By Staff
Coaching Management, 13.9, October 2005, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm1309/qaharris-champer.htm
Before Lu Harris-Champer came to Georgia, the Bulldogs had a 115-123 record, with no Southeastern Conference championships or NCAA tournament appearances. In her five years as head coach, she’s transformed the program into a national contender, compiling a record of 259-93 (.736 winning percentage) with NCAA tournament appearances each of the last four seasons.
In 2005, Georgia finished one game short of the College World Series after winning its second regular-season SEC crown and an NCAA regional on its home field. The Bulldogs were ranked ninth in the final USA Today/NFCA poll with a 55-15 record.
A two-time SEC Coach of the Year, Harris-Champer had similar success at the University of Southern Mississippi, where she led the Golden Eagles to the 1999 and 2000 Women’s College World Series. Before that, she led the 1997 Orlando Wahoos to regular season and tournament titles while receiving honors as the Women’s Pro Fastpitch League Coach of the Year. In 1996 and 1997, in her first head coaching position, she guided Nicholls State to a pair of NCAA tournament berths.
A San Diego native, Harris-Champer played three seasons of softball at Western Illinois University, where she also served as an assistant coach after graduation. She is married to Georgia Assistant Swimming Coach Jerry Champer, and the couple’s twin daughters were born in August 2004. In this interview, Harris-Champer talks about setting high expectations, simulating game intensity, and balancing work and family.
How do you develop confidence among your players?
First, you look for athletes who are highly self-motivated. Then, you put them into practice situations that will help them feel prepared for competition. You use video to show them they can be successful over and over again at whatever you ask them to do.
How much do you count on your captains to lead the team?
We don’t name captains. We let those roles develop on their own, and by the end of the season it’s clear who the leaders are.
How do you help develop those leaders?
By putting them into situations where they can show their strengths and praising them when they do well.
How does your approach to the game vary from one year to the next?
It’s based on what our players are able to do. There was a time early last season when we had a lot of speed, and we were doing some great things with that speed. But by the time conference play started, we’d had some injuries, so we weren’t a fast team anymore—we were a power team. Our approach depends on the strengths of our team at any given time.
How do you make those adjustments during a season?
Sometimes you don’t have a choice. When someone is hurt, you have to fill their shoes. When something unexpected happens, it’s important to recognize that you have to change. As a result, we’re as hard, if not harder, on our weakest players as we are with our strongest. We’re only as strong as everyone on the team, not just the top one or two athletes.
How do you develop your backup players?
They’re put in situations they’ll to have to face in a game. If I know an outfielder is good at running down balls, I’m not just going to have a coach hit her fly balls. I’m going to have a batter hitting fly balls off a pitcher, so she can learn to read how the ball comes off the bat. That way, when I put her in a game, she won’t feel like she’s never faced the situation before.
How do you get practices to match the intensity of a game?
Actually, we try to be more intense in practice. We try to make practices fast-moving. They’re detailed, and every minute is accounted for. We also play music throughout practices, usually the Georgia band fight song CD, which helps keep our tempo up.
Why do you schedule games against such difficult opponents?
That’s the only way we can succeed in the Southeastern Conference. The SEC is so tough that if we’re not tested early, we won’t know what changes need to be made. Last year was perfect example. We played UCLA and Fullerton early in the season and won one out of five games. We felt like our stomachs had been ripped out, but we learned where we needed to improve. That led to a real attitude adjustment for the players, and when we played UCLA again in the regional, we did a much better job.
How do you approach your preseason program?
We do more technique work at the beginning of the week and more scrimmaging at the end. That way, they can put into play the things they’ve worked on all week. I really believe that in times of high stress, like in a big game, players revert back to what they’ve always done. So we push them in preseason to raise that level of play.
How do you help players deal with the high expectations that come with winning?
We set high expectations for our athletes in practice, in the classroom, and off the field. Hopefully, our expectations become their expectations.
You’ve drawn crowds of 1,000 and more. How does that fan support affect your players?
It’s fantastic, and it even helps us when we go on the road. I don’t think there’s anywhere we go where we feel intimidated. We play in a beautiful stadium, one of the nicest in the country, and we’re used to having large crowds.
How important is it for you to recruit within Georgia?
I think it’s very important. The school supports us in taking a nationwide approach, but I like to have as many players from the state as we can, because they understand what being a Georgia Bulldog is all about. They’ve grown up around it, and that helps with the heart and soul of the team. But it’s also important to have a good mix of people. In the pro league, I learned that athletes’ differences really end up being a team’s strengths. People who have played the sport in different areas of the country all have something special to bring to the table.
Will softball’s elimination from the Olympics have an effect on the sport?
A lot of girls dream of playing softball in the Olympics, but most of them compete because they love the game and secondly because they want to get a college scholarship. The Olympics and the pro league are wonderful, but our athletes need to go to college and get an education, so they can join the workforce and make a living.
After last season, your name was mentioned in connection with other coaching jobs. What made you stay at Georgia?
Just realizing how awesome Georgia is. One of the reasons I came here is because it’s great to see softball athletes who are provided with everything they need in order to succeed and graduate. They get the same academic assistance, the same medical treatment, and the same type of travel as all the other athletes here. All the support that makes a student-athlete’s life easier is available here at Georgia.
You have one-year old twins and your husband is an assistant swim coach. How you balance family and work?
Number one, my husband is awesome. Number two, we’ve learned to manage our time the best we can. Plus, we have supportive family members who come to town when we’re both on the road. We also have a great support staff here for both of us, and they do a fantastic job.
How have you changed as a coach since your children were born?
I’ve grown a hundred times more compassionate. If I’d known how awesome kids are, I probably would have had them a long time ago. As a team, we still do the same things we’ve done before, and our daily routine hasn’t changed on the field. But for me, there’s now a line between family and work, and that’s made my coaching better. I don’t take work home anymore, and I get more work done in the time I have at school. That way, I’m able to appreciate my kids and enjoy being with my family. It makes me a happier person, and that makes me a better coach.