BATON ROUGE — LSU softball head coach Yvette Girouard, who begins her third season at LSU, previewed the 2003 season at Softball Media Day on Tuesday afternoon at the LSU Athletics Administration Building.
COMMENTS FROM LSU HEAD SOFTBALL COACH YVETTE GIROUARD AT BASEBALL/SOFTBALL MEDIA DAY:
“Thank you very much for being here and before I get started I’d like to thank everyone in the media for being here today to take interest in both the baseball and softball programs, but especially Mr. Mickler and what they are going to do with Cox Sports Television. Obviously, in any sport, television coverage is just monumental to our game. As women’s softball continues to progress in the country and draw continued interest, being on television and being live is just incredible for us when you talk about our fans being able to follow us, and it will also benefit us in the recruiting process. So, from our softball coaching staff, we are deeply indebted and we are very excited about the endeavor that you are taking with LSU.”
“If any of you have been following what has been going on with our team in the last month, do not be fooled by the all-black look. I am not in mourning. It has nothing to do with the fact that we have 12 healthy bodies right now and one pitcher. It has to do with the fact that with the all-black look, maybe I will look a little leaner.”
“There are some lofty expectations for this program and we indeed welcome them. We would always relish the bullseye on our back rather than have low expectations for our program. We tell our team every day that obviously this is what this program has accomplished in the past to be ranked so high, considering that we lost two All-Americans off of our staff from last season and the fact that we lost Britni Sneed, who was undoubtedly the best pitcher that the SEC has every seen.”
“We think that we return some quality people. If we could get everybody a little more healthy, then you know we’re going to have a dynamite club. As a matter of fact, it’s really funny, if you would have asked me a month ago about our team with 14 players, I would have told you that I absolutely love this team and I still do to this day, because I think that we have an intangible that coaches strive for all the time and that is the fact that we have tremendous team chemistry right now.”
“This team knows that they will not let what they cannot do interfere with what they can do. We had Coach (Sue) Gunter come speak to our team the other day, after she kind of had to live through some of this herself last season after having so many injuries down the stretch, and she gave an excellent talk to our team.”
“This team’s motto this year is ‘One Heartbeat’ and we’ve really taken it to heart. It’s a really young team and we fully expect that we will be veteran-made by the end of the season, and that ultimately is the goal of this team and probably any team when you talk about postseason competition.”
“There’s no question that we have some question marks in the circle. We have two pitchers right now. One has a broken hand and she probably won’t see any action this weekend. Luckily, as I was reading about Smoke (Laval) and his submarine pitcher in yesterday’s paper, it is a motion where one pitcher can pitch six games in a three-day period, because one is about to have to do this, but it can be done. Luckily I’m not the baseball coach and I only have one pitcher on my staff healthy right now.”
“Kristin Schmidt comes into this season with some outstanding credentials. She came to us as a pitcher from Notre Dame last year and was a Second-Team All-American. She had some huge wins for the Tigers in the circle last year and I can think of one immediately when we traveled to Alabama and they beat us in the first game of the series. We absolutely needed Kristin to step up and she did. She won the second game of the series and Britni came back and won the third one on the Sunday and we swept that.”
“We have all of the complete uttermost faith in Kristin. She is a proven competitor. She is ready to carry this team on her back. It might be asking a little bit too much for her to pitch all six games this weekend, but I think she can do it.”
“Tessa Lynam, like I said, is out with a broken hand right now. The status of her injury at the moment is week-to-week and once she can put a glove on her hand I’m sure that you will see her in the circle. Hitting might be another circumstance. She could be out anywhere from five-to-six weeks and quite truly she is the most dangerous stick in our lineup. So, that’s kind of a loss for us right there.”
“Defensively, I think that we will be a tremendous defensive ball club. I’ve always been a defensive coach first and foremost, and I absolutely love what I see out there. We could potentially have the best shortstop in the country in Blair Smith. She did a great job for us last year anchoring the infield and she looks better, quicker and more mature, and understands her role better, so it’s a definite plus there.”
“Behind the plate, Jennie Reeves at 5-1 or whatever she claims to be, I think she’s more like 4-11, plays like she’s 6-1 and defensively when she’s locked in can be the best catcher in the country. I truly believe that. She handles the pitchers very well and she calls a good game. Leigh Ann Danos will battle for time and absolutely must catch this year because she is our future and she is just a tremendous bat to have in the lineup and can hit it out at any point.”
“We have some assets. We talked about the numbers being down, but what we have going for us is that our kids are very good athletes and very good softball players. They are very versatile and they have what I think potentially could be the best shortstop that we’ve had here at LSU in Alicia Owen. She’s a shortstop that we recruited from California and moved her over to first base, and she’s just been dynamite for us right now.”
“Defensively around the horn, we feel really good about that. We lost Trena Peel, who was the SEC Player of the Year last year and was just an extreme weapon. We replaced her with LaDonia Hughes in center field who’s got tremendous quickness and is kind of a mix between Dee Douglas and Trena Peel. She doesn’t have the power of a Trena Peel, but is kind of in between both of them and she can create havoc on the basepaths for us.”
“Our outfield is going to be a big plus for us. We don’t think that defensively we have many minuses and that really makes me feel good, especially since in this very opening weekend we’re going to have to have Kristin Schmidt do some outstanding things. She’s going to have to put aside her own personal goals, but obviously if you have one pitcher, you’re talking about a low pitch count. So, we’re going to have to keep her as sharp as we possibly can.”
“We feel really good about our team. We love the team chemistry and they have worked their tails off this entire spring.”