BATON ROUGE — Some of her original players at USL have the dirt on Yvette Girouard, and one former pitcher has decided to sling it.
"We played on stolen dirt," revealed Pat Pourciau, an original softball pitcher for Girouard when UL was USL in 1981 and the Lady Cajuns "fielded" their first team.
"After playing at all these city parks around Lafayette the first year, we got a field our second season in ’82," Pourciau said. "But it was the parking lot by the football stadium."
Chicken wire was put around the dugouts and outfield at Congress and Bertrand. PVC piping made up the backstop.
"There was no dirt for the pitcher’s mound or the infield," said Pourciau, a former softball coach and two-time state champion volleyball coach at St. Bernard High in the New Orleans area who is now a principal at an alternative school in Chalmette.
So one day, Pourciau asked Girouard if she could borrow the old Ford pickup truck Girouard’s dad Alton gave her. She wanted it specifically at 5 p.m. "Don’t worry about why," Pourciau told her.
Pourciau and her teammates went to a nearby construction site after quitting time and loaded and unloaded the truck five times.
"The dirt finally came," Girouard exclaimed with delight the next day at the field.
"She thought the school had got it for us," Pourciau said laughing. "Then she said, ‘Get to work.’ We said to ourselves, ‘We brought it here. Now we’ve got to spread it, too?’ She didn’t know we stole it for a year."
On that dirt with a part-time salary of about $5,000 a year, Girouard laid the foundation for one of the greatest success stories in college softball history. She literally built UL’s program from the ground up, climaxing with three College World Series appearances from 1993-96 after finally getting full-time status and a $25,000 salary in 1991.
She moved on to LSU in 2001, increasing her pay from $40,000 to six figures, and took the Lady Tigers to two College World Series before making a stop at the national Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2005. Today, she sits as the No. 2 all-time winningest coach in college softball history at 1,283-419-1.
The Lady Cajuns went 15-13 in 1982 on that lifted dirt, and Girouard has never been that remotely close to .500 again with 19 NCAA postseason appearances at UL and LSU.
"I remember one of our first games on that parking lot," said UL associate athletic director Sherry LeBas, who as the coordinator of women’s athletics at USL in 1980 hired Girouard. "Yvette and I and the players were on our hands and knees filling cups with rain water to dry the field. She did what she needed to do to be successful. Yvette did great things for us. She brought a lot of integrity. In my wildest dreams, I didn’t think she would accomplish all that she did with so little in the beginning."
Girouard also worked part time at her parents’ restaurant in Broussard — Ton’s Drive-In, where she did everything, including the books and payroll. Meanwhile, she went to great extent to make the most of her limited UL budget.
"We were so dang poor that when he hit balls on Congress, I was like, ‘You’ve got to go get that ball,’" Girouard said. "We had that temporary fencing you see in people’s gardens with the green stake."
Her office? It was basically at Ton’s.
"The phone would ring, and I’d say, ‘Ton’s, can I help you?’ And they were like, ‘Wait I was trying to call USL softball.’ And I’d say, ‘This is me,’" Girouard said. "I never forget when they offered me the job to start softball. It was November of 1980. They said, ‘You don’t have any scholarships. You really don’t have any money. We can’t really pay you. And you start playing in February.’"
But it was fun.
"After we got going, we were like Cinderellas in that town. Let’s face it, it’s the best program that school has. It was an unbelievable ride," Girouard said. "We started the Center Field Club. They’d plug their blenders in and make margaritas. I made sure the scoreboard ran from early to late because that’s where they were getting their power."
The concoctions made for some sweet memories.
"I’ll be honest with you, those were the best years of my life," said Kim Eisnaugle, another one of Girouard’s first pitchers who played from 1983-87. "We played on that tiny parking lot field, but it was great. We laid the sod. That was part of our conditioning. We literally built it. It was great. We were all really close. And it was our field. We took pride in it because we built it. I didn’t know we stole the dirt, though. I wasn’t part of that."
Girouard’s days on dirt are suddenly dwindling to dust.
"You’re already a Hall of Fame coach," LSU senior infielder Jessica Mouse said Sunday following a win over South Carolina during farewell ceremonies for Girouard. "Now, you can become a Hall of Fame gardener."
She gave Girouard a gift certificate to a local nursery.
Unless LSU (38-16, 16-9 SEC) receives a surprise host site for an NCAA Regional tonight on ESPN’s 9 p.m. show, Girouard coached her last game Sunday at the luxurious Tiger Park she helped design that opened in 2009 thanks to her largesse success. Last March, the 56-year-old Broussard native announced her retirement from the sport in her 31st season on the collegiate level.
"I know that she is in a very delicate place right now," LSU first baseman Anissa Young said after the game Sunday. "I looked at her after the game, and she had a huge smile on her face."
It was not supposed to be for 31 years.
"I remember she said, ‘I’ll do it for a year,’" Pourciau said. "I kid her, ‘Look how long that year lasted.’"
Girouard is finishing in Lou Brock style — on a blaze of glory — with 12 straight wins in a 23-3 run to end the regular season before an SEC Tournament loss to Georgia on Thursday. But she is ready to put out the fire after NCAA Tournament No. 20.
"Coaching never stops," she said. "The highs are so high, and the lows so low. There’s nothing ever in between for a coach. You can’t ever enjoy victory. Well, for me anyway. That’s one of my downfalls. It was always, ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen next year?’ So that’s what I’m not going to miss."
She never felt heat from her superiors because once she got the program rolling at UL, she failed to reach the NCAA postseason only in 1998 there and only in 2005 at LSU. But watching recruits in the summer heat took its toll as did other aspects of a sport’s growth.
"We have kids and their parents saying they’re soft verbals now," she said. "Absurd. Now, we’re football? Come on. And I always promised myself I would walk away before any athletic director had to come down and tell me, ‘I don’t think you’re doing a good enough job.’ I’m secure enough now to do it. The move here is really what helped me in that aspect. It’s been a wonderful ride, but I’m ready."
Girouard will be traveling this summer but not to stadiums, unless you count the Colosseum in Rome.
"I’m going to Italy in July, not going to miss anything. I have my bucket list," she said.
"She’s been racking up those frequent flyer miles," said former LSU pitcher Emily Turner, an All-American in 2006 who is now a news anchor at the NBC affiliate in Baton Rouge. "I know she has a stash. She’s traveled the country coaching and recruiting, but she was always working. Now she wants to see the world out of her coaching shorts."
Then it will be back to Baton Rouge, where she recently bought a new home. She still has the family home in Broussard, not far from the Ton’s restaurant where she moonlighted during those early years. Her late mom, Rose Mary, did the cooking.
"I can’t cook at all," Girouard said. "My mom, she knew. She said you belong outside and coaching. That’s your passion."
She’ll be going to watch the Houston Astros, who were the Colt 45s when she went to games with her late father, who played baseball in the Evangeline League. The stadium seats her parents used to sit in at the old Tiger Park were refurbished and sat empty on the infield during the postgame ceremony for Girouard.
"That got to me," she said. "I didn’t know they were doing that. It got to me. I’m going to take them with me."
There are other ballparks in Girouard’s future.
"I always said I wanted to hit every major league ballpark," she said. "I’m just going to be able to do what I want to do. I just want to be a fan like everybody else."
She promises to be a fixture at LSU football and softball games, too.
"I didn’t even get to enjoy football on a game day because we were always recruiting. I just want to sit back and just have fun and not worry about anything," she said.
As she told the Tiger Park crowd Sunday, "My time on the dirt is done. Now I’m coming up there to have fun with y’all and live a stress-free life."
Athletic Network Footnote: Click here for Yvette Girouard’s Athletic Network profile.
