LSU’s softball team has finally finished the longest one-mile move in program history.The opening of the new Tiger Park last week marked the end of a long saga for LSU coach Yvette Girouard, who lobbied for new softball facilities not long after her hiring in 2001.”This is something that obviously this program has waited on since its inception, something that was promised to us nine years ago, so we are finally seeing it come to fruition,” Girouard said. “We were probably the last program in the [Southeastern Conference] to build a stadium, and as it’s said and done, there’s no question in mind that our stadium is probably the prettiest in the country now … I couldn’t be prouder of it.”Girouard has been telling her teams since 2004 they would be playing in this state-of-the-art facility.Emily Turner, reporter for NBC33 TV and a former LSU pitcher, said Girouard recruited her to be part of the first class to play in the new stadium.”My most vivid memory is that Coach Girouard used it as a way to recruit me,” Turner said. “We were supposed to be the first class to play on the new field, which excited me. But it obviously didn’t happen with all the setbacks.”A list of interruptions, including financial setbacks caused by Hurricane Katrina, held up the construction for more than just Turner’s class.Killian Roessner, All-American catcher for the Tigers’ 2008 team, did not think she would end her career in the old Tiger Park.”We thought it would be done my sophomore year, but then Katrina happened,” Roessner said. “We didn’t hold any bitterness at all — we just thought that what’s meant to be will be.”Now an assistant coach at Memphis, Roessner said “it would be great” to be a part of the stadium’s opening, but she wouldn’t trade where she is “for the world.””I put in my time at LSU,” she said. “Basically, I’m glad I ended on the field I started on.”Roessner isn’t the only one who won’t be holding grudges. Her former teammate, second baseman Shannon Stein, said no one could have controlled Hurricane Katrina’s effects on LSU, and that a new stadium was “not the main reason” she chose LSU.Turner also said she didn’t regret not playing in the new stadium.”Absolutely not,” Turner said. “My best memories in all my 23 years came at [old] Tiger Park. Of course we joked that it would be nice to have the new stadium … but I don’t think it would have been the same if I’d split two years in the old park and two in the new. [Tiger Park] was the old field across from the natatorium and my old apartment and that’s how I’m going to remember it.”Fortunately for Girouard’s conscience, the 2009 Tigers have finally made the trek from the West Campus Apartments area to Skip Bertman Drive.”Every recruiting class was promised this park, and I’ve apologized to every one of them,” Girouard said. “I really thought it was going to happen in ‘06, but it didn’t. Such is the nature of life, and that was the whole purpose of having [former players] on the field with us the first night. Because of them the program is what it is.”But the “old park” isn’t completely gone from the Tigers’ roster. Junior outfielder Jazz Jackson is one of six starters remaining from last season. One week into the new era, she said, “Coach   Girouard did it up right.””I’m just proud to see where we came from,” Jackson said. “I played at the old Tiger Park. This isn’t the only stadium I’ve ever played in. It makes me really proud to be a part of this.”
 
 
 
—-Contact David Helman at [email protected]