Michelle Venturella

Michelle Venturella was a softball catcher who helped lead the United States to the 2000 Olympic softball gold medal. She also won a gold medal at the 1998 World Championships.

Venturella played for Indiana University from 1992-95, graduating with a degree in kinesiology. She was named All-Big 10 Conference three-times and was the 1994 Player of the Year. After college she started a coaching career while playing some professional softball. She was an assistant at Northern Illinois University in 1997.

Venturella played for the Durham Dragons in 1999, a founding member of the Women’s Professional Fastpitch League. In 2001 she played for the WPSL Gold in the Women’s Professional Softball League.

She returned to coaching in 2003 and was an assistant at the University of Iowa, serving there through 2008. From 2009-16 she was the head coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2017 she was named head coach at Washington University in St. Louis and held that position through 2022. Venturella received a master’s degree in coaching and athletic administration in 2016. She was inducted into the Indiana University Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.