North Carolina State University Athletics
Softball Q&A: Wolfpack coach Lisa Navas
4/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 27, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- Few teams in the ACC are as hot right now as the NC State women's softball team. Coach Lisa Navas' team has won seven in a row, matching the longest winning streak of the season, as it heads into the final homestand of the season, which happens to be against arch-rival North Carolina.
The hot-hitting Wolfpack (38-22 overall, 5-6 ACC) hopes to garner some attention against the Tar Heels (35-23, 8-7), who have won five in a row, and earn the school's first invitation to the NCAA Softball Tournament, a remarkable achievement for a program in its second year of competition. Navas, a former assistant at North Carolina and a former head coach at Division II Barry University, recently notched her 400th career victory with a 9-7 win over Virginia Tech on April 16.
The three-game series against the Tar Heels begins with a doubleheader Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the Walnut Creek Softball Complex in Raleigh and concludes Thursday at 7 p.m.
GOPACK: Do you always have kind of a weird feeling when you get ready to play North Carolina, since you used to be an assistant coach there?
COACH NAVAS:I am good friends with the coaches and we know a lot about each other's programs. I know a lot about their kids and that makes it different because we are in such close proximity. It's the rivalry between NC State and North Carolina that makes it big, though. A lot of the kids on our team and on their team have played together in the summer. That's what makes it a little more intense.
GOPACK:Congratulations, by the way, on getting your 400th career win. What does that mean to you?
COACH NAVAS: It's exciting. It's something that you will always remember, when you accomplish something like that and the team that did it with you. In some ways, it makes me feel old, but it is exciting. This is a crew that has accomplished so much. I knew how far away I was from it when I took the job here and I have to tell you that I never thought we would get here so quickly. It's a great feeling.
GOPACK: This is a two-year old program. To even be talking about the possibility of getting an NCAA Tournament berth is pretty impressive, isn't it?
COACH NAVAS: It is. A lot of people said last year that you have to be patient, you are probably going to lose a lot. But I just didn't understand how you go about teaching losing. So we have just gone out and each individual situation and taken each game at a time. We are still in that growing process. We have lost a lot of games this year that we should have won, but we just didn't have that perseverance that we needed. I would say there are about 12 games that we could have won and we would have been in a completely different situation. We are on the outside looking in, as far as the NCAA Tournament is concerned. I think people are recognizing our program. It is making a big difference. The kids get mad at me when I say it is a four- or five-year process, but they have to understand that we have to put our name on the map and then we have to beat these teams on a regular basis. We are being talked about a little bit, because we are doing well in the ACC and that is a tough conference. For us to be in a better situation, we would have to be sitting first or second in the conference heading into the ACC Tournament. We have a chance to knock some people off and continue to grow going into next year.
GOPACK: How did you go about recruiting to a program that was starting from scratch two years ago?
COACH NAVAS:I just tried to sell what I believe in and why I like to coach and that is that I want to be in the NCAAs and I want to win. I told them that these are the steps that we needed to take. We needed kids who believed in that and these were the steps that they needed to take to try to be the best possible player they could be. NC State was easy to sell. Coach Chuck Amato was doing well with the football program and we were on television every other week. Basketball was doing a phenomenal job. People knew about the school.
GOPACK: What do you think the reasons are for your team's seven-game winning streak heading into the series against North Carolina?
COACH NAVAS: We had the week off before we went to play Virginia Tech and we took some time just to work on some things. We just talked about getting back to basics. We realized that we were putting pressure on ourselves. We just needed to play. They had a relaxing week and we just got back to hitting the ball. Virginia Tech got us on a roll as far as hitting the ball and we started making some things happen. Right now, we are just having a good time together. The players are excited about this week and are continuing to play that same way. If we can hit the ball and score six or seven runs a game, that works for me.
GOPACK: What has been the most fun in establishing a new program?
COACH NAVAS: My players and the people who are around me might tell you that "fun" is really not a word that is part of my vocabulary. But we just have such a good group of kids. Every team has a different personality. We don't have problem players and individual players who are just out for themselves. Everyone enjoys working for the same thing.
GOPACK: What do you have to do in these three games against North Carolina to extend your winning streak?
COACH NAVAS: Carolina is playing well right now. If we keep hitting the ball the way we have been, then I think we can give them a run for their money. They will be favored, since they are third in the ACC and one of the top teams in the region. But I don't think our kids fear them. We are excited about the opportunity we have in these next couple of days.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
