By Ryan Rogers
LSUsports.net
(4/17/01)
Success in coaching always lends towards better fortunes and new horizons. After an assortment of success the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, and being named the NCAA National Coach of the year in 1990 and 1993, Yvette Girouard opened those doors for herself. And as it is with many coaches who leave one quality university to take a job at another, facing the former school can be difficult.
Girouard will face Louisiana-Lafayette for the first time since taking the LSU post on Wednesday night in a doubleheader in Lafayette.
Louisiana-Lafayette will be motivated to face their former coach. In addition to the friends she left behind and mixed emotions she will encounter, Girouard must concentrate on beating the No. 23 Ragin’ Cajuns.
“Obviously it will be strange for me,” says Girouard. “When you spend 20 years at a school you make a lot of friends and you grow fond of that school.”
In her 20 year career at Louisiana-Lafayette she led the Ragin’ Cajuns to six conference championships, 11 regional appearances and three College World Series. Her teams finished in the top-25 the last 12 years in a row.
It was a tough decision to make leaving Louisiana-Lafayette, but it was one that Girouard felt was the best one to make.
“LSU was the only place I would have ever left ULL for,” she says. “I can remember being in LSU’s park last year for the regional and they would play the LSU fight song over the loud speaker and I would just get chills. LSU just has that mystique and persona of a great university. It’s the kind off place everyone wants to be at.
“I came to LSU for a lot of reasons. It is my challenge and my goal to bring this great program to the next level. It is a tremendous opportunity for me to be a part of a fantastic conference with some of my former players, coaches and many of my friends,” she said.
Even though the SEC is still in its infancy in softball, the conference has established itself as one of the premier conferences in the nation in a short period of time. LSU has become one of the early powers in the SEC’s brief history with two straight conference titles and currently sitting in first place in the standings in 2001 under Girouard.
It’s no secret that Girouard is still a supporter of her former softball program.
“I’ll pull for ULL against anyone except us,” she admits as she laughs. “I want to see them do well. I have no hard feelings toward them and they have no hard feelings toward me.”
Girouard will return to the ULL’s ballpark for the first time Wednesday.
It’s like returning to the house you grew up in years later. A part of you gets emotionally caught up in the memories. On this occasion she’ll be in the “other” dugout.
“I haven’t been back to the field since I left. I’m sure I’ll have a lot of memories when I walk around before the game.”