To say Heather Tarr is competitive is an understatement. The coach of the University of Washington’s national champion softball team will enter her sixth season at the helm of the Husky squad. But she is as likely to harken back to the days she played Little League baseball with the boys as talk about her push to the top of women’s sports.

It was a time before there was girls’ teams, so Tarr played on a team made up mainly of boys. But she was good – and she knew it.

There was that one game, for instance, when the opposing pitcher, facing a bases-loaded situation, chose to walk the batter before her – and, of course, forcing in a run – in order to pitch to her. She promptly hit a grand slam.

She’s been hitting them out of the park ever since.

Tarr spoke to the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club about her experiences on Friday, Sept. 25.

The Redmond native and graduate of Redmond High School led the Huskies to the program’s first National Championship last year when her team defeated then-No. 1 ranked Florida, two-games-to-none, in the Women’s College World Series Championship Series. But the road to that victory – and Tarr’s success at the UW – didn’t come easily.

Tarr was a Husky from the start. She was a three-year member of the Pac-10 All-Academic team from 1994-97, she was named to the Pac-10 All-Conference team from 1995-97 and the NFCA All-West Region team in 1996 and 1997. In 1998, she moved to working as an undergraduate assistant coach during that season, The Huskies finished third that year at the 1998 Women’s College World Series.

Prior to the 1999 season, Tarr joined the University of Pacific and had a six-year stint there, starting as an assistant coach before being promoted to associate head coach in April of 2004.

That same year everything changed for Tarr. Her former coach at the University of Washington was fired and, as Tarr watched the process to replace her, she thought: I can do the job better than the people they’re interviewing. She sent in her own resume, but heard nothing back.

Undaunted, she called her former coach, got the name and cell phone number of the head of the search committee, and got herself an interview with him. The day they met, Tarr came prepared with a full plan of how she would turn the Husky program around.

Impressed, the head of the search committee asked her if he could have her report to show the full committee. No way, Tarr said. She wanted to interview with the committee in person. Several days later she got her chance. A month later, she was the new Husky coach. She took over in 2005.

The Huskies were a talented team, Tarr said, “but the program was damaged by the loss of the coach and an interim coach.”

At age 29, she was determined to change the culture of the team. One step was to make staff changes, not because the people were not good – they were friends of hers – but because the chemistry wasn’t conducive to building a winning program. A good fit, she knew, was better than talent.

For Tarr, that meant teaching the players “to fly as a team of geese.” Geese work together, she said. They change leaders when that one get tired. Everyone is accountable. Everyone is tough. She taught the team Husky Fever.

Under Tarr, the team began to work smarter. They began to pay attention to details and Tarr kept meaningful statistics that would determine starting lineups. Moving runners along became a key. So did quality at bats. It wasn’t emotional.

“Either the player performed or she didn’t,” Tarr noted.

As the Huskies moved into the playoffs this year, they faced a challenge. Because their home field didn’t have lights for night games, they were forced to play three weeks on the road. Tarr and the team decided not to shuttle back and forth to the campus between games. They became road warriors.

As they moved through the playoffs, they concentrated only on the next game. They swept through the Super Regionals, beating Georgia Tech before falling to Georgia in their first semifinal game. They came back to defeat Georgia before dominating Florida to win the title.

In addition to the accolades and the championship ring, Tarr has one more accomplishment to savor. Husky supporters have stepped up to provide the team the needed field lights. They’ll be installed on Oct. 19.

Craig Groshart is editor of the Bellevue Reporter. He can be contacted at 425-453-4233.