Episode #102: Brandon Elliott

🥎🎙  Championship Lessons from Brandon Elliott

Brandon Elliott has built Virginia Wesleyan into one of the most dominant softball programs in NCAA Division III history. With three national championships, a national runner-up finish in 2025, 11 ODAC titles, and nearly 700 career wins, he’s the winningest coach in program history—and a leader whose impact stretches far beyond the scoreboard. 

In this episode of the Significant Coaching Podcast, Brandon shares the blueprint for sustaining excellence year after year. We talk about how he’s cultivated a culture that drives buy-in without shortcuts, why speed and pressure have become the DNA of his program, and how he’s evolved as a leader over nearly two decades at the helm. He also reflects on the mentors who shaped his journey, the highs and lows of championship runs, and what it takes to lead a program with clarity and conviction. 

Whether you coach softball or any other sport, this conversation is packed with lessons on culture, consistency, and championship leadership. 

For more info, visit CoachMattRogers.com

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And I've taken my pride out of it enough to be able to admit it and to be able to tell our women like, Hey, listen, if I'm in the bullpen and I'm instructing what you're doing from a mechanic's perspective, we're gonna be in a lot of trouble. And so what I'm gonna do is go out and recruit the best arms that I can. And I think I'm very talented in identifying that in recruiting and getting those women here. And we've consistently done it. Then I'm gonna turn that over to unbelievable pitching instructors, and then I'm going to trust them and I'm gonna give them the tools and the trust and the time Welcome back to the Significant Coaching Podcast. I'm your host Matt Rogers, and today's guest has built one of the most remarkable programs in all of college softball. You just heard a clip from Brandon Elliot, the head coach at Virginia Wesleyan University, where he's become the winningest coach in program history In 18 seasons, he's guided the Marlins to three national championships, 11 conference titles, and most recently. Back-to-back trips to the NCAA Division three World Series, including a national runner up finish in 2025. His teams have set records produced All Americans and year after year remain among the very best in the country. But what makes Brandon's story so compelling isn't just the wins and the banners, it's how he sustained a culture of excellence without shortcuts. His approach to leadership, player development, and culture building offers lessons for every coach at any level. In this conversation, we dive into the building blocks of long-term success. The role of speed and pressure in his team's identity and how he's evolved as a leader over nearly two decades. At the helm, you'll also hear about the mentors who shaped him, the highs and lows that defined his journey. And what it really takes to lead a program with consistency and conviction. And before we get started, a quick reminder, if you're looking for tools to help families and athletes navigate the recruiting process, check out my books on Amazon, including. The Softball Recruits Journal and my newest addition to the series, the Volleyball Recruits Journal, both are available today. This isn't just about softball. In this conversation, it's about leadership that lasts. All right, let's get into it. Here's my conversation with Coach Brandon Elliot. Coach Elliot, so great to have you on the show. Welcome to Significant Coaching. What a blast. I appreciate it and blessing to be here and first day of classes, so there's a lot of excitement going on around here as well. There's nothing better than that first day, that first week of school is there. It doesn't matter how long you're doing it, when the kids come back, there's something to the energy that, that it gives them the confidence and the joy it brings. No doubt. My wife's a teacher, so I'm not sure she'll say the same thing, 'cause summer's over for her. But certainly here, it just brings that buzz. It's just such a quiet campus, as you go through the summer. So to get your women from me, to get our women back here on campus, popping in and outta the office just brings a lot more joy around here. Coach my first head coaching job was at Maryville University in St. Louis. We were division three at the time, and I was there for nine years. I had five presidents and I had six different supervisors, if you can imagine. Oh man, that doesn't sound like fun. It was like I had a different philosophy and direction every six weeks it felt like. You've been at Virginia Wesleyan 16 years? 17. This will be my 19th season as a head coach, but 26th year. I just, a lot of people just stay in college for 26 years, yeah. And that's me. I wanna know about why you've stayed. What's that culture like on campus that has kept you there for that long and kept you so excited? We had a conversation before this. I couldn't tell if this was year 26 or year one for you. You're just so excited for the kids to come back. No question. I start out at the first thing I say, everything that's great in my life started here on this campus. And I say that in true significance. So certainly, we can look at my career and I worked in enrollment for a few years. I was a volunteer with baseball for a few years. I helped run our student center here, the JP Batten Student Center for eight years. I've been the Title IX coordinator and dug into some of that, and certainly a now slid into some administration and athletics. But everything great in my life and from my education to my career to my best friends, I met my wife here, which certainly is is probably the greatest thing that's ever happened in my life. I met my wife here. My father-in-law is an alum. And you know what a lot of people don't know is actually I have two children, my son Cooper who's 13, and then my daughter Ryland, who's four and Ryland had to be carried by a surrogate. And our surrogate and her husband are both alums of the university. So when I say everything that's great in my life. Has a connection to this place. I genuinely mean it. And I think when your roots are so deep and so many of the highs and lows are at one place, it's just it makes sense. It's home for me. That's great. And it warms my heart to hear that because when coaches get that opportunity and they get that environment around them, it's amazing what a good coach can do. When they've got that support and that feeling and look at what you've done. It's just outta this world. How big of a great, of a program you've built. Let's go back to 2007. What was your vision back then? What were you thinking about that you wanted to build? Did you envision three national championships? Absolutely not. I think if you'd have gone back to that arrogant kid, I was 25, 26 years old. I thought I had it all figured out. I wish I could go back and strangle that guy. And there's probably a lot of others that felt the same, including some of the players. But, I was a volunteer assistant with a baseball program. The ultimate goal was to be a high school baseball coach. And a lot of people have heard that story. And I think God just had other plans for me. And at that time. Our softball program or the coach had taken, it all had resigned and about eight games left in that season. And I say my OGs, the women that were in that program he brought me over and they didn't even know in the middle of getting ready to start a practice and basically was like, Hey this is gonna be your new your intern coach for the next eight games. I remember that crew. I remember Christie White saying, have you ever coached women before? I was like, no, I have not. You ever been a head coach before? No, I have not. Everything I said was No. And they still gave me an opportunity, but started there and really the goal there, when the university came back, was like, Hey, what's your, what do you think we should do with this program? You took it over two to three weeks. They paid me 15 bucks an hour, man, I was loaded $15 an hour. Is what I was making at that time, which might be more than what I make now per hour. Honestly, it may be, they may be more real than we know. But I remember, our athletic director, Sonny Travis, just grabbing me and saying, all right, what do you think this program needs? And I said, one, you need to make it a full-time position. And I said, then two, I think you need to hire a female. And these women are dying for that leadership in this role. He said how about we hire you and we make it part-time? And I was like, sounds like a fantastic idea. Let's do it. I took it for 77. My, my original contract's up here and $7,726 and 61 cents was my initial contract. And I remember sitting and praying about it with my wife that we didn't want to take it. But going back to your question. I have a leadership co coach, his name's Bob Groves. I talk about him all the time. And his real big thing was what are your BHAGs, what are your big, hairy, audacious goals? And the 25, 20 6-year-old me was like, we're gonna win a national championship. I, and it's gonna be really easy. We're gonna do that in the next 30 seconds. And it took a really long time and it's really hard. But I think that was the ultimate, crazy goal. And as we started to get a little bit closer to that. Potentially being a reality, then it was just full head of steam and we're here. And we can do that. And I remember when we won that in 2017, it was like, holy smokes. Like we did that. And then somebody saying now that you've done that what's the next thing? And I just rattled off I want a new facility and I want a full-time assistant coach and we wanna win this again, and we wanna have, more women have more joy and do those things. I just think that we just started speaking it out loud and when you have a group of women and coaches in, in a room. When we talk about our goals, that is what we talk about, which goes against every facet of leadership, right? We talk about we wanna be perfect in everything we do. We talk about, we don't wanna mess up in everything we do. We talk about we wanna win the national championship. We don't talk about the journey, which again, goes against everything that people say, but I'm just a guy that says, we're gonna talk about what we want to accomplish as wild and as crazy as it is, and we're gonna put it out there. Then we're gonna do everything every day that adds up to that. And if we fall short of that goal, that's okay, because it still was significant, but we did everything that we could and just having a room of believers is huge for us. It's such a Ted lasso story and it. I guess so. I'm just not as witty or as good looking, that's debatable. Come on now. Face for face for radio for sure. We haven't seen you dance yet that's really the key to it all. Yeah. Amen. And just so you know, my first, you got me by $26. My first contract was 7,000. I negotiated up from six. There we go. That was my first year as a head college coach. It's easy to talk about the national championships. It's easy to talk about the 671 wins. I remember our first year at Maryville when we went to the national tournament for the first time. We started one in 11 that year. We were just, we couldn't get a break. We lost so many games by a couple, and I was like basketball coach. And we came back from Christmas. We beat the number four team in the country and won 12 in a row, won our conference, went to the national tournament, but. Up to that point. That was year two and a half for me. I thought for sure I was gonna get fired. I just thought they're gonna fire me. At what point did you know I had to get through the fire to get to where I could be confident I could be who I wanted to be. What did that look like back in those days? I think early on it was, there was so much opportunity for growth, right? Academically, athletically, roster wise. And it was a grind through those days. I would work, I was very fortunate. Land Work's Unlimited. I was owned by Jeff Miller, said, Hey, I'll hire you, you make your own schedule. But I worked for landscaping Company from 6:30 AM to 2:30 PM and I drive an hour back and run practice. I honestly think those first few years, it was just autopilot. It was like, what can we do? Let's get into practice, make them better. Let's make them feel better. Let's do this. Let's try to fundraise money. Let's get the alum involved. Let's win some games on the road and you have this false sense of confidence. That you know what you're doing and you are gonna be the best at it. And then you really get into the crux of it. And you go from a bad softball team to a mediocre softball team and program, and you start competing with people that you didn't think. Then you think you're on top of the world and then you get smacked. Yeah, and you get smacked. Not only, and I'm not just talking about wins and losses and losing games and those hurt and you're like, I'm so far from the goal and where I want to be now. And like it just knocked me down a couple levels. If it humbles you, but I'm talking about the losses as far as sometimes you get so in the thick of competing one of my, one of my best friends in the game and one of my greatest mentors is Don Simmons at the University of Lynchburg. And I will tell you the first couple years we, it wasn't that way because they were the who we wanted to be. They were in the World Series and they were winning the odac and Dawn was. Queen of queens and she still is. And I was this young whipper snapper that was like the threatening guy coming in. And I think early on, looking back at it, there was just some arrogance about me that, and I think it was the competitive fire in there that it wasn't relationally right. And I just remember her one time sitting there eating a bag of chips and she's if you didn't argue every call, you might win one. And I remember in that moment being so angry that she said that, but then be able to step back and be like. I think she's right. I think she's right. And it took a couple things in my personal life and even in hers that for us to make a really deep connection and once we did that, yeah, we still have a big rivalry, but it's a respectful rivalry and moments like that allowed me to grow. Maybe not X's and O's, but as a human being and as a leader in that, yeah, I can wanna beat your brakes off when you're on the other side of the field, but I also still care about you as a human. And when we start caring about people as human beings, like our success rate goes around and then those people root for you when they're not playing you or playing against you. And I think those were probably the most significant moments, and there's some others in there, but Dawn comes right to mine because I just have a tremendous amount of respect for her as a coach, but also for her as a human being and as a friend. And those were the moments I think were probably the. Where you hit rock bottom, you're like, man, I'm not as good as I, I think I am. Maybe I'm good at XOs and maybe I'm good in the cage, but am I as good as a human as I think? And ultimately, if I'm gonna get where I want to be as far as influencing people and making people better humans and better softball players, then I've gotta make some changes in what I'm doing. And I think those are more of the humbling moments than the losses on the field, to be honest with you. Or whether it's an a, a current player that you're having real conversation with. I remember Tori Hiba and was one of the best players ever played for me here. And having a deep conversation with her. She's I love being pushed. I love how hard you're on me. I love that you grind our gears. She's but sometimes that teeters on the side of intimidation versus motivation. And that was a punch in the gut because I, and you know that as a coach and as a leader even as a parent. Yeah. When someone's intimidated by you, they say that somebody you care about says that. Oh man, that's that's a tough pill to swallow because I, I don't wanna lead by position, I wanna lead by permission. I want to have permission, a leadership in their lives. And when you're intimidating but for one of your best players to say that Hey, I love you and I care about you, and I know what you do for us and the things that you do. There's times like, I, I need you on this side of the marker. I think those are the things I can check back into my career that were probably the biggest moments of growth where you had to step back and evaluate a little bit. It's amazing what, whether it's one of your kids or one of your players, when they have that honest moment with you, how much you realize you need it. Yeah. I was one of those coaches too. I was constantly barking and pushing and wanted them to reach their potential. And when I had kids that weren't afraid to turn around and poke the bear a little bit, I, I knew I was onto something because that fear, they knew that they could test it a little bit and get to the humanity of who I was. I love hearing that lead by permission. I'm gonna, I'm gonna hang on to that one for a long time. When did you know that you were onto something special? I think once we made a run, like going back and I believe it was 2013 when we got here, the had never won an NCA tournament game. And so getting to the NA tournament was a big deal and we went and we got smoked 2011 and we got smoked and we came back 2012 and we didn't make the N NCAA tournament. And I thought that we should have. And then finally in 2013, we did, we went up to New Jersey and we made a run and we lost in the, and that was at the times where it was the eight team regional, and we lost in the finals to get to the national Championship series. And that was when it was finally we could sit around and see those teams, the teams that we saw in the top 25 that weren't in our region, that we didn't see every day that were competing to win national championships. And we were on the same field with them and we could see 'em and see 'em play. The respect for those teams was huge, right? Like we could say, Hey, a res, lot of respect for them. Oh, you left the ballpark. Saying we're there and like we can compete with them and trying to do things to put our teams in positions where they can see those teams. Maybe not play 'em or beat 'em, but if we can see those teams and then they can really start saying, Hey, that's just not. Texas, Tyler at the time or Christopher Newport or Salisbury or Trine University or TLU and Wade, let's go in Linfield. I remember the first time watching Linfield play being like, holy cow. But our kids were like, Hey, they're great. We feel like we're great because now we can compare there. And that was that first, that 13 we finally saw outside of the teams we see every day in our region, we saw teams outside of our region that were in the top five 10 in the country. And it was like, Hey, we belong in that conversation. Yeah. And then once we got in that conversation, it was like, let's start chipping away at this thing. And then when winning became an expectation because of that team in 13, it became an expectation every year to not only get to the NCA tournament, but to make a run in the NCA tournament. Then it started chipping away to say Hey we've got a chance here to make a big run and make some noise and maybe really do this thing. How much of that evolution was learning the type of player you needed on your roster versus how you were coaching and your philosophies and your aggressiveness? What was the combination of that too? To get you over that hump? To get you to that level you wanted to be? I think those first years with anybody, you try, you think you know what your philosophy or your type of kid is, right? And then as you get into it a little bit more, you find yourself recruiting a certain type of human and a certain time of athlete. And then it gets into like, all right I always tell our women it's like a video game. Like I, it's already loaded in the system. I just got to press the right buttons. And pressing the right buttons and getting those kids to go. But if you don't have the team loaded in the game, you're in trouble. So the recruiting piece was huge. And the philosophy there was we're always gonna try to recruit women better than the women that we have. And certainly that doesn't always happen. But the goal is to come in. If I could bring nine freshmen every year that are starting every year, that means we just got better. And then my nine starter to become role players. Certainly, talent becomes a part of that and experience becomes a part of that and, a couple freshmen trickle in and don't. Every time you're challenging the middle of your core, of your team to make that third, fourth, fifth player, your sixth, seventh best player and you're getting better. You're bringing in better kids, then that elevates the entire roster and team. And I think that started to be a part of it. And Iron shoppers iron. And what we were trying to use in the recruiting piece was early on, I remember Brittany Brown was the first electric arm that we had recruited and had, and she transferred in. So I would intentionally try to bring big type of pitchers in and let them see us practice so they could watch this kid throwing in 60, 62 to be like, wow, she's really almost intimidated. Oh, she's way better than I thought. So then that started being like, oh, I wanna go play with somebody like that. Yeah. And so trying to put them around the better players to say I wanna pair you up with here. Here's our vision with this. And then that just started growing and it organically turned from, as we got better on the field. We also got better in the classroom. And it just really started elevating that. And if I think anything to a coach, I just always recruit humans above your head and always recruit players above your head. And the worst thing that's gonna happen is they're gonna say no. We just go after kids that we think are better than what we really need or want here, and we tell 'em that you're better than what we think. And then they get here and they're like, I'm valued. And as those things started adding up, then it started to click and we started getting better. And then you're starting to recruit off of your history. Yeah. And the biggest predictor of the future is to look at the past. Yep. And so if I can look at the past and say, Hey, in the last 15 years you've had two winning seasons. As a head coach, I'm predicting you're probably not gonna have winning season. But if I can look in the past and say, Hey, over the last 10, 12, 15 years, they continue to win, then the future says they're going to continue to win. And you've gotta use that in your recruiting to bring those people in. If I went to a practice back in 2013 and one-to-one today, would the, what kind of differences would I see? I think you're gonna see more efficiency within the practice. Our current players might not feel that way. One of the things I think first and thirds and bunk coverages, right? I would run those and if they didn't go well, which any coach knows first and thirds bunk coverages, cuts and relays, they're always terrible. And it doesn't matter what level you're on, it's always terrible. It's team defense. It's always goes terrible. But I remember early, early, we would just keep going and keep going. It never got better. But if it was scheduled for 20 minutes and it took us an hour, then we went an hour. We're now, if we have it scheduled for 20 minutes and it stinks, then at 20 minutes we're done with it, and then we're gonna revisit that tomorrow and we might add 30 minutes in, but we're gonna try to come back. And so I wouldn't say all of that because I get a creature of habit and sometimes get stuck in my ways. But I think the efficiency on that piece is gonna be better. Technology is gonna be a little bit better. I was an anti machine guy back in the day. And we use pitching machines quite often. For preparation work for our hitters. And then, just from a coaching piece, we have a much bigger staff than we had there. I think in 2007 it was just me and Rick Straube. And then, we added a number people on staff and be even able to be surrounded by a great staff that I figured out that I don't have to have my hand in every bucket at every practice in every moment. And so that made practice longer 'cause Coach Elliot was gonna run hitting, coach Elliot was gonna run infield, coach Elliot was gonna run outfield. He was gonna work with the catchers, and then it got in forever instead of Hey, I might only be in the cage today. The trust factor of the men and women on our staff to do their job in, in tech you, that has, has made everything more efficient and it's just made us better. There's different voices and we're just really blessed with some very talented coaches. Yeah. If I could give a gift of advice to every athletic director in the country, it would be that let give the coach the resources to bring in a staff. Amen. Say that louder. The more. The more people that have a love of teaching and have some competency to teach it, everybody gets better so much faster. No doubt. That's why I push kids to Virginia Wesleyan instead of the big public schools because. Whenever you can be in a classroom with 13, 14, 15 other kids and you have a professor that knows your name and know you're there, you're just gonna learn at such a higher level. You're gonna have such a relationship with that professor. You're gonna feel more confident going to talk to them. So the more hands in the kitchen, the better. I love it. Aim into that. Your teams are known for their grit and their consistency. How do you define your team culture? I think it's really hard to define. There's a lot of intentionality in that, just from our first team meeting last night, the first, we didn't walk right in and read off of a script of here's our schedule. Right from me walking in the room saying I'm fired up. And then we went right into some culture and some team building immediately whether you wanna say culture or team building or team bonding, whatever it is. It's the intentionality behind, behind the culture. And I think what we, to be honest with you, man, I think what, where we get stuck is we define or we look at culture within organizations and programs of the past, right? And I'll use my good friend, coach Murphy at Alabama. Look at Alabama, and you're like, it's great culture there. Murph's got a great culture and he does, but he intentionally works on that culture every day. Every year. Why? Because the ingredients in that culture change every year. I would say it's hard to say you had the best culture year you've ever had. And I feel like I've said that over the last three or four years in a row. 'cause it continues just to keep getting better. But last year was unbelievable from our parents to to our kids, to our staff, and just the way that everybody operated and cared for each other. And, we didn't have that external drama like I've spoken of before. And I told our women last night, I can't ask for a better culture. But I'm asking for a different culture because we're adding seven women into our program this year that weren't here last year and we graduated at eight. That won't be here. And the thing is you know, we might have taken the, some ingredients that might be changing, right? I might be adding in, brown sugar instead of, cane sugar, right? Yeah. Or I might add vanilla in instead of honey. Yeah. So the ingredients to what we're making culture wise are gonna be different 'cause humans are different. But we're still gonna try to go and bake the same cake. And we still want it to taste really good. And this might not taste the same, but it's still gonna be great. And I think when you can embrace that from a culture piece, instead of saying, Hey, I'm coming to Virginia Wesleyan, so I'm immediately engrossed into this program. So I'm part of this great culture. Wait, it's not a great culture yet. Last year was, but we just got here together and I've said it all the time. We come in and as coaches and even in organizations and in businesses, and we throw people in the room and we're like, Hey, it's day one. We're all together. I need you to love each other. And I'm looking, I'm like, I don't even know that guy. Or that kid played on my rival high school. I don't love her. I hate her. And and we said this to our women last night that's gotta be the piece is, and we've gotta work backwards. I can't say I love you day one, because that's just, that's false, right? That's not real, that's not genuine. Is we've gotta work from, all right, if our ultimate goal is to love each other, then let's work backwards. What do I gotta do to get love? Then I, in our program, believe it's trust, right? There's no one in my immediate life that I genuinely love, that I don't trust no one. Yeah. No. Yeah. And so I can't love you until I trust you, right? And so how can I trust you? Is now I've gotta dig in and I've gotta know your story. Like I've gotta know your story. Like I, my trust for you has changed because I know you're a division three coach. I know you've gone through the ground. I know you've done administration. I know the people that have been on your podcast that are significant and all of that type of stuff. So then that starts building relationships. And so we kinda manufacture it more backwards. I can't love you until I trust you. I can't trust you until I know your story. And then, I had a coach send me a text like, how do you continue to develop teams that have a strong culture and relational relationships with your kids? And I'm like, you have to be intentional. Yeah. You have to be intentional. Like there, I don't have an extra hour of my day every day. I don't. We're gonna start tomorrow. We have Days of love and there's a kid on my schedule tomorrow that we have a Day of love and I'm gonna remove wherever she wants to go. We might go off campus and have coffee, we might go have lunch, we might go to Taco Bell and eat really bad meal. I don't know what we're gonna do, but I'm gonna carve an hour outta my day, specifically one-on-one with that kid. And we're gonna talk about everything but softball and then we're gonna start figuring each other out. And I think that is why our culture has really started to shape and find and I can't define that culture. And I can't define what it looks like, but I know it when I see it. It's like, how do you define obscenity? I don't know, but I know it when I see it. Exactly. And that's different for everybody. And that's probably the easiest answer I can give you for the culture here. But it's just amazing how when you help lead them into intentionality. They take it and run with it, and everybody wants to say, oh, the culture Brandon Elliott's created at Virginia Wesleyan. That's bull crap. I haven't won a national championship here and I haven't created the culture. I've been a part of that. And maybe I was a small vessel to help 'em get to that, but those women won those national championships. Those women are the definition of culture. And I can stand in the room and I can say, here's my hashtag. We're gonna put it on a shirt, believe it says family, whatever. But unless they're really bought in on their own and can create that on their own. That's just, that's just surface material. Absolutely it is. I wanna, I think I could drop you on any softball field in the planet and give you a couple years and you would build a fantastic culture. It's pretty obvious. Coach you don't coach to win games. You're coaching 'cause you love these kids and you love being around them. Talk about protecting that culture. From the outside world, the noise and the student body, especially when you win national championships, everybody expects you to win it again. They expect, gotta do it again. You gotta do it again. How do you protect that culture as the head coach, as the leader of that program? When you know you're building something so great, you're doing the things that you need to do, how do you protect it from the outside world? We're just authentic. And one of the things I said to them last night is I genuinely believe that no one's gonna outwork you. I don't feel like anybody's as athletic or as deep as you, I don't think anybody cares as much. The biggest thing, and this again, comes back from our leadership guy, Bob Bob Groves is he says that the thing that teams are going to try to do is they're gonna try to break your bond. And so how are they gonna try to break your bond? And there's just ways within that. And it could be outside noise, like you say, or outside leverage there. But just going in there and if I hear or see or feel that like I'm transparent, like I come right out and say it. We're in the middle of a change. It was announced last Wednesdays. The elephant in the room, everywhere I go is we're gonna transition to Baton University named after the Baton family in July 1st, 2026. There's a ton of feelings about that. There's a ton of feelings about that. Did I come and talk about it in, in long form in our team meeting? I didn't. I said, here's the deal. I said, it's just like politics for me. I'm not gonna tell you how to feel about it. I'm not even gonna tell you how I feel about it, because there's probably 10 to 15 of you in this room that it doesn't bother and you don't need it. So you don't need to be in a deep conversation. There's probably three or four of you guys in this room that feel very passionate one way or the other about it. We're gonna do. If you wanna really genuinely know how I feel, you can come talk to me and we'll go one-on-one. I said, but to be honest with you, as an alum and as an employee, I'm still digesting it myself. I said, but we're not gonna, we're gonna talk about it. It has happened and it's real, and it's coming, but we're not gonna dig into it right here because at the end of the day, we, and we had just talked about why are you here? I said, no one mentioned the university name of why you're in this building. You said, I came here because of the women in this program. I came here because of the culture. I came here 'cause of the small school. I came here 'cause of the beach. I came here 'cause Coach LA was the only coach that believed in me. I came here 'cause Coach Smith saw me and Coach Quinn saw me and they taught me in. I came here 'cause every time I came to camp you guys surrounded me and you loved me and cared about me. In essence. I came here for the people. I came here for the culture and I came from what's surrounded and I just told him, I said, none of that is going to change whether you like it or you don't like it. We're not getting into that. But my job as your head coach is to influence you and to make you better humans and better softball players. And that's not gonna change. And I said, now we're just gonna, and if you have an issue with any of that, I, my door's wide open, let's have a conversation about it. But we're not gonna broach that into what our team's gonna do. And we'll do that and we'll do that with everything. You think about since we've been here, we've had COVID, what a contentious time. I didn't stand in front of our team and say, this is what I believe on vaccination status and not. I said, this is what I'm doing for the health of my family because I really don't have a choice here. And here's the things that we have to do in order to play, in order to play and have a team. I'm not gonna tell you how to feel about it. You think about every time we have an election year. We've got Republicans, we've got Democrats, we've got people sitting in the middle. We've got all of that. But worst thing I can do is stand in front of my team and say, I am a and you should vote and try and divide them. Yeah. And try a, divide them. But B, now they're gonna judge me based off. My opinions and my affiliations with something instead of what's in my heart. That's right. And no different between if they're straight or if they're gay, if it's L-G-B-Q-T or if they're a philosophy major or an engineering major, like none of that. I wanna know who you are in your heart as a human, and that's who I love and care about. That's right. And is more of, we're transparent about those things and if there is a team issue, if there is. An issue going around campus or in the community or like we're gonna bring it in and we're gonna say, Hey, this is what we've got going on. I'm not gonna tell you how I believe or what I believe. If it's contentious, I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna support you and love you no matter what. And we're gonna resolve these conversations one-on-one in an environment. And so trying to get them to see how much. I think we go into that and try to figure out how different we are versus, how much we are the same. Yeah. And I think when we can do that within our team and then those issues outside or people trying to break in that outside, then you can almost calm the noise down. And at the end of the day, my job is to keep the people, oh. Keep the people that don't like me away from the ones that are undecided. And it, it's the same thing within our program. If you come here and this isn't the place from you, I need to keep you away from the women that are trying to figure it out. Absolutely. And so your program is and the women within your program are gonna be the filters of that is we wanna make it so uncomfortable. If you're not a part of culture and love and all that, we wanna love on you so much and make it so uncomfortable for you that you're either like, Hey man, I'm getting in this group hug, or I'm at it. Yeah. And it's a fine line, but I think the answer going back to it is being transparent and humanizing yourself as a coach, being vulnerable. Vulnerability. Amen. And asking the women in your program to be vulnerable. Yeah. Be open-minded, to care about the human being before you care about anything else. I, coach, I can't thank you enough for that messaging. We need to multiply you and clone you because we just don't have enough of that. And that's why. I can't get out of coaching to save my life. 'cause I love it. I just, I want more of it. I want be a part of that. I think that, and there's just a lot of things I'm good at. So this is what I wanna do. You're fantastic at this. I could, again, I could put you anywhere and you'd be good at, because you're a leader, you're a natural leader and you care about people first. And it's a, I've said this for years, my biggest strength and my biggest flaw is my empathy. I care too much about how others are, what others are going on and I think you have to have a huge empathy in your life to be a coach. No doubt. And then going back to what you said there, this again goes, I keep saying Bob 'cause he said such a big huge influence in my life. But one of the things he said to me, working. One-on-one with me. 'cause he's the guy that can get in my junk drawer and call me out. And he just reads I saw you blink on your left eye. You're lying. And I'm like, I'm not lying. Why are we crying? I'm not crying. But one of the things he said, and we talked about this as a team last year, is like he said, your biggest strength. And I think that's where you're going. He's your biggest strength out of balance becomes your biggest weakness. Yeah. And if yours is empathy, mine's passion is, and I hope you can feel that, right? Oh yeah. I'm passionate about everything. But when that becomes out of balance. That's when it deflects into, is it intimidation? Is it anger? Is it rage? Or is it competitive fire? Is this guy trying to push me? And so we've gotta have people in our lives that balance that out and say Hey man, this is your biggest strength, but we need it on this side. Or your unbalanced in what you're doing. I love it. I could talk culture with you until the cows come home. My favorite thing, but I wanna talk pitching with you. You've produced some elite pitcher, pitchers. You got Hannah Hall, you got Emma Adams. I'm sure you can go on and on. What's your philosophy on developing and managing pitchers and pitching talent? That's a great one. What I'll tell you two things that are, the secret here is we've recruited amazing women with an amazing amount of talent in the circle. Then the second thing is we've always had an elite pitching coach, and it is not the guy talking to you. It was Rick Straube. It was Jim and Zana. It was Bobby Wells. It was Mary Pilkington. It was Bree Cooper. It's gonna be Millie Thompson who just joined our staff. And we've always had elite pitching coaches. I think that, I don't know if they're attracted to our program. God has just blessed me and I've been very fortunate, or I'm really good at recruiting, pitching coaches, but I've just always firmly believed that pitching is, I'm a baseball guy, right? And I can do a lot of things. I can learn it, and I can get in there and I can talk about counts and this and that and how we're attacking hitters. And I can do all that. But on, when it comes to how we're spinning it, what our backside's doing. Are we getting through on our hips? Are we closing, moving you? Any of that? That's not me. And I've taken my pride out of it enough to be able to admit it and to be able to tell our women like, Hey, listen, if I'm in the bullpen and I'm instructing what you're doing from a mechanic's perspective, we're gonna be in a lot of trouble. And so what I'm gonna do is go out and recruit the best arms that I can. And I think I'm very talented in identifying that in recruiting and getting those women here. And we've consistently done it. Then I'm gonna turn that over to unbelievable pitching instructors, and then I'm going to trust them and I'm gonna give them the tools and the trust and the time to go out. And we joke about it, I'm like a water boy to the pitchers. I'm not even an assistant pitching coach. I'm the guy that just brings them water, I'll condition them. And that's been the key. The key is recruiting fantastic women and fantastic ability. And then putting them in a position where they're going to get the right instruction from our pitching coaches. I love it, coach. Yeah. Again, the staff is so valuable, and I don't believe you for one second that you can't teach pitching, but I love your humility with it, with let's talk about speed. Because it doesn't matter if I'm talking to the guy that just won the D two national championship for baseball or the gall or guy that just won the D 2D three national championship for softball. It's amazing how often speed cubs up when we're talking about this diamond sports we all love. Yep. What does speed mean to you and how do you make it a big part of your philosophy as a coach? It's a game changer. And you can see, we've been in the top, top two or three in stolen bases, I think probably every year since 2013, and that was the first year we stole a hundred bases. That is a goal for us every year is to steal a hundred bases. The last two years, we've stolen over 200. My buddy Wade at TLU is is knocked in that 2, 2 30 range. So we're battling back and forth on that. Yeah, he and I talked about that. Yeah. But but it's a, and he agreed. It's a game changer for us. And and it's just all about who, how you use it, the personnel that you have. And yes, we've recruited a ton of speed and that's something that we look at but we also develop it. But it's also, you combine speed with aggression. And then that's where it's at. And so it's the wild West for us offensively, is we want every one of our women to be a threat on the bases. And not only just a steel bases, but to go first to third, to go second to home to add those things in because we just believe that movement creates pressure and then pressure creates opportunities. And any team that we play, they're gonna scout us. Virginia, Wesley's gonna run Virginia. Wesley's gonna run Virginia. Wesley's gonna run. And they're gonna tell their kids that they're gonna tell their catcher that they're gonna tell their middles that. Even if we don't steal a base, now you're shifting your shortstop into the five, six hole. 'cause you're afraid we're gonna steal third, which opens up the middle. We're gonna back off the plate, try to hit ball up the middle. Now you move the shortstop up the middle to keep that from happening. We, and then we still, steal second and third and, or you're so worried about the run game that you miss a pitch call. You don't want to call a change up because you're afraid we're gonna run. So you call screwball or breaking ball and then, and then it's a double in the gap. And that's just parlayed into a lot of things that we're gonna do, but. I think for our women, it's not only just having speed, but it's the freedom to know that we're gonna go and that we're gonna get thrown out and we're gonna be aggressive and we're gonna run when everybody thinks we're gonna run and we're gonna run. When everybody says that you shouldn't run all the unwritten rules, we're gonna do those types of things. And I think it just puts people on their heels a little bit and just gives you an advantage. For us. We don't hit a ton of home runs. We played a big ballpark. It's two 30 to center field, which is one of the largest we play in. But if you go statistically and look at it, we have a lot of doubles. We have a lot of triples, we have a lot of stolen bases, and because of that, we've also led the country and sacrifice flies the last three years. Everybody's that's a weird stat. You guys don't have a ton of power. I'm like, no, we're getting the third with less than two outs because we're running and then we're able to tag and score on balls that people don't. If we pop up to shortstop, I'm tagging like we're probably gonna go. Yeah. Which is wild, right? Yeah. And so that's just, everybody thinks it's the stolen base. It's not the stolen base that does it for us. It's the stolen base. It's the threat, it's the extra base. It's the sack fly. Yeah. It's all of that. And then that just turns your offense in. Really just high octane. And man, I, people don't like to talk about base running. I get fired up. If you put me on stage and you wanna talk about base running, I get fired up and I'm gonna go against all the, don't get thrown out at third with one out. Don't get thrown out here. Don't try to stretch this and this. And I'm like, heck with that. We're rolling. But how many games are lost in a season when kids aren't confident or they don't feel that coach's confidence where they hesitate for a second going from first to third, or they hesitate on that sack fly. Yeah. When your kids aren't thinking about and they're not worried about it. Yeah. They're a step faster. They're two steps faster and everybody's waiting for their coach. He's The coach is gonna tell me when coach is gonna tell me when I tell her women all the time, I'm not a ghost sign. I'm a stop sign. You go. I stop. Yeah. 'cause if you're waiting for me to send you, we're hesitating. We work on a plus one mentality. Everything's plus one. I hit a, I hit a ground ball to left field. It's a single. All right, what's my plus one? Can I turn a single into a double? It's a ball in a gap. I know I'm gonna get the third. How can I score? If we can have a plus one mentality and everything we're doing and we can just add those things. But I think it's not only teaching it and recruiting it, but it's talking about it or like seeing how passionate we are about it and saying let's go and showing 'em videos of that was great. That was excellent. And I look at a Lacey Campbell and the things that she does on the bases, and shoot, she scored from we scored two runs in the World series. I'm not supposed to call it the World Series, but I just did. But we scored two runs in the World Series on stealing. Second, we stole second overthrow, it gets muddled around by the center fielder. And we're gonna, we're gonna try to score. And we did, and maybe we get thrown out on those and everybody says that I'm an idiot. That's fine. But like I told somebody the other year, you ran us out of the inning, I said, you're allowed to tell me I ran us out of the inning. If you gimme a high five for the 207 stole bases we had. But until then, you can't be, Hey, we're pumped. Look at all the double steals we're doing. And oh, we, he got us thrown out. I did, but we also score, we also stole 207 bases fella. So yeah, I can get fired up bus speed, but it, it's just a game changer. And even coaching against it. When you coach against it, it just it's a difficult task because you've gotta give something up to stop it. Will you text me the names of the people that are calling you an idiot that have a national championship, please? Would you just text them to me? No, I don't wanna do that. I'd like to have a conversation with them. I want to talk about the humanity of being a coach a little bit. 'cause I have a lot of young coaches that listen to this. A lot of high school and college coaches that listen to this. And I know you, we, before we recorded, you talked about your kids and your wife and how important this world, this culture that you live in, that they're a part of that. How do you balance program building with being a husband and a dad? I just, I haven't been really good at it. I wasn't either, that's why I'm on this side. And you're still coaching? Yeah, and I'm trying to do better and I think my son, he's 13 now. I think my wife said this to me on our anniversary last year when we were just talking about the relationship from my daughter when she was three, now four, versus my relationship with my son when he was in that same age. And, I was just talking about how closer she is with her dad and. My wife's just very honest with me, and she's I don't wanna say this the wrong way and hurt your feelings. She's but you're more present with her than you were with him at that age. And she's I'm not saying you're not present with him now, but you're more present now. And she said, you are also at a different point in your career. Yeah. Which is I hear what she's saying. And part of you is really proud of what you do in your career, but the other part of you is man, I missed I, I missed, I swung and missed on that. And, but I'm learning from that. I get another shot. I had a. Daughter at 40 years old. And that certainly changed. And what I would say to some of the younger coaches is, everybody, and I don't know what everybody's office hours are, we have office hours that we're gonna work, you're gonna turn around, you're gonna be at practice till seven o'clock then. And I think early in my career, and it was different. It was building a program, it was doing those things. I was the first person to come in and brag that I was here at seven 30 in the morning. How much of that time from seven 30 in the morning to practice at seven, did I really work, work? Or how much of it was me saying I was in the office at seven 30, what were you doing? And so it was about trying to find a way to be more efficient within that time. And this morning, to be quite frank with you, I mean I was up at seven 30, my wife's first day back to school. I was in charge of my daughter this morning and we sat, had breakfast together, we had a cup of coffee together. I rode with her to the sitter and I got into the office at nine 30. The 26-year-old me would've been like, Hey man, it's nice for you doing a half a day today, coming in at nine 30. For the 44-year-old me is you know what, I'm not gonna get that time back. And it is a hard balance. I think Google Calendar has made that huge for me. My wife giggles when she's Hey, can you do this for the kids? Can you pick them up here? Can you add this? And I pull my phone out. I'm like adding to my calendar. She's like, why do you always add it to your calendar? I'm like, because if I put it in there, I know I have to pick my son up at two 30. And I have that kid that comes in the office and is do you have a minute? I'm gonna say, Hey, I have to leave at two 30. I have to pick up my son. Is this gonna be a minute or 10 minutes? Because in the past I'd be like, no problem. And then I get home at six 30. One of the coolest thing that's on my heart to share I got Jeremy Sheeter. That is Coach is a phenomenal NAI program and has been with the A BCA and he did some podcasts as well. He invited me to speak at his barnstormers clinic down there last year at Georgia Gwinnett and I went down there and it was, it's all baseball. It's all baseball. It was the softball guy. It was all baseball guys, which kind of brought me back in a moment in time. The the Auburn head baseball coach spoke and everybody stopped and listened. And I like going to those things I speak at. I like being the first one there and the last one to leave because it's like a free clinic for me. Absolutely. And I was the last one to speak. I was speaking on culture, but here nor there, one of the things he said that really super, super resonated with me. He said, gentlemen, I need you guys to listen. Young, older or whatever. And he's and I miss this. He's I came home from a big series. He's I walked through the door, I was fired up about it, do whatever. And he is my wife grabbed me and she said, I, she, I had two daughters. He said, looked at my, he's you are gonna lose. He is my little girl ran up to me and he is my wife said, you're gonna lose her just like you lost your oldest if you don't figure something out. And he was like, I don't know what you mean. She's you bring, every day when you come in, you bring all of that back into the house and all she cares about is dad's home. He said, it made him start thinking, and this is where he got me, is he said, so I really started doing, he's like my, he's you have three fives in your life, your first fives in your life every day. He said, your first fives in your life that you've gotta be intentional. And he's as a coach, he's the first five minutes of practice every day. He said is the most important part of your practice? He said, if you walk in there with your head down, if you jog up to the field, if you're late, if you got all your gear, if you're frazzled, if you're frazzled, he's your players are gonna pick up on that five. He's so I try to intentionally in that first five minutes of practice, Hey buddy, how you doing? Hey, how's your day? Hey. He's I come in with energy. If it's gonna be a day that I'm fired up in Florida, I'm like, we're gonna get after it. I come in with that kind of mentality. If it's gonna be a looser day, I come in looser. He's I set the tone with my first five minutes. He said the other, my first five. He is I give my first five minutes to the Lord when I wake up. And he's whether that's my devotional, whether that's meditation, he is like, whatever that is for you is to be able to spend that first five. Is it on your cell phone? Is it this? Is it that? To spend that first five. And he said, which got me the most when you talk about balance, he said, the first five when I walk in my house. And I've started and actually forgot my watch today, but I've started intentionally setting my watch when I walk in after work and hitting that five minute watch and like just forgetting about everything and whether that's my daughter running to me or hollering at my son who's in his, in his room as a 13-year-old coming down. Ask him how his day was. At jumping in to help with dishes or giving my wife, like I say, a good game as you, as giving my wife a good game or kiss or doing that is trying to be intentional in that first five. And that just sets the tone, right? Yeah. It's like dad's home. And that's challenging, but to carve that stuff out and then I'm very blessed to coach women and. Women are as my mom told me when I took this job, she said, men are more, you take a airplane ride with a guy, hand you a business card, says if you ever need anything, gimme a call. 'cause we're about our jobs and our position and our power. Same airplane ride with a woman. And she gives you pictures of her grandkids and her babies and her and her dogs and 'cause they're more relational driven. Very blessed to coach women and there are many a times where I shouldn't say many a times is they know coach is gonna be at practice. They know coach is gonna grind, they know coach is gonna get after it. If there's something that I feel needs to be more valued than our team that day, if I need to go to orientation for my son, or I need to go pick my daughter up, or I need to be at home or be at something for my family, I tell them, Hey, as soon as stretch is over, like I got a bolt. This is why. I'm gonna be 10 minutes late. This is why. And I think in a culture of men, it's like, ah, this guy where they're like, coach, you gotta go. Like you go, you're late. Like we got it. And I think, again, going back to the transparency pieces, spend more time with other people's kids than I do in my own. And so if I can just make sure that they know what's most important, that they appreciate that I wish I could go on a time machine and go back to my 25-year-old self. Take those lessons that you just talked about. 'cause I'm 50 and I'm just, I feel like I'm just learning some of this, or I've always known it, but I'm finally absorbing it. Yeah. And I have to remind myself of it, how important those things are. So they're great. Coach, this has been awesome. I wanna do some quick, rapid fire with you just so the audience gets to know you a little bit and have some fun ones with you. You ready for a little rapid fire? Alright, let's go. First thing that comes to your brain. Favorite stadium you've ever coached in East Texas Baptist. That facility was fantastic. And Jane Janae and her staff and we've been in Oklahoma City, but I'd rather go over there and play as a phenomenal experience. It's not the first time I've heard that answer. Best hitter or pitcher you've ever coached against? Shoot. Best hitter or pitcher I've ever coached against. Oh man, there's been so many that have beat my brains in. The first one that comes as, as far as offensively I think of two hitters. I'm gonna cheat. Patty Mayo Hanian from Christopher Newport who just hit Elite pitching unbelievably well. And then Abby Mace that just graduated from Salisbury University a couple years ago. Pretty good choices. One word your players would use to describe you. Passionate, pre-game routine. You never skip. I can't say eating 'cause I skipped that all the time. Pre-game prayer. Biggest pet peeve at practice, rolling their sleeves up on their short sleeve shirts just tells me you're lazy. It just tells me you're lazy. Go to the beach and get a tan. Favorite championship memory. Theresa Cardamone hitting a three run Homer against UT Tyler. Pretty good one too. All right, last one, one drill. Every coach should steal from you. One drill every coach should steal from me. Is there a drill that you do every day that you love, that you just know that makes your team better or you get something out of it? I probably stole that drill, so that's the problem. That's alright. I probably did too. I guarantee I stole it from somebody or at least part of it. I think for our infielder, our smitty's which is named after a good friend of mine Matt Smith who owns Hampton Road Sports Academy here in Virginia Beach. That's awesome, coach. Thanks for doing this. It was a great conversation. I'm excited to talk recruiting with you, but thanks for doing this and, and thanks for sharing your passion with our audience. I appreciate you and thank you, uh, for the opportunity to. What a fun conversation with Coach Brandon Elliott from Virginia Wesleyan University. And what a masterclass in leadership and Longevity, three national championships, a national runner up finish, and nearly 700 wins in less than 20 years. When a program's built this way, it comes from a coach who truly loves what he does, loves the culture around him, and loves the people he gets to go to work with every day. There's a lot to learn from how he's shaped Virginia Wesleyan into one of the top division three programs in the nation. As always, thank you for listening to the Significant Coaching Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to share it with another coach, athletic director, or a parent who could benefit from the lessons here. And don't forget to check out my books on Amazon, including the Softball Recruits Journal and the brand new release in the series, the Volleyball Recruits Journal that's out this week. Both are designed to give recruits and families practical tools to stay organized, focused, and confident through the college journey. You can find more resources, past episodes, and ways to connect with me@coachmattrogers.com. Until next time. Stay focused, stay humble, and keep leading with significance.