When we think of a No. 1 ranked college athletic program, we may think of UNC, Duke or a team from a nationally known institution in other parts of the country. Most people probably don’t think about Louisburg College. Perhaps they should as the Louisburg College Hurricanes softball team is currently the No. 1 ranked team in the country. Eric Lee, who took over the Hurricanes program in 2017, was Thursday’s guest on SportsTalk. “It’s a good job,” Lee said of his position at the college.
Last year the Hurricanes led the nation in homeruns, not just at the junior college level but at every level including NCAA Division I. That’s an impressive achievement for any school but even more so from a small junior college like Louisburg. The college has a rich athletic history with names like Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice, baseball coach Russell Frazier, basketball coaches Enid Drake and Mike Holloman. “I’m honored to be at the school, but I don’t think of myself as being up there with those names,” Lee said.
With the recent success the college is spending $100,000 on upgrading facilities at the school. These upgrades will hopefully lead to more kids wanting to play at Louisburg. “You can recruit here,” Lee said. One of Lee’s goals is to recruit locally as much as possible from not only Franklin County but the surrounding counties of Wake, Vance, Warren and Granville Counties. “We’ve had success recruiting locally. A lot of students want a traditional college experience,” Lee added.