BATON ROUGE — LSU assistant softball coach Megan Smith and her husband Paul Buske welcomed their first child on Aug. 6, 2007, three days after his scheduled arrival.
Cooper Smith Buske was born on Monday at 3:15 p.m. at Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge. He came into the world weighing eight pounds and was 21 1/4 inches tall. Both mother and son are doing well.
Smith was pregnant throughout the 2007 LSU softball season, progressing through her second and third trimesters as the Tigers captured their eighth Southeastern Conference Western Division title, their fifth SEC Tournament championship and their fourth NCAA Regional title. LSU advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals for the second straight season before falling to Arizona State in Tempe to conclude the season.
She continued with her usual coaching routine throughout much of the season. Smith coached at first base and hit ground ball to the infield the entire year, but her impending arrival cut short one of her usual duties as she was unable to continue throwing batting practice late in the season.
With head coach Yvette Girouard, associate head coach James DeFeo ? the proud father of three children ? and the entire team looking out for her, she only had one scare while trying to juggle being an expectant mother and softball coach. In April, she was inadvertently hit by a foul ball while standing in the dugout during a team practice, which the players took especially hard. Luckily, she was given a clean bill of health by the doctor and returned to the field for the next practice.
Last September, Smith joined the LSU softball staff after two seasons as the head coach at Western Carolina. After spending the 2005 season getting prepared, she led the Catamounts through the inaugural 2006 season to the Southern Conference title. She went on to be named the SoCon Coach of the Year.
A 1999 graduate of North Carolina, she starred at third base for the Tar Heels, breaking the school record for RBIs in a game and being named the Defensive Player of the Year. In 2000, she earned her Master of Science degree in Human Performance and Sports Studies with a concentration in Sports Management from the University of Tennessee. A native of Walkertown, N.C., Smith married Buske on June 19, 2004, and the proud parents reside in Baton Rouge.