All she wanted to do was grab a bat and glove so she could play baseball like her big brother Karl. Societal standards in Louisiana during the 1960s and 1970s not only stood in the way of her but all the little girls dreams that wanted to play with the boys.
Yvette Girouard, a native of Broussard, never gave up hope. Little did she know the impact her dedication and motivation would have on the national softball landscape.
“I’m so grateful and jealous when I see five year old girls with their uniforms on,” Girouard said. “All I wanted to do was play and they wouldn’t let me. I was my brother’s batgirl because girls weren’t allowed to play. We had nothing in our little town for girls. Now, we play in a $13 million stadium on primetime TV. It is unbelievable where we have come.”
Because she never was able to play on the diamond, Girouard’s journey to becoming the most decorated softball coach in the history of Louisiana and Division IA’s second winningest coach all-time began as an accident.
Girouard excelled on the volleyball court at Comeaux High School, and later earned 1976 Female Athlete of the Year honors at Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette). Following her college volleyball playing days, she began her career in 1977 as a P.E. teacher at Lafayette High before moving to her former high school in 1980.
“I thought I was going to be a high school P.E. teacher and a high school coach,” Girouard said. “I was at Lafayette High for three years and absolutely loved my job. I was the youngest on a staff of seven. They rezoned the parish, and I got moved to sixth grade P.E. I was miserable. I decided to walk away from teaching and coaching. I went to work for my family in a restaurant. ULL came calling to start a program. The rest is kind of history.”
Southwestern Louisiana (ULL) could only provide Girouard with a budget of $3000 and zero scholarships, forcing her to build a program from scratch.
“For 11 years, I never took a vacation,” Girouard said. “I spent money out of my own pocket. My dad, Alton, gave me his truck to drag the field, and he helped me paint the fences. My mom, Rose Mary, made the first jerseys at ULL. We took old basketball uniforms and modified them.”
Within four years, Girouard led her 1984 ULL team to a 28-9 record and her first of four consecutive Southland Conference Championships. Following the 1987 season, ULL began competing independently. Despite the shift, the success was only beginning to manufacture national attention.
Beginning in 1988, ULL would go on to be national ranked among the nation’s elite for 10 straight seasons. During the Cajuns dominance, ULL finished as high as second in the polls and made three Women’s College World Series (WCWS). Her ULL teams finished third in 1993 and fifth in 1995 and 1996.
One would expect with all of the success that the softball program’s work requirements would ease up on Girouard. Toward the end of 2000 right before LSU finally swayed her to come to Baton Rouge, Girouard was still looking for other means to raise money for her program.
“The day I left ULL, I was selling canned figs out of the trunk of my car to raise money for my program,” Girouard said.
The Tigers fresh off back-to-back SEC Championships came calling and offered Girouard a job in 2001. LSU had tried to sway Girouard to leave the program she had built with her own two hands three separate times.
“I was offered the job when the program was first resurrected in 1997, and I came here and met with the athletic director four different times,” Girouard said. “I was on the verge of saying yes. I had stayed on the LSU campus for seven hours, and actually had left home telling my family that I was going to take the job. When I got here, I just couldn’t say yes. I had a fabulous team back at ULL. I was born and raised there. The third time LSU came after me, I was absolutely ready. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make in my life, but it turned out to be the best decision of my life.”
The 2001 Tigers would go on to post a 59-11 record and sweep the SEC Championships (the SEC Tournament and the SEC Regular Season Championship) en route to a third place finish in the WCWS.
“I inherited a tremendous team and at my press conference they cried,” Girouard said. “That was my first coaching challenge. I think they were crying because they lost a coach they really loved. My last victory at ULL was a victory over LSU in the Regional that season. I’m not too sure they were fired up hiring their enemy, but I seem to have won the team over. We had a fabulous run at the very beginning, and Kristin Schmidt came on and brought us to the World Series.”
LSU would go on to win 106 games in 2002 and 2003, but fell short of returning to the WCWS. The 2004 squad wound up finishing with a 57-12 record, an SEC Championship Sweep and third in the WCWS.
“The 2004 team I will say until the day that I die, if we did not have to play three games in one day because of TV and weather, we would have been in the national championship game,” Girouard said. “We were seven outs away, but we stayed on the field from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. We were exhausted and just ran out of gas. It has never happened again, no one has ever played three games in one day after us.”
In the ensuing six seasons, the rest of the SEC began to place emphasis on softball. The level of competition rose dramatically, and LSU can take pride in raising the competitive bar. Girouard would lead LSU to 264 victories, an SEC Tournament Championship, four NCAA Regionals and two NCAA Super Regionals.
“This is not the same league as when I got here,” Girouard said. “Only the Tigers, Alabama and sometimes another team was good. Now everyone is good. The league has changed. Everyone has caught LSU.”
With the development of the sport and rising revenues, softball parks around the country began to mimic their baseball counterparts. Girouard played a major role in the construction of the $13 million Tiger Park in 2009.
“I’d like to take some credit for the new Tiger Park facility, but ultimately LSU did the right thing to build it,” Girouard said. “I must say that I was very persistent, never let up and insisted that it be a new one and not a remodeled old Tiger Park. I am very grateful for LSU for allowing me to have so much input in the design. It was exactly what I envisioned for college softball. There is no question in my mind that it is the prettiest facility in the country.”
With one of the top facilities in the country and a program that will continue to be at the top of college softball for years to come, Girouard can feel comfortable leaving LSU in good hands. Huge shoes will need to be filled after averaging 48 victories over the last 11 seasons, competing in nine regionals, winning three SEC Championships and participating in two WCWS.
“I love being a Tiger and I love LSU,” Girouard said. “I’m going to live in Baton Rouge. I’ll be a Tiger fan for the rest of my life.”
Girouard’s legacy includes an induction into the 2005 National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame. She has been named Louisiana Coach of the Year 13 times and SEC Coach of the Year three times. She has coached 41 All-Americans, appeared in 5 WCWS and is one of three coaches to take two different programs to the WCWS. After 35 years the time has come for Girouard to enjoy the little things in life.
“I was born a Cajun girl in a family that all spoke French, except for myself,” Girouard said. “I’m as Cajun as it gets. I love my state. I love everything it has to offer. I want to enjoy the next phase of my life. I want to wake up stress free, because I think that would be an incredible feeling. This is a stressful job, and yes we do get to play everyday, but there is so much that goes on behind the scenes. I really am looking forward to just being a fan, like everyone else. I want to be a good, positive and loud LSU fan.”