Father, Daughter Make Good Team at Chapman

Chapman’s Lisle Lloyd didn’t plan to become one of the winningest college softball coaches in the nation. In fact, he never set out to be a softball coach at all.

It all started in the late 1960s as a way to spend more time with his daughter Janet. She had started playing in the Tustin Bobby Sox League and Lloyd, noticing a scarcity of good coaching, decided that despite his lack of experience he could do better.

When Janet moved on to Tustin High, Lloyd continued coaching Bobby Sox for several years. After Janet graduated from Tustin in 1978, he became the coach at Foothill High, and a year later he moved over to Tustin and led the Tillers to three consecutive league titles.

In 1983, Chapman needed a softball coach and Lloyd took over.

Long before then, he had been hooked by this part-time career. His primary business was a service station he owned in Orange, but his heart was on the field.

“It got to where it started interfering with my softball, so I sold it,” Lloyd said.

In Lloyd’s second season at Chapman, Janet transferred from Cal State Fullerton. She had led the nation in home runs and had been an All-American for the Titans but transferred after knee surgery.

Lloyd didn’t have an assistant coach, so with Janet as a player-coach, the Panthers finished 45-29-1 and advanced to the NCAA regionals before losing to UC Riverside and Cal State Northridge.

The next year, Lloyd hired Janet as an assistant. Now more than a decade later, Lloyd, 71, is the dean of the Chapman coaching staff.

Lloyd, who coached one season at Christ College Irvine (now Concordia University) in 1989, was 344-267-2 before this season, putting him eighth on the NCAA victory list for active Division II coaches.

Since returning to Chapman, he has had to adjust with the program, taking it from a team that had most of its players on athletic scholarships to one without athletic scholarships today. In 1991 during the transition, the Panthers were the top-ranked Division II team in the nation for part of the season.

Janet, still an assistant, has taken over many of the day-to-day responsibilities. She teaches the fundamentals and plans and runs the practices. Lisle coaches third base and handles the recruiting--his specialty.

“I would have to say he’s the best recruiter I’ve ever seen,” Janet said. “People are amazed that we get the kind of athletes we get with no scholarship money at a $24,000 school.”

Janet says the father-daughter coaching team helps build a family atmosphere for the Panthers. When she and Lisle argue, she has heard players say, ‘It’s just like me and my dad.”

Said Janet: “We have our little spats here and there, but he’s the man. He’s a 71-year-old man who has his ways set but he knows how to get victories.”

Lloyd, who played football and ran track at Newport Harbor High before graduating in 1940, said he plans to keep coaching several more years. He hopes to reach some coaching milestones along the way. With at least 11 games left this season, he is 34 victories short of 400.

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The Lloyds have been surprised at how well this year’s team has played. The Panthers are 22-11 entering the UC San Diego tournament today through Sunday.

But they are chomping at the bit about next season, which will be the Panthers’ first as an NCAA Division III independent.

“It’s definitely where we belong because without scholarships you can’t compete against Bakersfield and the other big schools,” Lisle said.

“We’re going to be very strong next year. I haven’t said this to anyone yet, but I will be really surprised if we don’t win the national championship. I really think we have the team to do it.”

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Concordia’s LaSondra Kellum was named the NAIA District 3 softball player of the week after batting .500 in two games. Kellum, a junior catcher from Carson, was four for eight with a home run, six runs batted in and two runs scored as the Eagles split a doubleheader with San Diego.

Southern California College remains in first place in the Golden State Athletic Conference softball race. The Vanguards (28-6, 6-1), who are ranked 10th in the latest NAIA national poll, play on Saturday at Point Loma Nazarene.

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Concordia (12-19-1, 3-5) could get back into the GSAC baseball race with a doubleheader sweep at home Saturday, but the Eagles are facing one of the conference’s strongest teams, Point Loma Nazarene (22-8, 4-3), which is ranked sixth in the NAIA.

The Point Loma program has been bolstered by the hiring of former Eagles’ Coach Scott Sarver as associate coach. Sarver moved to Point Loma last season and helped it advance to the NAIA World Series where the Crusaders finished third.

Southern California College (11-21, 1-7) plays at Azusa Pacific.