Venturella to be inducted in IU Athletics Hall of Fame

The IU Athletics Hall of Fame class will be graced with the presence of an Olympic gold athlete this year.

From South Holland, Ill., Michelle Venturella spent the early 1990s with the Indiana Hoosiers softball team on its way to multiple winnig seasons and a run in 1994 that fell one game short of the Women’s College World Series.

After IU, Venturella was a member of the USA softball team and won gold in the 2000 Sydney Games.

The now-head coach of the Illinois–Chicago Flames said one of her most memorable times lacing up was during that 1994 season.

“The whole ’94 season was just a special season for us to get that close to the World Series,” she said. “When good things are happening during championship seasons, you can’t put a finger on it. You just want to enjoy every minute because it does not happen all the time.”

Venturella’s currently has the IU season record for runs with 57, doubles with 17, home runs with 16 and RBI with 65. All thoe records were broken during the 1994 season.

She also has the career record for RBI with 153 while she is second in hits with 225, third in runs and home runs with 137 and 28, respectively, and fourth in batting average with .351.

The former Second and Third Team All-American came to Bloomington initially as a first baseman before then-IU Coach Diane Stephenson switched her to catcher.

“One of the most important things to happen in my career was when Coach Stephenson coached me to be a catcher,” she said. “That led to me getting a tryout with the USA National team, which ultimately led to me being a part of that team during the Olympics.

“I think it was meant to be that I was supposed to be at Indiana to be around the people I was around.”

Venturella said she is excited to see IU implement a new softball field, which is set to debut this coming Spring.

“I think that the school itself is such a tremendous place to spend four years,” she said. “I think the facility side needed to catch up. I definitely think they are doing that now, and I’m very excited to see that for Indiana softball.”

Venturella said she still has a lot of pride for the time spent at her alma mater.

“I’m really proud, I hope the student athletes who go there now know a little bit of the history of the people that came before them,” she said. “I just look back on that time with my teammates and our ability to accomplish something that had not been done in awhile.

“Hopefully that tradition carries through, and I hope the things we did back then help pave the way for student athletes there now.”