Former Coach: Ex-UL softball coach makes long-awaited return to Lamson Park

Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, April 18, 2013

A month or so ago, Yvette Girouard had no idea that it was going to
when Michael Lotief took Yvette Girouard on a tour of the new ball park.

It didn’t look like the park she coached Lotief’s wife, former All-American pitcher Stefni Whitton, on for sure. It didn’t even look like the park she left in 2000.

“It was a long time coming, but it’s something this program deserves,” Girouard said.

“They did an incredible job with it.”

On Wednesday, not only was she able to walk on the field again, but do so wearing red and feeling apart of the Ragin’ Cajun family again.

“I was proud to put on my red on again,” she said. “It was surreal. I was thinking about my mom and dad (who died 5 and 8 years ago, respectively) and how I wish they could have seen it. But actually I believe that they did.

“Some of the best years of our lives were on that field.” For all of those early years just couldn’t be forgotten in Michael Lotief’s mind. He said that it wasn’t time for such an event while Girouard was still coaching at LSU.

“She was competitive and we’re competitive,” Lotief said. “It was LSU vs. UL. That wasn’t the right time. It’s kind of like Saban vs. Miles. It wasn’t a good time. Now is the right time.”

Lotief said in his mind, it was always going to take place. “It’s good to have Coach Girouard back,” he said. “She spent her life out here. She sacrificed for this program.

She was the pioneer who fought for equity and opportunity. She laid thefoundation.

“So now to see her come back and smile and see the community embrace her, that’s the Ragin’ Cajun way. That’s the way we are. She’s a Cajun. She went to school here. She’s one of us. We’re all flawed. I know that better than anyone. But I always tell my kids, ‘You can always come home.’ It doesn’t matter. You can always come home.”

Lotief attempted to deflect the credit for the event taking place to UL president Dr. Joseph Savoie. His wife, Stefni, though, pointed away from her and to her husband.

“It was very important to him that she come back to this program,” Stefni Lotief said. “It was a perfect opportunity to extend (olive branch) to one of our own. There are so many great people associated with this program. I want everyone who walked through that gate and stepped on that field to feel a part of it all.”

Girouard got that feeling on Wednesday and she plans on doing what she can to extend that to her teams of the past. “Now I’m hoping it’s OK to go the bowl games,” said Girouard, who didn’t attend either one of UL’s New Orleans Bowl wins. “I tried to come back to a football game here after I left and they just yelled at me, so I didn’t come back.”

Apparently it wasn’t time yet. Now it is.