ranking has never scared away LSU in her career.

“We played awesome teams at the beginning,” she said. “But we used to be one of those awesome teams.”

Since the 0-6 start, LSU has shown signs of becoming “awesome” again, taking two or three games from No. 24 Kentucky before the shutout win against Nicholls.

Girouard touts improved play from LSU underclassmen after the team suffered injuries to three starters, seniors Jessica Mouse and Ashley Applegate and sophomore Allison Falcon.

Ask players the reason for the mini-turnaround and they will say something different.

They’ll say they are playing for their coach.

“We all are definitely playing this season for Coach Girouard,” sophomore pitcher Rachele Fico said. “She has done so much for the program here at LSU. It’s just an honor to be able to play for her and we just want to send her out with a bang, because she’s had an awesome career.”

Junior infielder Juliana Santos agreed and said that while she secretly hopes the coach returns one more year, she knows it’s the team’s job to make her final few months of the season some of the best she’s ever had.

“We love her and she loves us,” Santos said. “But she just decided that she’s done. We struggled for a little bit and it had nothing to do with her decision or anything, but we reached a point where we decided as a team that we want to finish things off for her as best as we can.”

Don’t think those sentiments are lost on the coach, who said she has no plans to sit back and be a lame duck the remainder of the season.

It’s not quite time to relax just yet.

“I’m still very passionate,” she said. “I’m still fussing at people when they are not doing the right thing and I’m not just tanking it or whatever. It’s kind of been a bumpy season so far, but we’re trying to work ourselves out of it.”

LSU softball coach Yvette Girouard makes calls for her team at her customary post at third base for the Tigers. The coach announced she is retiring, a decision she stuck by last Wednesday when the team defeated Nicholls State. STEVE FRANZ