BATON ROUGE — LSU softball head coach Yvette Girouard, assistant coach James DeFeo and former assistant Lori Osterberg will receive the Speedline Division I National Coaching Staff of the Year award Friday night at the annual National Fastpitch Coaches Association Convention banquet held in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“This will be an exciting night for our staff,” said head coach Yvette Girouard. “First of all, Lori will be joining us at the banquet. The bottom line is that you have to be surrounded by great people and obviously a great team to receive a caliber award like this.”
Every year the members of the NFCA gather in a chosen city for seminars and clinics with other fastpitch coaches. Girouard will be leading a seminar at the convention this year.
In just one season at LSU, Girouard and her staff guided the Tigers to a record of 59-11 and their first Women’s College World Series appearance, where they finished tied for third with Stanford. LSU won its third consecutive Southeastern Conference Championship and second SEC Tournament Title under their leadership. The Tigers advanced to the WCWS after going 4-0 in the Baton Rouge Regional.
This is the third time Girouard, who captured her 800th career win midway through the season, has received this honor. Girouard was named the Division I coach of the year in 1990 and 1993 while coaching at Louisiana-Lafayette. The award was formerly given to just the head coach but has been changed to honor the entire coaching staff in the last two seasons.
Girouard, DeFeo and Osterberg were first selected as the South Region Coaching Staff of the year and then placed on a national ballot with eight other Division I coaching staffs. Girouard was named South Region Coach of the Year five previous times while at Louisiana-Lafayette.
Girouard’s record now stands at 818-263 in her 21 years of coaching. She has had 20 consecutive winning seasons, made four total WCWS appearances and 11 Regional appearances.
DeFeo completed his second season under Girouard in 2001 where he was responsible for leading the Tiger hitters to a No. 12 national ranking.
Osterberg joined Girouard and DeFeo the past season and has made an immediate impact on the coaching staff working with the slappers and the infield. After the season, however, she decided to take the head coach position at North Scott High School in Eldridge, Iowa.
Girouard, DeFeo and new assistant coach Ashlee Ducote will start the 2002 season with the Tigers at home with the LSU Tiger Classic on Feb. 8-10.