Kristen Hobbs knelt behind the plate Thursday, glove in hand, waiting for the curve ball to come her way. It is a familiar position for Hobbs, a former catcher for the LSU softball team from 2004 to 2007. But instead of wearing a purple and gold jersey, Hobbs has a different role now as a student-coach for the team while she works on her master’s degree in sports management. “It was almost like a given that we would want her around as long as we could get her,” said LSU coach Yvette Girouard. “She doesn’t want to leave anything, and we don’t want her to.” Hobbs said she first thought about a student-coaching position when she found out she could graduate in four years. She had seen other girls stay around after the end of their eligibility and thought it might be a good fit for her too. “I enjoy coaching, and I helped out with travel team two summers while I was playing, and I just liked it so much,” Hobbs said. “I enjoy doing the camps and stuff – that’s when I got into coaching and helping out.” When she asked, Girouard immediately agreed to put her on staff in a volunteer position. Hobbs also chose to stay in Baton Rouge because of her boyfriend, LSU junior pitcher Nolan Cain. “We’ve been together for about three years now, so it’s great to still have her around,” Cain said. “I didn’t know with her graduating last year where she would end up. She’s been playing softball forever. I think getting to coach and stay around the girls is just a great opportunity.” Girouard said Hobbs has been around the field for so long, coaching was the natural next step. Because of her former position, Hobbs is able to help out in the bullpen when the team needs an extra catcher. “She’s been around me so long that she helps the pitchers also,” Girouard said. “She’s heard me say the same things for four years – now five – so that helps.” Hobbs also does some office work, but she said the hardest part of coaching is being unable to control what happens on the field. “This weekend it was so hard for me not to throw on a jersey and run out there,” she said of the series against Georgia. “It gets to me every once in a while. Now I kind of understand why the coaches get so aggravated at times. We ultimately have no control over what happens on the field.” But Hobbs said the transition was relatively easy because the coaches always kept her in the know in previous seasons, especially this past season as a co-captain. Girouard said as a former player, Hobbs is a good liaison between the coaching staff and the players. “I like the fact that the girls still use me as a communication network to the coaches,” Hobbs said. Just one year removed from calling games, Hobbs said she realized very quickly how fast the opportunity to play passes. She said she misses playing but is glad to be associated with softball in any capacity. “Coach Girouard says it all the time: ‘You only get so many chances to put the jersey on,'” she said. “As a player, you take it for granted, and then the day it’s gone you go back and say, ‘Wait a minute. She was right.'” Hobbs was a big influence on the Tigers’ success in the past four years, including two-straight trips to the NCAA Super Regionals and Southeastern Conference Tournament titles in 2004 and 2007. LSU won at least 55 games in three of Hobbs’ four seasons on the team. Hobbs was named to the SEC Good Works Team in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and received the Brad Davis SEC Community Service Scholarship as a senior. “When you do the right thing on the field, off the field, with your teammates and your coaches and in the classroom, that’s obviously somebody you want holding that student-athlete coach spot,” Girouard said. “She’s one of those people that you look back and say she’s a better human being than she is a softball player, which is … really what you want to be remembered for.” Hobbs said at first she felt weird telling her former teammates what to do, but she said they seem to trust her as much as a coach as they did as a player. They still call her by her last name. But Hobbs, who hopes to one day become a full-time coach, is a different person now. “It’s a cool change,” she said. “You’ve got to grow up sometime, I guess.”
—-Contact Krysten Oliphant at [email protected]