Episode #96: Venus Taylor

Venus Taylor: From Pro Softball Star to Championship Coach & Mentor

From winning an NJCAA Division I National Championship in her very first year as a college coach to leading programs at the Division I level, Coach Venus Taylor’s coaching journey is as remarkable as her playing career. Now the head coach at North Central College, Venus continues to shape the game through her leadership, mentorship, and ongoing work with the Athletes Unlimited Softball League in partnership with Major League Baseball.

In this episode of the Significant Coaching Podcast, Venus shares how her experiences as a professional athlete, a college coach, and a mom have molded her into the leader she is today. We discuss why JUCO, NCCAA, and D3 softball should never be overlooked, the non-negotiables in her program, and the lessons she passes on to every athlete she coaches.

If you want insight into building a winning culture, leading with purpose, and preparing athletes for life beyond the field, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Don’t forget: If you enjoy this episode, come back Monday for Part 2, where we’ll dive deep into the recruiting process and finding the right fit for your journey.

📍 Learn more about my coaching and recruiting resources, read my weekly blog, and subscribe to the newsletter at coachmattrogers.com

Transcript

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What really stood out to me is just the ambassadors of the sport, like your Jenny Finch, Natasha Watley, those type of players, and there's many more that are paving the way, but also MLB has decided to be a partner for the first time ever, and I think step in the right direction. Yeah. So just, seeing it on the MLB channel obviously the coverage on ESPN everybody's working hard to make sure that this league sustains and that, we elevate and it's been really fun to be a part of, Welcome back to The Significant Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Rogers. What you just heard was Venus Taylor talking about the new professional softball league that most of you have probably seen on an ESPN, the Athlete's Unlimited Softball League, the A USL. And the important work they're doing in partnership with Major League Baseball to make sure this league isn't just a flash in the pan, but a sustainable, thriving opportunity for the game and its athletes for years to come. Venus doesn't just talk about it. She's living it. Continue to play a major role in its growth and impact. If you don't know her story, coach Taylor is one of those rare people who has seen the game from every possible angle. A standout collegiate player, a decorated professional athlete, a coach at nearly every level of sport from youth programs to powerhouse college programs, and now the head coach at North Central College, her coaching career began with a bang winning the junior college Division one National Championship in her very first year at Lake City Community College in Florida before moving on to the NCAA division one ranks. She's been in the circle, in the dugout, in the recruiting trenches, and in the lives of young women chasing big dreams. In this conversation, we dive into her journey, her coaching philosophy, and the lessons she's learned along the way. We'll also talk about why small colleges at the JC and D three and N AI levels of softball should be on every high school recruits radar and how her roles as coach, mentor, and mom have shaped the way she leads. This is a conversation packed with perspective, passion, and practical takeaways. So let's get into it. Here's my conversation with Coach Venus Taylor. Coach Taylor, so great to see you. Thanks for being on the show. Tell me about this role you've been playing with the A USL and tell people about what this Great League is doing. Yes. Thank you so much for having me. It's the Athletes Unlimited softball league. It's the professional softball league, and it's just providing this amazing platform. It's been so fun. They've been barnstorming this summer for trying to figure out which markets they'll be in next year. I think there'll be six markets at minimum next year. But it's just provided this amazing platform for these. Uniquely special and talented women who are coming outta college and wanna play at the professional level. And then also, still training at the Olympic level. And it's been just such an amazing experience and so much fun to watch. Kim Ing, who's, the commissioner of the league, and then also some amazing coaches involved, like Stacy Newman, Lisa Fernandez, Howard Dobson. Just a lot of people that we had the opportunity to work with. They're just very impressive people that have Kirk Walker, just great minds for the game and just everybody's really working hard to, give back to this amazing sport and provide that platform, like I said, and just help the game evolve. Because we feel like, these women can play, they're ballers, they're getting after it. And the viewership on TV has been amazing. These, high level college programs are getting a lot of viewership and a lot of publicity, and I think people really fall in love with our game. It's fast. The, it's what's even better is the women that play it, when you get to meet them off the field and just see what kind of people they are and how they relate to the kids and, the next generation and just really paying it forward, lifting everybody up, paying it forward. And it's really fun to be a part of. And I just think that it's providing a first class experience. And, there's been a lot of previous leagues I played in a couple professional leagues. That's actually where, I've met so many of my best friends. Learned a lot and just been really exposed. So that provides a great network along the way and coaching and just, all over. But to see it at this level, to see everything that they're able to offer, and the way that they're taking care of the athlete in regards to off the field as well. The meals and the strength and conditioning coach that's there, inaccessible and the trainers and, being able to fly instead of busing everywhere, they've really just done an amazing job. Of going all out and providing that first class experience, and it's been a lot of fun. You were a part of that defunct professional league that was coming right out of all the highlights of the Olympics and the momentum of the Olympic when the Olympic still was playing softball. What are you seeing the biggest changes are now and 20 some years later so we can maintain this and keep this going because I've been watching the games and they're just fantastic. So fun, right? Yeah. Yeah. I think the great thing about it is, you learn from your mistakes and, I think that we've done a great job of carrying forward everybody's voice and everybody's, knowledge and you know what will work and what won't work or what hasn't worked in the past. I think that social media has been a really big fun part of this, because I think it's exposed at a different level now because not only on tv, but you also, people know there's a league. They know you're coming to town. They can follow you on social media. And even. What really stood out to me is just the ambassadors of the sport, like your Jenny Finch, Natasha Watley, those type of players, but you, and there's many more that are paving the way, but also MLB has decided to be a partner for the first time ever, and I think that's a huge. Step in the right direction. Yeah. So just, seeing it on the MLB channel obviously the coverage on ESPN just, just really are, everybody's working hard to make sure that this league sustains and that, we elevate and it's been really fun to be a part of, like I said and I just think that everybody's invested and everybody that's come before us there's been so many, but everybody's provided feedback that's helped evolve. And so it's just great to see. It's awesome. And when you have Kim leading that league, she got such a raw deal. I don't know, for the Marlins and people don't know. She was the GM of the Miami Marlins just was a rockstar down there. And to have that type of person leading the league and being the commissioner and have all the stars here I love where this is going and it's softball has just blown up in our country. It's always been big, but with club volleyball or club softball now and where that's at. What the level of softball is from that junior college level all the way up and the talent there. It's such good timing. I really love it. It's cool. It is. They're rock stars. They're really impressive people. So yeah, anytime that anybody gets a chance to go to a market and see them and just be around'em, I highly recommend. Yeah, and it's, there's so much of that going on. I live in the Denver area and we've got a women's rugby professional league in our town, and we went and watched the women's rugby, and it was just, there's so much talent on the field that it's so fast and it's so physical. The crowd was so into it, and you could just tell watching it on tv, the softball games, the A USL softball games are just like, that's a party. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's great. It's a good time. Yeah. And they do a great job of involving the crowd and, just look at what's happening with the, what is it, the Savannah Bananas, yeah, exactly. Just there's marketship in this and there's, it's just great. I think the fans are really having a good time, but the athletes do a great job too, that personal touch. Like we've played the championship in Tuscaloosa and Montana Felt is pitching the championship game and she just has. Fans everywhere and, all these people come out to, to scream her name and shout her on, but she did amazing. But it was more important to me to see, she's very she takes it very serious about being a great role model to the young athletes. And she spends all night signing the autograph because, she knows somebody wanted, wants to be like her one day. And it's just I'm just blown away and in awe of the type of people that you'll meet in these athletes just as much as their talent. I agree. I, it's so much fun to see y you and I grew up in an era where there was no social media. We went through our college careers and our early coaching careers, and your professional playing career. There really wasn't that avenue. How do you feel about it now? How do you want your players using it? Where are you at with that whole world? I love it because, it's really exposed. It's exposed this game to people to know that we have this professional league in town and coming your way, and it gives you that insight to them as people, off the field and stuff like that. Now I believe in using it social media for positivity, and knowledge and stuff like that. Of course, when you, when you see in athletics, there's gonna be a lot of skeptics. There's gonna be a lot of people out there critiquing every little thing, that can be difficult for athletes at times to hear some of the things from the critiquing and things like that. But I hope that most people know that. Just take it with a grain of salt. Think about, you're great at what you do and just be the best version of you on and off the field, and nobody really knows you better than you. So a lot of people are gonna have their opinions. If you can hold your head up high and do great things, then you should feel good about yourself and not worry about that. But hopefully people use it as, knowledge and insight and a positive platform. And if it's done that way, it's done the right way. Yeah. Absolutely. What's it been like for you? You've been a big time division one coach. You've coached D three, you've coached junior college, you've coached at just about every single level. What are you seeing as the biggest differences from level to level? We'll get into the talent part and how you recruit, but what are you seeing as the biggest difference for the experience for the student athletes? Oh gosh, that's tough in where we're at today, because now we have the NIL money and all that stuff getting involved. I would say that. All the athletes really do wanna compete and they do love the game. They're all playing it for the right reasons. I think there is a separating factor in the level of commitment at different stages at times. Not to say that you can't get a division three player who's highly committed and wants to practice all the time, but I think there's a little bit more balance in the D three level, then the high level D one maybe. The traveling, you're a little bit closer to home base when you travel and stuff like that. But I would say the resources, I'm amazed by, and being involved with the talents. This is one thing, just the technology that we, that is accessible now at the high level. If you have the budget for it. It can really give you a lot of, input and data, analytical data that maybe the lower levels don't have. And so that can be a separating factor. But but, I think the great thing about all levels is, you're building women to be successful, men and women, but we're, we're really just, we're building up these people to go out and be successful and have a voice and, be the best version of themselves and succeed. And so to me it's all about no matter what level you're at, you can be a positive influence and a make a positive impact for anyone. And if your roster's 22 or 30, whatever it is, you are in a really cool position to impact people to go out and, just basically own their future, which is really neat. That is awesome. And it's such a, it's the great perspective for what we get to do is getting these kids to learn how to be the best version of themselves, how to be adults, how to be healthy, how to have a self-worth and you've been so great at that over your career. I'm interested from a personal perspective. Because you were such a great athlete, because you were such a great pro and a Division one athlete, you coached division one level. Is it hard for you when sometimes, and it was hard for me, so I'm putting this in context. Is it hard for you when sometimes you have athletes and maybe you don't, maybe you do, that aren't as committed to the game like you were. Do you find yourself struggling with that? Yeah, for sure. I think we can all admit that, I mean there's finding out, but it's also important for coaches to understand that. Everybody's different. And a lot of times you don't wanna prejudge, like people go through different things. And some players may not show it in the same way, but they really do care, but they maybe just don't show it in the same way. You know what I mean? So as I've gotten older and more experienced in coaching, I think it's. I've really taken more time to relate to the players, to know them on a personal level, and not to say I didn't do that before, but you really wanna take that deeper dive into knowing the person and what makes'em tick and how are they really feeling. And if you don't have those, that open door communication and allow them to be heard, you'll never really know. And you can misunderstand athletes a lot, I think that's really important. But yeah, I think that if you're somebody that likes to be like that top 1%, or a perfectionist I should say, or something like that, it can be easy sometimes to catch yourself being like they, they don't do it like I did it. Or, why is that person not more committed? Or why did they not take it more serious? But again, I, like I said, I like to take a deeper dive into the situation and find out was it just that day? How does this person tick? How do they operate? What are they really feeling? Because a lot of times I think it is easy to misunderstand people. I think that personal touch and putting the person over the athlete is really important for all coaches and I think we just get better in time, right? I think, when we're younger, we're really about winning. X's and o's and as we get older you really do a better job of really assessing things with a better lens, because when you're younger, just like they're young now, they don't see the big picture the way we see it at our age. So it's our job to convey that to them and be relatable for'em and make'em understand the whys. But but that takes a lot of communication, a lot of time and, that's to me, the fun part of it, yeah, it is. It very much is. I'm gonna put you in a time machine. It's been almost 25 years. You won the national championship as a head coach, your first year as a head coach at the junior college level. Yeah. And then immediately jump to the D one level for three years. When you look back at that coach that version of you, what's changed the most? Oh, I've gotten softer for sure. That's always the answer. Always. Yeah. I think I've gotten softer and every, all my former players will say it. They'll be like, coach, they don't As tough as we had it, but I think it's really just comes down to a better understanding of athletes and the generation and the way things have changed. And also, I'm a mom. So I have a son and I got to see his journey and see how he, that was a good thing for me because I can look at it and go okay, this is what he's thinking at this age. That wouldn't be what I'm thinking at this age, but this is what he's thinking. And to me, I look at it like, you're like that. That mother figure or that aunt, I like to call it an aunt for these young athletes. But you're just a very pivotal person in their life. Somebody that they trust and somebody that can help them, advise them and give'em direction and things like that. But I would definitely say. I'm more aware, I'm just more aware. I'm a little bit softer. But yeah, but I still believe in, you gotta work hard, you gotta be gritty, you gotta compete, you gotta be where your feet are. You gotta hold yourself to. A high standard every single day and just give the best that you have to give. Because sometimes that best looks different on different days. Like some days you're a hundred percent, sometimes you're 90'cause you have an injury or you're coming back from an injury or you're not feeling well, or something's gone on in your life that's personal. That maybe affects that a little bit. And as much as we always say, get between the lines and let it go, and stuff like that, I mean there is real life that goes along with. What they're doing. They're very overwhelmed for the first time with, being on their own. And then obviously managing classes and managing their time a little bit better. And but as a, as professionals when we're older, we're like what's the problem? We've done that, we know how to do it, so let us help you. And yeah, I think just you gotta a better lens as you get a little bit older. All right. Help me with this coach.'cause this I still struggle with this and I struggle with this. More than I'd like to admit you I grew up with some really hard coaches. Really probably to the extreme, definitely to the extreme, probably would've been fired in a heartbeat 30 years ago with how they treated the kids and how we went about how they went about their business. I'm still a big believer that we need to teach young people how to overcome conflict, how to overcome. It didn't work out the way I wanted to. I'm a freshman and I'm not starting like I was for two years at high school. How do we push them, challenge them, teach them how to get to their potential and still love'em, and still make sure they're nurtured and still make sure they get the love they deserve? How do we do that today? Yeah, I think it's all about accountability. You have to have structure, you have to have boundaries, you have to have accountability. It's just like good parenting, you know what I mean? Here comes the dog. It's like good parenting. I think that, when you have a disciplinarian that loves you and can show you, Hey, I gotta hold you accountable, but I still love you and I'm still here for you. I think that, that matters because you gotta be able to show'em. You care about'em. And once you do that, they understand when things come up that they're like, okay. I have to be held accountable for this, and I'm running into a consequence, and they will make mistakes. They're young people, but we don't need to hold them to the fire when they make a mistake. I look at it like, we all, we've all made mistakes, so let's talk about it from that perspective as well. But on the other hand, we don't just let things slide. You know what I mean? There's not a first place trophy for everybody. It's not, there's this participation thing. There really is only one winner. When it comes down to it, there's one champion at the end. Okay? And how you get there depends on a lot of factors. It depends on how you practice. It depends on the kind of people you are. It depends on the chemistry you have. It depends on, how you perform in that day and that moment, how you master failure recovery. Many several factors come into play on this, when building up to a championship and things like that. But, at the end of the day, there has to be discipline, there has to be structure, there has to be consequences, there has to be stability, there has to be coaches showing people that they care and, making sure that they're there for them and serve their purpose well as well. Yeah it's, we wanna win that championship. That's the whole purpose of what we're doing and why we play the game. But how do we not lose our self-worth with it when we don't win that championship, or we go six and 29 and have a bad year? How do we get the kids to understand? You're not a lesser person, but now you gotta start thinking about what you gotta do better. How do you reframe the off season for yourself so we're not back in that same position? How do you go about that when you're doing those exit interviews at the end of the year and, you guys had a really good year, but how do we get them thinking that way instead of, oh I'm terrible, this is a bad program. How do we get them thinking? I have the ability to make some changes here. It's all in the communication. We try to learn from everything, everything that, whether you win or lose, it's a learning experience, it doesn't make you any less, I do think that you have to ask yourself why did they win? Why did they win over us? Was it. They stayed in the moment better, they practiced harder. They, were more mentally tough to handle adversity. They just had better players, better athletes. What was it? Their co the coaching strategy. We really, it's a process, like everything's a process. So then you review the process and say, okay. Where were we strong? Where were we weak? And we learned from it, and then we explain that to them. Here's the areas you did well, here's the areas that we did not do well. Here's what we're gonna have to do different to get to that point. And I just think honesty is the best policy, and we're not gonna always say what everybody wants to hear, because there's times where you have to tell'em like, Hey. This is why I have somebody else in the lineup over you. And that's a hard conversation, but it's a conversation that comes from most coaches. It's honest with good intent, because you wanna see everybody. I think it's really important just to evaluate the process and what got us to that point, so whenever there's. Something that didn't go well. We're gonna learn from it and we're gonna talk about it and we're gonna go out and try to be better. And that's really what it comes down to. I think accountability's a big part of everything, and that goes for coaches included. Sometimes I have to look at myself and okay, did I plan this week the way I needed to plan this week for us to succeed against, the opponent that we played? What could we have done better? What could our staff have done better? But then also how do we relate, that to the athletes and communicate with them about what they could have done better. And, that ownership on everybody's part and just being able to have that open dialogue and open communication creates that buy-in. And I think that given players the voice and the autonomy come into your office and, obviously the player's not gonna tell the coach. Way it is. But we want their feedback, that helps us understand them better, and it helps us set up a system to where we can really go forward and make sure that e it's relatable to both sides, yeah, I love that. I'm gonna ask you to be as specific as you can, but where does the weight room. Fit into all this now maybe different than it did 25 years ago. How important is the weight room and what does that weight training look like in your program? Yeah, that's a great question. I'm a big believer that is so important from your ultimate strength, ultimate speed, being able to stay well balanced and to avoid injury and things like that. That is probably a major separator. If I look at the high level D one or even the mid-major D D one. Then look at the D three. We don't have those resources to provide that. So like for us, we outsource that. And then we have our players during our main season go into a strength and conditioning coach. However, we don't have that in-house, but I believe in it, and I always have, and I think it's very important. The way athletes move. The way they're trained. All of that comes down to a very fast twitch sport, which is what we play. Movements and being educated about your movements and things like that in your body and being able to function at that high level, I think it's very important to incorporate strength and conditioning coaches and have them help. Outside of, the softball aspect, just the game talent level alone because there's the Batten ball aspect and the fielding, and then there's, how does this athlete move? Where can they get better? Are they flexible enough? Can they jump high enough? Can they run fast enough? How can we, just get them that much better and how can we avoid injury? Because everybody's built different, especially in this sport. I think having strength and conditioning coaches who are really clued in on their bodies and in ways to train them, I think is very important. What does that look like during the season? How many days a week are you lifting and what type of lifts are they doing? Are you benching and squatting? Are you doing more ball work? Are you doing more twitch work? What's that look like just in the middle of the season? Yeah, I think in the middle of season it's different, you're not gonna lift heavy, obviously. You're not trying to max out, you're gonna use more ball, work, more, more twitch work and things like that. More free movement. But I would say that, you don't wanna lose everything that you worked hard to get in the off season, right? So for us, it's two days a week. During the season, because we play probably three to four days a week because our whole season is condensed in a very small timeline. So for us it's two times a week. That's really what we can get in. And then possibly three, depending on if there's a cancellation or something in the week. But I always, I would never go less than two just simply because we don't wanna lose everything that we worked hard to get. What do you tell a high school athlete who's probably playing 79 90 games a year if she's doing high school and club? What should she be doing to get herself ready to play in college? What maybe she's just hasn't put a lot of time in the weight room. Maybe her high school doesn't do it. What? What should be her mindset at 16 in terms of how to start building that relationship with the weight room? Again, this is where social media comes into play. You know what I mean? Not everybody can afford to go out and get a strength and conditioning coach, or not everybody has the time, but now you can Google or look up workouts that are sports specific for your position, and you can do that, and I think that really the main thing is utilizing your resources. If you can go into somebody, I know a lot of people go to a hitting coach. I'd love to see high schoolers really pay attention to their defense and their athleticism as well. It just seems like everybody's, pitching coach, hitting coach, pitching coach, hitting coach. Let's talk about, where are we working on our athleticism? Because I've seen camps where you go out to camp and you're like. Wow. That person can hit, but they really don't move well. You know what I mean? And those type of things when you're getting evaluated, you're, it's all encompassing. It's do you respect the people around you? Do you respect the game? Are you a great teammate? Do you hustle? Are you gritty? Are you able to master failure recovery? Do you move well in this, when we're watching and things like that. Because, softball's a tough thing when you're recruiting softball, baseball, you might not get a ball. The whole time that we're evaluating you, so we have to watch other things, and these are the type of things that we all watch, is like, how do you treat people? How do you treat your teammates? Do you hustle? When you don't do well, how do you handle that? Are you able to come back your next at bat and be able to do well and just move on from it? Or do you hold on it to the whole game? And I just think that, if you have the means to go out and make sure that you're well-rounded. Then you should do it. But if you don't, like I said, utilize your resources and do the best you can. Yeah. I tell kids all the time, you, you don't need a gym membership or a$60 an hour trainer. Get your butt up and do 20 pushups, get your butt up and do 10 minutes of yoga. Do you know, do 20 pullups a day, do yes, do some up downs every single day or every other day. It's amazing what, how your body can change if you're committed to just 10 minutes, 15 minutes every other day, every day, pushing yourself a little bit and keeping that athleticism up. Yeah, I love that. And that's the thing too I love that you tell him that, but it's also about consistency and discipline. That's right. I just think that it's really easy to say that we want to do something or we wanna be great, but do you have the discipline to do it every day? Do you have the discipline? And not to say that you shouldn't have a day off in the week. Yeah. But the point is we can, it is, if you're gonna talk about it, can you be about it? That was always one of my big things. If you're gonna talk about it, be about it. So if you say something, you have to mean it, and if you say you wanna be great, that requires work and you gotta put the work in for that. Yeah. And I don't wanna. You can't scroll on your social media for six hours a day and not get up so I think for younger athletes, making sure that they have a schedule, making sure that they're committed to it and that they're disciplined and then, yeah, of course you're gonna have free time and balance, but you can't skip your workouts and you can't skip the, what makes you great. You wanna sit and scroll for six hours, yeah. And that's, I think that's the hardest thing about social media and about, cell phones and things like that is, it's really easy for anybody to get caught up just sitting there looking on their phone. But the goal is to make sure is what kind of content are you looking at and is it helping better you, true. And I think that's important too, to ask yourself like, how many hours of my day, how many, I look at. Kobe Bryant, he always talks about how much he strategized, how much he trained, and he wanted to train three times more than the average. And that's what made him great. That's your top 1% mentality. That's the mama mentality. With these young athletes, it's like you gotta remind him Hey, you have to separate yourself. You have to go out on that field and do something that catches our eye different than everybody else. And. We can see the makings of a winner. It's pretty, it stands out, I don't think everybody looks the same on the field. There are things that stand out. So yeah, you have to be able to self evaluate and ask yourself, what am I doing to stand out? And, if I'm not doing that, what can I do better going forward? I love that. Yeah. It's, we use the phrase executive function skills. And the executive function skills aren't a 60 hour work week, it's. It's that organization on my calendar. I have an alarm that goes off that says every other day I gotta get up and I've gotta do 10 minutes of work. If you're doing that, if you're putting 10 minutes of work in every day or every other day, your body's gonna change. You're gonna be healthier. That's, I'm healthier at 50 than I was in my thirties because. I'm so more consistent now. I'm so much more routine now than I, I used to be, and not just with working out with my diet and, my sleep schedule and my work schedule. And I think if we can, if kids can understand that, I just gotta, I can scroll a little bit. I can be a mess around, but did I make my bet? Did I get up and do my 20 pushups? Did it, did I do a do I did do a five minute sprint routine. Did I get. 50 swings on a tee in my garage. You know what I mean? So I, those are all things I love that you, that's the, your focus and what you're thinking about, it's just such a big part of getting better. Yeah, for sure. A quality routine and just, really taking a look at, instead of just going through your days, you have to look at it and go, okay. My days are valuable, and what do I wanna do with them? And, I wanna have quality time in these areas, and things that are really important to me. And I think one of the things that my college coach did a great job of when we became freshmen is we had colored markers. We had a calendar hour by hour. We had color in. What it was that we were doing. So we could see, okay, we're in class at this time, we're at practice at this time, and then we could see where our free time was, and I thought it was just great way for time management and it helped us learn like real quick Hey, okay, here's the days we have a little free time and. Here's the days we don't, and so then we could manage our time a little bit better. And but I just think it's really important to be where your feet are. And if you wanna be great at something, have a routine, have some discipline, and stay consistent. And it's, if you're those things and you're driven, you know you're gonna be bound to succeed at whatever it is you're shooting for. Absolutely. Coach, you've done so well at so many levels and you continue to build programs and building programs at the division three level, especially when you don't have all the resources, there's gonna be fluctuation. From year to year because you don't have the money to go get six great players every year. Sometimes you get the players you get. Are there non-negotiables for you no matter what? Are there two or three standards that you absolutely won't compromise in your program? Yeah, like for me, I said attitude and effort. You gotta give the effort. You're not gonna come to practice and lower our standards. So you gotta give the effort here and you have to have the right attitude about it, and I want you to be a good person because we all have to be around each other every day, so same thing with. All the coaches, I demand the same from them, is like you gotta bring your best self to give them in a good mood, to be upbeat, to give your best energy and stuff like that.'cause we're asking them to give us that. So we have to be able to give that to them as well, but attitude and effort are a non-negotiable. I love to see passion and energy and things like that, but I think. Competitive excellence. I want'em to, I want'em to compete. I want'em, I look for players who have an edge, that when I look at'em, like some people may shy away some from players and be like, oh, they look like they have an attitude. I'm gonna run to that player. Because sometimes I feel like that player maybe hasn't had the conversation to how they appear with their body language or, maybe they haven't heard from somebody.'cause somebody's been afraid to tell'em because they're such a great athlete that they're just like. That's a great athlete with a bad attitude. Maybe that's not the case. Maybe they just haven't had that conversation. Maybe they haven't been taught that yet, and maybe they care so much, but they don't know how to display it. Because a lot, I want the athletes that care about what they're doing, and. If you really do care about being great, you might show a little attitude sometimes and that's okay, right? Yeah. But you can't take it out on other people. You can't, hold onto it the whole game. You may, you get your ten second rule. That's what we call it, is like you can be upset because you just struck out and you wanted to do better for the team. Sure. That's natural and we're okay with that, but. You gotta hold composure, and you have to still be able to be about everybody else and things like that. And you're only one part, like in a game, there's so many sequences, right? And. We're building on the sequences as the whole game goes on. And so what we can't have is somebody has a bad sequence and all of a sudden it tanks everybody else for two innings because everybody's paying attention to them. But if we teach them those things and we get them to understand about being a team player, but understanding that we are okay with them being passionate nowadays, everybody's oh, they flipped the bat. That's unacceptable. And things like that. So people will have their opinions and that's okay. For me, I like to see a little passion and fire. I love it. Me too. I wanna see it. And if I see passion, I'm probably gravitating towards it, yeah. As long as it's handled the right way. Yeah. We often end up recruiting ourself too, right? Yeah. We know what we like and Yeah. You mentioned your staff and what you expect from your staff. How are you using your staff differently today than you did maybe 20 years ago? I think change. I think, again, I mean for me, the turnover rate at division three, we don't have any full-time assistants. I only have a grad assistant and then a stipend coach. I think that a lot of other teams are in that same. Predicament when you're at the D three level, however given'em ownership of what they're great at, I think that's really important because a lot of times as a head coach you can find yourself being too controlling over everything. And I think when you go out and you hire people to be on your staff or you choose people to be on your staff, they're, they have their strengths, right? And so we wanna utilize those strengths in the big picture of what we're doing. And, for everybody that's different, like somebody might be. Really personable and a great hitting coach. The other person may be not as personal, but really organized and does really good on one-on-one conversation or does really good with creating drills or whatever. So really just utilizing the strengths of everybody on staff I think that's really important. And then identifying roles and responsibilities is also very important. But, I try to choose people that are still going to challenge me and then that are gonna be relatable to the players and that can make the players the best. Because, the other thing that happens as you get older as a head coach, there's a little bit of separation, from the time that you played and how they view you. Although I do love it'cause I get to stay young because I'm around young people all the time. Yes. So me too. Yeah. I love that. I have a lot of fun with it. I enjoy being around people of all ages, but I notice there can be a gap the older you get. Making sure that you have somebody that's just relatable to them and able to communicate and loyalty's a big deal. I think when you're a head coach and on a coaching staff, you want people who are loyal, but you also want people in the room who can challenge you and say, Hey, coach, I, this is a great idea. However, I think that maybe this is what the players need right now, and they speak up for them, and you can't be in a position where you can't hear it. You know what I mean? So I think as you evolve, you're like, no, I want all this feedback, and then I get to make the best executive decision based on all the feedback that's in front of me, so again, I think everybody's voice matters. And taking that time with your staff just as much as you take time with your players is really important. Being able to kind of function on the same page because the leadership, whoever's at the top, it trickles down. And I look at it like everybody on staff is leading the charge, so we have to be inclusive and really just let people do the parts that they're great at and give them ownership. Yeah, I think that gets lost sometimes that. Loyalty and having an independent voice can work together. They can be hand in hand. You can be loyal and still challenge your head coach and still say, Hey, I really feel this loyal. The loyalty part is when coach says, no, we're gonna go in a different direction, or, this is why I, we're gonna do something different. You're still loyal and you're still, yeah. Okay, coach. There's, you have to be able to speak up and we have a lot of young assistants. We have a lot of high school coaches that listen to this. So I love that perspective because it's so important. You're not just building a team, you're building a program, and that starts with assistant coaches, even if it's a 22-year-old GA and a, and an assistant coach that comes in and works with your catchers or works with your pitchers. Like we often get at the division three level. That needs to be there. You need to be able to challenge, you need to be able to speak up, but loyalty's a part of that as well. For sure. And you're right. They can go hand in hand. We don't always have to agree. Sometimes we can agree to disagree. It's always about. Not what you say, but how you say it. And I think creating that mutual respect between, yourself and the assistant coaches so that they feel comfortable in saying things so that you can get the full scope of the information is really important. You know that mutual respect, if it's there and the relationship's there and you provide that comfortability, it can happen. And I do think that's important. It's also the humility of that you get as you grow to be the head coach, and that was that. It's a great transition to, my last question for you is, when you look back at your 22-year-old self, what advice would you give her? As I know you had your professional career after that for a few years. What advice would you give your younger self when you, before you started that journey, if you'd go back and talk to her? Oh, wow. That's a tough one. But I really just, it really just comes down to I was really hard on myself. So given the best that you have on any given day is all that anybody can ask for you, and if you're given your best, then you've done your job. And I think now looking back, handling failure, recovery would've been a big thing for me. I would get very upset if I wasn't good at something or, didn't play the best. And I have to realize now that there's quality of bats. There's seeing extra pitches and making the pitcher work hard and there's give, passing the bat to your teammate because it's their moment now. You know what I mean? And sometimes it's gonna be your moment, sometimes it's gonna be their moment. But the biggest thing I would do is just have a better understanding that, you know, hey, if you're working hard and you're giving your best, then you're doing everything that you can. Then, you can feel good about yourself and you can lay your head down and be like, Hey, I gave everything I had today. Maybe today wasn't my day, but I'm gonna wake up tomorrow morning and I'm gonna get after it again. I think that handling failure and adversity, we're gonna have it in life. Nobody's running from that. Nobody's getting out of that. But it's how you're able to bounce back. And, I always say that the floor is no place for a champion. And, with all this, I also wanna say that, a lot of people say that moms don't take coaching jobs because they have to be moms. I've always been a mom and. Always made it work. And it was the best thing to bring my son up around athletes and in an athletic environment at the collegiate level. It was a great space. And so I just wanna say, do not shy away from that if you are a mom or somebody that has a family, because that's what can make you great too, is just, like I said, I, being around my son, seeing how he operated, he's a tremendous athlete, and I'm very proud of him. But. When you're, when you care for people and you have that instinct and that empathy and things like that, it can also help you evolve as a coach. So don't shy away from it if you're a female or a mom, because we need people like you. Yeah. And you've done it. And I think that's what the other thing I would say is, we are a culmination of all of our experiences, and. I look at it and go, wow. How blessed am I to have so many cool experiences and things like that, but there's really nothing when I coach now that. I haven't ran into, or that hasn't happened to me. It makes you very relatable, which is great for the athletes today. And that's what they want. They wanna be relatable, they wanna know you care, but they also want the knowledge. They're driven, they want that avenue of Hey, you know what, how can I be the best version of myself, but also be this great athlete and do the best things because they're putting time in, and they wanna be great. And so I think it's cool if we're prepared, organized. We're able to guide them and just be a part of it all. I love it. I love it. And I'm a big proponent of it too. You can go back and I got a whole slew of podcasts with a bunch of moms that are Hall of Fame coaches like you and Great, we're great athletes. Continue to coach and I was in corporate America for a little bit and I always talked to the bosses. I was like, we need to hire more moms. They're relatable. They know how to juggle 16 things at a time. They know how to adapt. We don't have any of that. We have a bunch of 24 year olds that, when something doesn't go right or more work's put on their plate, they give up and they quit. I'm all for you. I think parenting changed me as a coach. Having my own kids and I was a head coach for 12 years before we had a child. And I, these last 15 years, I've just been a different coach. I've been a different person because of the humility that comes with being a parent. For sure. Yeah. It makes you better all the way around, I always say it's the greatest gift you could ever ask for is being a parent, and, then we also get to be like that step in person for everybody transforming their lives when they're, that transition from leaving home. And it's an honor, it's an honor to be in that position. So do all coaches, I know they're doing a great job with great intentions and I always hold myself to that standard too, of like. How would you want your own child treated in this situation? You know what I mean? So if you can do that, and you can look at everybody like, Hey, this is somebody that you know is somebody's kid. And we're parents, so we know we'd want our kid handled a certain way. But also there is tough love involved. Sometimes there's adversity, there's things they gotta get through. But you know what, that's what makes'em better. Everything's not going to be easy all the time. Yep. Yep. I agree. And that's a part of that makes college athletics so great. As a coach we get to be a part of that journey and for sure help'em get through a lot of those things that are really hard. So that's great. Coach. I wanna do some rapid fire with you. Just some fun stuff. Okay. Get to know you a little bit better. You ready for some fun questions? I think so. I don't know. I don't know about rapid fire, but we'll go for it. You'll be great at these. All right. Morning practice or afternoon practice. Afternoon. Favorite drill that your players love to hate? Do you have a drill that they hate, but you love it? 21. 21. All right. Tell real quick, what's 21? I think I know what it is, but I wanna hear it from you. Yeah. We have to get 21 out perfectly on defense. Okay. If you don't, you start over at zero. Yeah. So the reason why they hate that is I'm a serious critic when it comes to you have to be in your backup. The throw has to be perfect. Everything has to be. I love it. All right. I did the same thing we had. There's 21 out in the game, so we're trying to get'em all as quick as we can. Yeah, that's right. We called it the Warrior drill. I love it. Best softball stadium you've ever played or coached in? I have to say Oklahoma. Oklahoma? Yeah. It's a pretty good one. If you weren't coaching softball, what would you be doing? I'd probably be a sports psychologist. Or a life coach, I could see that you'd be really good at both of those. Thanks. Pre-game, playlist, hip hop, country, or rock? Ooh, I'd have to go for a combination. All of'em. Okay. All right. You gotta see I'm been diverse in my selection. I like a little bit of everything. I do too. Yeah. Is there a favorite in there? You got a favorite group? Band, singer, artist. I like everybody, honestly. You can go to one concert for the rest of your life, who are you going to? I'm going to Beyonce. Okay. All right. All right. The B, you can't beat the B. All right. Favorite? As of right now, if you asked me 10 years ago, I probably would've gave you a different answer. You know what I mean? What was 10 years ago? I'm interested. Right now you're looking at Beyonce and I'm like, that's a concert I really want to go to. You know what I mean? Yeah. But I've loved so many. I love Whitney Houston, obviously, yeah. Any country artist, gosh, I don't even know which one would be my favorite one.'cause I do like country music a lot. Yeah. I don't even know who would be my favorite, but okay, we gotta move on that. That's my wife too, city girl. She's Asian, she's a city girl and she loves country music. Something's not right. But yeah, she loves it. No, I do love country. I'm in a suburb. Everybody, even though we're a Chicago suburb. Yeah. I love country. I grew up in the country, so Yeah. Country music is very relaxing to me. Yeah. You grew up in the quad cities surrounded by corn and cows and That's right. Yes. Yeah. Favorite post-game meal? Post game. I would say chicken alfredo or tacos like it. One word your players would use to describe you. Passionate of course. Or competitive. I don't know. It could be competitive too.'cause everybody knows I'm, everything's a competition. I could see that. Yeah. Sliding head first or feet? First. Head first. Yeah. There's nothing better grabbing the bag at third head first. It's a smaller target, yeah. That hand in there. Yeah. I feel like you have, you can adapt better too. Wherever the throw may be. If you're going head first, you can adjust your body. You can switch hands. Yeah. True. However, I will say a nice popup slide looks really cool. Sometimes it does. And there's some people like Trey Turner that do it like they've been, like they're on glass. Yes, I know. I saw that on Instagram or something, I believe, and I was like, wow, smooth. I got two more. I said last one. I'm gonna do two more for you. Walk off hit or game saving defensive play. Walk off home run, you mean? Sure. Yeah. If it's a walk off home run. Okay, we'll take that. Otherwise, I like the defensive play. And final one, dream vacation spot.'cause you know I'm going on vacation next week, so I want to hear yours. Earth and Caicos. You and my kids. My kids love Turks and Caicos. They would go every year if that was, if we left. I've never been, I really want to, oh, you gotta go and do the love buggy tour when you go. Okay. They've got these little cars that two people fit in and it's a tour and they take you all the way around the island and it's so much fun. Coach. Thanks for doing this. It was awesome. I can't wait to talk recruiting with you, but you were fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. That's a wrap on another great conversation with another great coach. Coach. Venus Taylor's journey is a masterclass in leadership and longevity from winning a junior college division one national championship in her very first year at Lake City Community College to leading programs at the division one level to her ongoing work with Athletes Unlimited softball league and Major League baseball. She's not just building teams. She's helping shape the future of softball. What stood out to me is how she blends her experiences as a professional athlete, a college coach, and a mom into a leadership style that demands excellence, but also invests deeply into her players as people. She's proof that the best coaches don't just prepare their athletes for the next game. They prepare them for life. If you enjoyed today's conversation with Coach Taylor, make sure you come back on Monday for part two where we'll break down college recruiting the opportunities at every level, and how to find the right fit for your journey. You can find more significant coaching conversations. Along with my weekly blog and resources for leaders@coachmattrogers.com and be sure to share this episode with another coach or parent who could benefit from it. Until next time, keep working to be the best version of yourself while leading with significance.