May 30, 2006

Speaker helps LSU regain confidence

By WILLIAM WEATHERS
Advocate sportswriter
Published: May 26, 2006

Advocate staff photo by Mark Saltz LSU pitcher Emily Turner says things had to change after a subpar season last year. She says, ‘That’s why we told the coaches whatever they had to do, we were willing to do it.’ Related Content STORIES: Harris eager to revisit father's feats NCAA Softball Super Regionals LSU Softball Schedule TUCSON SUPER REGIONAL LSU at Arizona 7 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday, * 10:30 p.m. Saturday * If necessary

TUCSON, Ariz. — The long journey back for the LSU softball team from the year of tumult last season to respectability can be traced outside the white lines of the playing field.

That’s where, with an assist from an outside source, the Tigers began piecing together the fabric that would bind them so tightly, they find themselves on the brink of reaching college softball’s Holy Grail for the second time in three years.

“We knew what the enemy and the monster was,’’ LSU softball coach Yvette Girouard said of last year’s 31-23 record, a year void of a trip to the postseason. “We knew it started with the c-word, there was no confidence. We as a staff were deeply concerned how to guide them through this because basically they weren’t going to get any confidence back until they saw results on the field.’’

Girouard turned to Felicia Hall Allen, a nationally recognized motivational speaker, whose list of clients included Nike, Coca-Cola along with the LSU and Southern women’s basketball teams. The former elementary school teacher and front office manger with the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting uses her passion and ability to motivate others through positive thinking and goal setting.

For LSU that process began in the fall, when Allen, met with the team for the first time, until now with the No. 15 seeded Tigers (54-12) set to face No. 2 seeded Arizona (47-9) in the best-of-three NCAA softball super regional this weekend.

The first game is set for 7 p.m. CDT today at Hillenbrand Stadium followed by Saturday’s 8 p.m. game with a third, if necessary, set for 10:30 p.m.

All three games will be televised live by ESPNU and broadcast locally in the Baton Rouge area by WNXX-FM, 104.5/104.9.

“In the fall she identified some things and said we had some issues, which we already knew,’’ Girouard said. “But when she came back in the second semester, she was beaming afterward. She said it wasn’t the same team, you’re not going to have a problem. This is a different team.’’

Why?

“They just were more confident,’’ Girouard said.

The basis of that conviction was shaken to its foundation in the wake of LSU’s 31-23 season, a mark that included a program-worst eight-game losing streak, and ultimately ended without an eighth consecutive trip to the NCAA regionals.

“We all knew something was missing and that we needed to do something different,’’ junior pitcher Emily Turner said. “That’s why we told the coaches whatever they had to do, we were willing to do it. We wanted them to put us in a different place like the one (College World Series) in 2004.’’

To get back there Allen asked the team to create a set of building blocks to follow. Without hesitation the focal point turned to the circle and the team’s pitching which was seventh in the Southeastern Conference with a 2.51 earned run average.

“It was the unspoken thing,’’ Girouard said. “Everyone knew it but we never said it out loud as a team because you don’t want to offend the pitchers. It just flat came out and the pitchers knew it.’’

The first part in that chain became what the team referred to as a solid nucleus, the camaraderie between the pitchers and catchers.

“It had to start with those two positions and from there we could go forward,’’ Girouard said.

That was followed by a collective trust, a shared vision for greatness and the adoption of a “Refuse to Lose” attitude.

“She said we had to go and show them the real Tigers,’’ senior co-captain Stephanie Hill said. “She said we had to shock the world because people would still think we were same team as last year.’’

It did not take LSU long to find positive reinforcement in Allen’s words along with a stricter, more rigid weightlifting and conditioning program.

The Tigers twice defeated Pac-10 power and super regional participant Washington at Tiger Park, went 2-3 in the prestigious Palm Springs (Calif.) Invitational where they dropped a pair of down-to-the-wire games to UCLA and Stanford, both of whom are competing in super regionals. They followed that up in early March with a pair of victories at Oklahoma.

“Palm Springs was a great thing where a lot of people emerged,’’ Turner said. “Even though we had some tough losses it opened our eyes that we could compete again with the elite teams.’’

Arizona coach Mike Candrea, whose team took part in the same tournament, has taken notice of LSU’s about face.

“It looks like they’ve had a great year,’’ Candrea said “They’ve kind of turned things around. Last year they struggled. I think that’s a tribute to the coaching staff, that they were able to get this team to believe in themselves and turn it around.’’

Two weeks after the Palm Springs event LSU suffered an 11-0 loss in five innings to Georgia in what was billed as a key SEC series. A year ago such a result would have been too devastating to rebound from but the Tigers, following a 1-0 setback in the second game, finished the series with a 3-0 victory behind Turner, who has gone on to a 27-7 record and 0.83 ERA.

LSU reeled off 13 straight wins after that. The Tigers won 19 of their next 22 games, including taking two of three at SEC champion Alabama, before eventually advancing to the SEC tournament final where they lost 3-0 to Tennessee.

“One of the big things that happened last year was when we got down we stayed down,’’ Turner said. “This year we’re playing Tiger softball.

That much was evident during last weekend’s regional where LSU rallied twice against the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for a 7-6 victory in 10 innings. The Tigers managed to do the same a day later, coming back from a 3-1 deficit for a 5-4 victory that was sealed in the bottom of the seventh inning to advance to their first super regional against one of the nation’s preeminent programs in Arizona, which swept through its own regional to host again.

“It’s worked out exactly to plan,’’ Hill said. “This is a great opportunity for us to go into a hostile environment, in front of the entire country, and prove ourselves.’’