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Spotlight on Former Athlete: Yvette Girouard Volleyball 1972-75, Head Softball Coach 1981-2000Girouard followed her destiny
By Bruce Brown
Written for Athletic Network
October 16, 2012 Yvette Girouard was named the best female athlete at USL in her senior year of 1976, starring for the volleyball program, but that was just the start of her lasting impact on the school’s athletic history.
The Broussard native and Comeaux High graduate would return to her alma mater 4 years later to create its first women’s collegiate softball program and coached the Cajuns to three appearances in the Women’s College World Series.
By the time she left to coach at LSU in 2001, Girouard had a 759-250-0 record and had built a perennial NCAA Tournament contender. She went on to lead LSU to 526 wins and a pair of WCWS trips before retiring with a record of 1,285-421-1 after the 2011 season.
But it began with volleyball as Girouard excelled in what was available to women at the time.
“I guess I was all right, but we didn’t look like the players do today,” she said of her volleyball prowess. “I was a really good athlete.”
She was such a good athlete that her brother wondered aloud why she didn’t play with dolls. At age 7, she got a football uniform for Christmas.
It seemed she was destined for a life in athletics, and playing volleyball at UL opened the door to a degree and to life as a coach.
“I knew I wanted to be a PE teacher, but at the high school level,” said Girouard, who initially worked at Lafayette High and helped pioneer the sport of softball at that school.
“Lafayette Parish didn’t even have girls basketball when I first started. They started fastpitch softball in 1976.
At first I was assigned cheerleaders, pep squad and gymnastics. I didn’t know anything about gymnastics, and I’m not a cheer type of girl, so I asked them to give me softball.”
It was a natural fit.
“My dad played in the Teche League and I grew up a baseball fanatic,” Girouard said. “I remember going to Houston and seeing Dizzy Dean. I grew up playing neighborhood baseball from morning til night. It seems I was always building baseball fields somewhere.”
That includes at LHS and at then-USL, and in both cases it was a challenge.
“I had to beg for dirt and sand at Lafayette High,” Girouard said. “I hand-tilled my own infield. When I finally got some dirt, the parish AD told me he just wanted to see if I would work hard before giving me any.”
Girouard had not played softball until she was 18, when she and a cousin began playing in games at Girard Park, but a light went on a year later when she saw a men’s fastpitch game.
“I said, ‘This is great. It’s just like baseball,’ ” Girouard recalled.
When UL began its program, former LHS star and scholarship volleyball player Ursula Quoyeser suggested her former coach as the choice. The rest is hard-earned history.
“That was November,” Girouard said. “We were going to start the first season in February, and we had no schedule, no field. I said, ‘You expect me to win?’ and they said, ‘Yes.’
“That first year (1981), we played at 5 different city parks. We’d find out 2 days ahead which park it would be. We had no scholarships; the next year we were up to 1.”
Girouard quickly determined that the team needed a home, and created a makeshift field near Cajun Track along Bertrand Drive.
“I used my dad’s truck to drag the infield,” she said. “It was on of those things – if you build it, they will come.”
It was a far cry from today’s spacious, modern Lamson Field, an expansion of the second-home Lady Cajun Park built under Girouard.
“We had two benches and no dugouts,” Girouard said. “We had to fight for room with intramural sports. Fans would come and park their cars by the fence. Some of the football players’ girlfriends were on the team, so they would come.
“We actually hung numbers on the fence because there was no scoreboard. One time, I picked up a cup and thought I was taking a swig of water, and it was beer.”
In spite of those conditions, and a 7-15 record the first season, the Cajun program grew into a winner and postseason threat.
“I got hooked pretty quickly,” Girouard said. “We won games, and people came to watch us.”
The Cajuns reached the 1993 Women’s College World Series in 1993, finishing third in the nation, and returned in 1995 and 1996.
“I told (assistant coach) Pat Murphy after practice one day in 1993, we’re really good,” Girouard said. “We’d had (pitcher) Stefni (Whitton) before, but not enough offense. In 1993, we had Kyla Hall, who refused to lose. Finally we had all the pieces – we could run, hit and pitch, and we always played defense.
“We took it to another level at the College World Series. There was a sense of belonging.”
Murphy later built a national power at Alabama, and Girouard has always praised her assistants through the years. She also held special players in high regard, such as Hall, original program members Quoyeser and Donna Crooks, and Lori Osterberg, who helped smooth the waters for her coach as an original assistant at LSU.
“I worked really hard, and got lucky with great coaches, players and parents,” Girouard said. “I tried to pay attention to every detail. I didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I would try to make it a ‘yes.’
“I tried to outwork everyone. I was so dedicated to the program. We needed so much support, and people really took ownership of the program. It was an awesome place to play, a hostile environment for visitors.”
When Girouard left for LSU, answering that school’s third overture, it was not an easy parting for either side.
“The (LSU) team was crying at the press conference,” Girouard said. “I was the enemy, and they had lost their previous coach. I had to win them over. The No. 1 reason I left was money and retirement.
“They left me a fabulous program. But LSU was massive. It was overwhelming to me, 46 years old, from Broussard and Lafayette. Joe Dean wrote me a note – ‘let LSU come to you, instead of trying to tackle it.’
“I would absolutely do it all over again. I would do things differently when I left (UL), Mistakes were made, but that goes both ways.”
Bitterness lingers for many, and Girouard now lives in Baton Rouge, where she feels more welcomed than in her native Acadiana.
But her impact on the sport of softball is undeniable. In due time, she will join Hall (now Kyla Holas, coaching at Houston) in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Her place in history is secure.
“I don’t miss it,” Girouard said of coaching. “I struggled with it the last 2-3 years. I finally decided I didn’t want to do this any more. I always said I’d know, that I would retire when I was ready.”
By Bruce Brown lagolden83@aol.com
Written for Athletic Network
* * * * * * * * * *
 Shown above is the 1973 Volleyball team and #33, Yvette.
Click here for a photo of the 1975 Volleyball team.
Click here for Yvette’s Athletic Network profile.
 Shown above is the 1982 Softball team, Yvette’s second season as the USL head softball coach.
Please click here for the Softball Photo Gallery which includes the 1980 (club sport year) – 2012 seasons. * * * * * * * * * * * Our rich athletic traditions were entrusted to the vision, hope, loyalty, and dedication of those former athletes and we will forever owe them a debt of sincere gratitude. May God bless each of them and their families.
Anyone with information, materials, pictures, memorabilia, etc., of the university’s former athletic program participants is requested to contact Ed Dugas at athleticnetwork@louisiana.edu Thank you.
The Photo Gallery Link located on the left side of the home page at www.athleticnetwork.net contains over 12,000 pictures of former and current athletes and support groups. Just click on photo gallery and when the menu appears, click on the sport or support group you wish to view. The years of pictures posted for that team or group will appear and you may click on the year you wish to view. One click on a thumbnail picture or narrative and it is enlarged; a click on the enlarged photo and it reverts back to the thumbnail. The Athletic Network seeks to post pictures of each team and support group for each year they represented the university. The stories of the 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 honorees featured in the Spotlight on Former Athletes are still included in the News Page and may be viewed by clicking on "more news" at the bottom right of the News Box, scrolling down, clicking on the title of the story. Those spotlight features which are no longer shown in the News Page, have been moved to the Lagniappe Link of the "History of UL Athletics" located on the left side of the home page. The Spotlight on Former Athletes announcement has also been placed in the profile of each honoree, excluding the pictures. 2012 2011 2010 2009
Ed Dugas served as feature writer. January – Tim Thompson Men’s Basketball 1957-61. February – Gene Bacque Baseball 1956 & 57. March – Dr. Louis Bowers – Tennis 1956-58, Track 1955, Coaches 1964-66. April – Dr. Carter Lomax, Jr. Tennis 1974-76. May – Johnny Morris, Jr. Football 1927-29,Men’s Basketball 1927-30,Track & Field 1928-30, Golf 1927-28, Coaches 1947-49 . June – S.L.I.I. Athletic Pioneers I July – S.L.I.I. Athletic Pioneers II August – 1912 – A Special Year – First L’Acadien September – Glenn Davis Lafleur Football 1966-69 October – Bill Bass – Boxing 1938 & 39, Football 1938-40, Coach 1971-75 & 1983 November – Tom Nolan – Cross Country & Track & Field 1971-76, Coaches 1978-83 December – Military Personnel – Military Page posted 2008 2007 Peace, Ed Dugas
Ed Dugas, Research Coordinator (337)482-0999
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