June 1, 2010

By Jim Whiting

Special to NCAA.com



SEATTLE – Job-seekers in today’s troubled economy can identify with
Heather Tarr, coach of the defending Women’s College World Series
champion Washington Huskies.



When the school fired coach Teresa Wilson, who had led the Huskies to
national prominence after founding the softball program in 1993, in
the wake of a prescription drug scandal in 2004, Tarr sent in her
resume. And waited. And waited. And waited.



The lack of response wasn’t entirely surprising. The school sought a
big name as Wilson’s replacement. While Tarr had distinguished herself
as a third baseman for the Huskies in the mid-1990s, playing in the
Women’s College World Series championship game in 1996, she was still only 29. And her only coaching experience, besides a year as a Washington volunteer assistant, had been as an assistant at Pacific.



On paper, that was nowhere near what the committee charged with
selecting Wilson’s successor had in mind.



But Tarr is nothing if not self-confident. In her mind, she had one
huge intangible: being a part of the Husky softball program virtually
from its inception and an integral element in its success.



And imaginative. A three-time member of the Pac-10 All-Academic team,
Tarr dug out a photo of herself as an 8-year-old standing next to
then-Washington football coach Don James, arguably the most revered
head coach in school history. Along with a shot of herself in her
Husky uniform and a large question mark, the James photo was on the
cover of a “business plan” she put together.



That plan – a detailed description of her approach to coaching laying
out virtually everything from her overall philosophy to individual
workouts and how she would handle recruiting – was the steak to the
cover’s sizzle. Along with unsolicited testimonials that began
flooding into Seattle from people who knew Tarr, the plan made the
search committee sit up and take notice.



Tarr’s wait was over. She was called in for an interview, which
rocketed her to the top of the list. The final step came when she won
over Todd Turner, the newly appointed athletic director.



Tarr made no secret of her differences with Wilson, who had a
reputation as a hard-driving disciplinarian. Tarr casts herself as a
“player’s coach.” And unlike Wilson, who alienated many Washington
high school coaches by filling her roster largely with out-of-state
talent, Tarr picks the best local athletes.



Soon after her appointment, Tarr secured her first recruit. It was a
pitcher from Langley, B.C., named Danielle Lawrie.



Lawrie entered the program in 2006 and put up good if not spectacular
numbers: 23-16, a 1.44 ERA and 387 strikeouts. The next year she went
31-13 with a 1.54 ERA and 457 strikeouts as the Huskies made their
first trip to the College World Series under Tarr, winning their first
two games before dropping a pair to eventual champion Arizona.



Lawrie redshirted the next year to prepare for the Olympics as a
member of the Canadian team. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Huskies
didn’t make it out of regionals. And Lawrie didn’t make it off the
bench in Beijing. The experience was a revelation for her and made her
prize her relationship with Tarr even more.



Things came together for Tarr and the Huskies in 2009. Lawrie went
42-8, had a 0.97 ERA and fanned 521.



Because the Huskies’ home field didn’t have lights, Tarr’s geography
major at Washington came in handy. The team traveled to Massachusetts
for the regionals, winning a legendary 15-inning, win-or-go-home game
against UMass with Lawrie throwing an astonishing 251 pitches.



Rather than coming home and then flying to Georgia for the super
regional, the Huskies elected to remain on the road. The nearly
7,000-mile odyssey continued as they headed for Oklahoma City and
eventually the national title.



To prevent a recurrence, a group of donors funded a full set of
stadium lights. As a result, the Huskies played both regionals and
Super Regionals at home this year.



They nearly squandered that advantage in the Super Regional, losing a
6-1 smackdown in the opening game as Oklahoma slammed five homers off
Lawrie – 38-2 coming in with a 0.94 ERA – in her worst performance of
the year. The Husky bats went AWOL as well, with a seventh-inning
ground single the only ball that left the infield.



Yet Tarr’s demeanor belied any notion that she was panicked, that her
team seemed on the verge of a meltdown.



“I think if we had played with our hair on fire a little bit more from
the first inning, we might not be in the first press conference [when
the losing team appears] right now,” she cracked.



More seriously, she added: “Tomorrow’s a new day. We’ll see how much
fight we have in us, and I think we have a lot of fight in us. We’re a
good team.”



Tarr’s confidence was contagious. Step 1 was sitting down with Lawrie
immediately and watching the game film to get her poor performance out
of her system. With Lawrie bouncing back the next evening with two
shutouts and some timely hitting from her teammates, the Huskies
punched their ticket to Oklahoma City, where they will play Georgia in the first round on Thursday.



Tarr, still only in her mid-30s, appears likely to have a long and
stellar career ahead of her. Sometime in the future, that old photo of
her with Don James could take on a whole new meaning.


“There’s Heather Tarr when she was a kid,” people might observe. “But
who’s the guy standing next to her?”



HEATHER TARR’S RECORD AT WASHINGTON
2005: 35-22, won regional, lost in super regional
2006: 35-25, won regional, lost in super regional
2007: 42-19, won regional, won super regional, won first two games at WCWS
2008: 30-25-1, lost in regional
2009: 51-12, national champions
2010: 50-7, won regional, won super regional