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Alyson Habetz: Coming Home to Lead Louisiana Softball with Faith, Purpose and Heart
Alyson Habetz, head coach of Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Softball, joins Discover Lafayette to share the remarkable journey that brought her from the baseball fields of Crowley to collegiate and professional competition, a 25-year coaching career at the University of Alabama, and ultimately back home to lead the program where her softball story began.
We were honored to have legendary coach Yvette Girouard join us for this conversation. Girouard founded the Ragin’ Cajuns softball program and coached Alyson during her years as a student-athlete at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Their affection for one another, their competitive spirit, and their deep love for Louisiana softball shone throughout the interview.
A Childhood Built Around Baseball
Alyson grew up in Crowley as the youngest of eight children. With four older brothers who played baseball and a father who coached the sport, the ballpark felt like home from her earliest years.
“It was the sport in the house. I just fell in love with it at a very early age.”
She began playing T-ball at age seven as the only girl on an otherwise all-boys team. Because she had grown up playing alongside the same boys, Alyson recalls that her teammates accepted her based on the things that mattered to them: “Can she hit? Can she throw? All right, let’s go.”
At age ten, Alyson met Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda at Blackham Coliseum. She asked him to autograph her glove, and despite members of the media pressing him to move along, Lasorda stayed, signed the glove, spoke with her, and gave her his business card. Alyson wrote to him, and he answered every letter. The two became lifelong friends, with Lasorda signing his letters, “Love, your adopted uncle Tom Lasorda.”
He also saw something in Alyson that she did not yet see in herself. “He told me a long time ago I was going to be a coach,” she recalls. “I’m like, no, I’m going to law school. I’ll be an attorney.”
Fighting for the Right to Play
When Alyson entered Notre Dame High School in Crowley, the school did not have a softball team. She expected to continue playing baseball with the boys she had competed alongside for years, but she was told Louisiana rules did not permit girls to play on boys’ teams.
Her coach and principal sought an exception, but the request was denied. On the ride home from Baton Rouge, Alyson’s father told her the family would support her if she wanted to challenge the rule in court. She agreed, beginning a legal battle that lasted roughly two years.
The original ruling went against her, but her attorneys appealed. Alyson was sitting in class near the end of her sophomore year when her coach received the news: “Aly, by the way, they changed the rule. You can play.”
Alyson went on to play baseball during her junior and senior years, becoming the first female in Louisiana to play high school baseball and earning all-district honors as a pitcher and first baseman. She was also an all-state basketball player and the salutatorian of Notre Dame’s 1990 graduating class.
Discovering Softball at USL
Alyson came to USL on a basketball scholarship and eventually became a member of the 1,000-point club. One day, while walking across campus, she noticed what looked to her like “this miniature baseball field” and learned that walk-on tryouts were being held for fast-pitch softball.
With her basketball coach’s permission, she showed up and met head coach Yvette Girouard and assistant coach Patrick Murphy. Alyson told them she played first base, then positioned herself behind the bag as she would have in baseball. Girouard quickly corrected her: “This isn’t baseball, girl. You’ve got to play way up here for the slappers.”
The larger ball, underhand delivery, different release point, and defensive positioning required an adjustment. Still, Girouard immediately recognized Alyson’s ability. “She was a natural,” Girouard says. “We knew she was making the team.”
Alyson competed in both basketball and softball, at times traveling extraordinary distances to meet the obligations of both teams. She also excelled academically, earning Academic All-America recognition while majoring in communications.
Her softball career included third-team All-America honors and a place on the 1993 team that made the program’s first appearance in the Women’s College World Series. Alyson vividly remembers walking onto the field in Oklahoma City and seeing a sea of Ragin’ Cajuns fans.
“There are no fans like the Ragin’ Cajun fans.”
As other teams were eliminated, many of their supporters became Cajun fans, drawn to the warmth of the Louisiana contingent, the food shared in the parking lot, and the Mardi Gras beads handed out by supporters. Girouard remembers that first World Series appearance just as clearly: “Till the day I die, even if I have Alzheimer’s, I think I will remember that.”
For Alyson, reaching the World Series also meant helping Girouard realize the dream she had built from the ground up.
“You just wanted it for her because she was a Louisiana girl. She’s a Cajun and she built the program.”
Professional Baseball and 25 Years at Alabama
After college, Alyson returned to baseball. She pitched for the Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-women’s professional baseball team managed by Hall of Famer Phil Niekro. Alyson spent three years with the Silver Bullets, barnstorming across the country and playing in major league parks, before joining the Long Beach Aces as a pitcher and first baseman, for which ommy Lasorda helped open the door for her tryout.
When Patrick Murphy became head coach at the University of Alabama, he called Alyson and asked her to help build the young softball program. She planned to stay only a couple of years before returning home for law school. Instead, she remained for 25 years.
“I never thought coaching would fill me so much. They’re away from home for the first time, you’re just a part of their journey. And I love the game. Having an impact on college athletes, it was special.”
Alabama had no softball stadium when Alyson arrived. The team played at a city park, set up portable outfield fences, and even sprayed ant piles before games. Alyson and Murphy helped build the program into a national power. Their Alabama teams won six SEC regular-season titles, five SEC Tournament championships, advanced to 14 Women’s College World Series, and captured the 2012 national championship, the first in SEC history.
The Call to Come Home
Alyson stepped away from coaching after the 2023 season following her father’s death. Her parents had been married for 65 years, and she felt called to return home and care for her mother. Although leaving Alabama was difficult, she found purpose in spending that time with her mom.
When the Louisiana head coaching position opened in 2024 with the departure of Coach Gerry Glasco, her phone starting ringing. Alyson’s answer was repeatedl ‘no.’ She had retired for a reason, and she had never aspired to become a head coach. While driving across the Atchafalaya Basin one day, however, she began to wonder whether the job might actually be good for her mother, giving her games to attend and something joyful to anticipate.
Still anxious about the decision, Alyson drove directly to the Adoration Chapel at St. Michael’s in Crowley to pray. She ultimately felt that God was making the answer unmistakable.
“I realized that faith is whenever you go out into the deep, into the scary stuff that you don’t really think you can do, that you really trust Him.”
Once she accepted, the anxiety gave way to peace. Louisiana officially named Alyson the fifth head coach in program history on June 25, 2024. Her return also created a beautiful gift for her family. The University opened a viewing panel in a suite at Lamson Park so Alyson’s mother could sit in her recliner and watch her daughter coach.
Building a Team with Equal Value and Equal Love
Alyson is fiercely competitive and deeply aware of the standard established by Coach Girouard and sustained by generations of Cajun players and fans. Yet she does not want winning to come at the expense of the people entrusted to her.
“I didn’t want being a head coach to change me.”
Her players are her “why.” She wants each young woman to leave the program as a better version of herself, whether she becomes an All-American or serves the team in other ways.
With only nine athletes on the field, every team has more players waiting than playing. Alyson calls the willingness of those role players to put the team first a “death to self.” Their energy, observation, encouragement, and ability to help from the dugout can determine whether a team wins.
“I will love and value and appreciate you, whether you’re the pinch runner or you’re the four-time All-American. It’s equal value, equal love.”
She begins with each player’s fingerprint, a reminder that no one else who has ever lived has precisely the same one. If God is that intentional about a fingerprint, Alyson tells them, He is equally intentional about their gifts, talents, and opportunities.
“If you’re not here, guess what? The world misses out on a purpose and a greatness that only you can have.”
That belief also helps young women resist the destructive comparison encouraged by social media. “Compare leads to despair,” Alyson says. When players become secure in their own gifts, they can experience genuine joy in a teammate’s success. “That’s when the magic happens.”
Character is also central to recruiting. “If I make a mistake on a kid, I always want it to be on talent and not character,” Alyson says. She looks for versatile athletes, strong pitching, speed that can create chaos for a defense, and powerful hitters, but never apart from the character required to strengthen the entire team.
Facing Breast Cancer with Faith
In one of the interview’s most personal moments, Alyson speaks candidly about her breast cancer diagnosis. She noticed something did not feel right during the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in May and promptly arranged a mammogram. An ultrasound and biopsy confirmed cancer.
Even as she met with physicians and began treatment, Alyson remained focused on caring for her mother, protecting her players, and managing the critical transfer portal recruiting period. She initially told only a small circle of family members and colleagues because she did not want her mother, whom she describes as a worrier, to carry that fear.
Alyson shares that her prognosis is good and that she has benefited from major advances in treatment. At the time of this interview, she had completed four of six planned chemotherapy treatments, with surgery and possible radiation to follow. She expressed profound gratitude for the patients and researchers whose journeys helped make today’s treatments possible, as well as for the support of her physicians, family, friends, staff, and her dedicated “cold cap pit crew.”
“There was no part of me that feels like I’m not getting through this and that anything’s going to change.”
Her faith remains the foundation beneath that confidence. Alyson finds peace in prayer, adoration, and daily Mass whenever possible. As she tells her players, “You don’t want me without Jesus, I promise you.”
A Cajun Story of Courage, Calling and Home
Alyson’s life has rarely followed the script she once imagined. She planned to play for the Dodgers and later attend law school. Instead, she helped change the rules for girls in Louisiana sports, became a two-sport college athlete, played professional baseball, helped build an SEC softball dynasty, and returned to Acadiana to lead a program that helped shape her.
“None of my life has been my plan. But again, I could not have written the script any more beautifully and any more fulfilling.”
We thank Coach Alyson Habetz for sharing her inspiring story with such openness, faith, and humor, and Coach Yvette Girouard for adding her priceless memories and perspective to this conversation. We wish Alyson continued healing and every success as she leads Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Softball into its next chapter.
Learn more about Louisiana Softball, its coaches, schedule, tickets, and program news at RaginCajuns.com.
Discover Lafayette is recorded at Rader Solutions Studios. Special thanks to our producer, Jason Sikora.
