Scott Veno 032524 (with noise reduction)

The Ohio Storm Coaches Corner Podcast is dedicated to sharing stories from coaches, players, and parents in the world of competitive softball. The podcast is sponsored by Ohio Storm and Crew Sports. The guest, Scott Vino, shares his journey in softball, starting as a player and eventually becoming a coach. He talks about his experience in the travel softball world and the challenges of finding the right team. He also discusses the importance of connections and timing in the softball journey. Scott emphasizes the need for research and caution when choosing a travel team, as there are teams that are only interested in taking money. He shares his own positive experiences and some not-so-positive ones. Overall, he highlights the ups and downs of the competitive softball landscape. Welcome to the Ohio Storm Coaches Corner Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to passive pitch softball, where we are committed to sharing authentic and unique stories from coaches, players, and parents. We hope these stories encourage you and shine light on how people from all stages have dealt with the ups and downs of the competitive softball landscape. This podcast is brought to you by Ohio Storm, a premier travel organization from northeast Ohio, and Crew Sports, a company dedicated to helping student athletes navigate the recruiting process. For more information on Ohio Storm, visit ohiostormpasspitch.com. For more information on Crew Sports, visit crewsports.net. Thanks again for joining. We really appreciate it. Now on to the podcast. Hey, I'm joined today by my good friend, Scott Vino, who is one of the leaders at the Ohio Storm organization. Excited to have him on the podcast today. Scott, thanks for joining and glad to have you. Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate the opportunity to get in front of folks and get to talk softball. Awesome. Let's start with, just so everybody can kind of catch up, your kind of your history of softball, when you guys got started, your family's obviously deep into it. So give me a little bit of a rundown on how softball has looked like in your life and where you've been. Sure, sure. So as most dads, you know, we start off, many of them probably played ball early on in their days. And I'm no different, you know, played the ball, played ball, love the sport, played baseball, softball, that kind of stuff. And of course, later on in life, we have kids and, you know, fortunately, I've had the pleasure to have two beautiful daughters. And they, of course, have taken a liking to the sport as well, watching dad play, whatever the case is. So as they started to get older, doing the dad thing, getting into softball, t-ball, that kind of stuff. And we just kind of continued to morph into higher level, more competitive type of softball. We really seem to want it. And, you know, we're, you know, like most folks, competitive and want to play some of the best that we can play. So we started going down that road. And it started, obviously, with the t-ball stuff, like I mentioned, and then we got into some rec ball local. And that was early on, you know, seven, eight years old, nine years old, wanted to go to a little more competitive scene, and didn't know exactly the travel world, to be honest with you. And started doing our research in that area and had heard conflicting stories, some good stuff, some not good stuff. Do we want to get in that? Is that the road we want to go down? So obviously, we elected to go down that road, tried to research, took some advice from those that had gone before us that we were fortunate enough to be able to lean on and found a local travel team by the name of Ohio Lightning that was looking for a player. And at the time they were looking, it was, you know, for those that are familiar with the travel softball world, it was in January, which would be the middle of a year, contract year. So not at the beginning of the contract year, this was in the middle of winter, and they had an opportunity or an opening and we applied for it, they invited us to a practice, we tried out. And fortunately, we got an offer to join the team. And so as it turned out, it was still to this day, one of the most memorable seasons, even though we played a half a season, essentially. We joined a phenomenal team with some great coaches and got very lucky. Or maybe some of our research helped us get a little lucky, whatever you want to say. But had a great year, I think we won five tournaments as a team. And that team really started to take off. So at the end of that year, though, my daughter was still, my oldest daughter, first one that we brought into this, was still wanting to pursue pitching because she was a pitcher. She was very raw. So while we were fortunate to get an offer to stay with that team, we weren't offered to be able to pitch. So we elected to, you know, look further and we moved on. And then from really from there, we went to an organization that had another, it was a pretty good team and spent the season with them a full year. And that team wanted to, at the end of that year, they actually wanted to leave their organization. But through those times, through that season, the gentleman that was the coach was a non-parent coach. And he happened to work for one of the auto makers. And in this particular plant that he worked at, they were actually shutting it down. And for those that wanted to continue to stay in that industry and keep their job, they would have to move out of state. Well, this coach moved out of state. He had to leave. He left the team to his daughter in the middle of our season, actually. Fortunately, along the way, I started helping them just as like a parent-dad helping on the side. And they kind of brought me in to help coach at that point in time because, well, they needed help. And really, that's what started the coaching side of it for me. And from there, we moved beyond that team at the end of the year. They were looking to maybe move organizations. I started doing some research, started looking out, reaching out to some of the more premier organizations, if you will, in our area in Ohio. And fortunately, we got an opportunity with Ohio Storm. They had an opening. They wanted to expand their organization from what they were currently doing. And the president said, do you think you can bring enough talent in to build a team? And I said, yes, I think I can do that. This team where we were going to start it was going to be out of the geographical area historically for Ohio Storm. So it would be kind of a new branched out effort, if you will. And so they gave me the opportunity. And that was in 2019. And at that point, we built that team starting in 12U with the Ohio Storm. And we had some bumpy roads, there's no doubt. We learned a lot, made some mistakes, did some things right, continued to build the team. And today that team is still intact. And we're now in 16U. And we're playing pretty much exclusively college showcase tournaments and have been. So that's kind of where the whole, you know, the history, if you will, of how we got into this and, you know, as a parent and then as a coach. And I had mentioned at the beginning that I had two daughters. Well, my youngest daughter, naturally, she gets the opportunity to get more involved sooner or younger, which has been great. However, you know, dad was coaching the older daughter for all these years and the younger daughter was not really getting that. So this year, just as fate would have it, we had another opening in our organization. It happened to be the year of my younger daughter. And at that point in time, we made a decision as an organization that we could start another team. And I decided to do that. And so we started a 12U team as well this year, brand new. So that's kind of the journey up to this point, if you will, a little history of, you know, how we got to where we're at, at least at this point. Yeah. And I think that's like, to me, that's what's so interesting hearing people that have been on the softball journey. There's so many, you know, there's connections, there's opportunity, there's moments where things line up. You know, we tend to make it all about, you know, the kids' level of play and, yeah, I'm putting my kid on a travel team or whatever. But there's a lot, there's a lot to this whole world that is about connections and about timing and about open doors. And you just never know where things are going to take you. So it's good to, yeah, good to hear your perspective. I do have a question about, I want to get into more about the Ohio Storm and some of the announcements and cool things you guys are doing recently. But before we go there, I'm going to take you back to kind of you getting into the travel world. You mentioned you obviously heard some good things, heard some bad things. It's a big jump for anybody. What were some of the things that maybe surprised you most as you jumped into the travel world? Things maybe you didn't see coming or you were surprised by when you jumped in? Well, I think when we were researching travel ball, if you will, or club ball, some of the things that we were receiving in feedback were some of the obvious. You try to research the coach, see where they're playing, find out what the costs are, find out what their philosophy is, how many players are they going to keep, all those kinds of things. And some of the others were, be really careful because there's a lot of teams out there that just want to take your money. And that was one that stuck with me from the very beginning. It kind of gave me a little bit of a, oh boy, I sure hope I don't make the wrong decision. Because that just kind of stuck with me like, man, people do that. They take someone just to get their money so that they can have the dollars that they need. And so we were really trying to research some of that and trying to get an idea of the coach and who might know the coach and reach out. And fortunately, the team was local enough that we were able to find some people that we knew personally that knew the coach outside of the travel ball world, if you will. And so we were able to get some good idea of who he was and who they were and what they represented. So I'd say in the very beginning, those were things that we were really looking at. Once we got into it, there's all kinds of, I think we've experienced so many different things. It's hard to pinpoint every time that you've learned or you've experienced, but there's a lot of positive and there's unfortunately some not positive stuff that goes on and probably doesn't anything in life, really. Sure. Yeah, we're hoping to spend some time through this podcast and maybe other series and other sessions where we can dive into some of the specific learnings, things that have been, we've all learned through this do's and don'ts and try to encourage people along. It is a lot of fun. There's a lot of cool things out there. There's also some learnings that all of us can share that will help people as they're diving in. So yeah, let's shift for a minute to OhioStorm present day. So maybe take me a little bit about where the organization's been recently and then some of the exciting announcements, changes that have been announced recently that they're going to take you guys even to a higher level. Sure. So OhioStorm was founded about 15 years ago or so and a gentleman by the name of Ryan Pence had started the organization. He started it in central Ohio, specifically in the Mount Vernon, Ohio area, which is a small town in rural Ohio, central part of Ohio. And he was looking for something better than the local rec ball stuff. Same scenario, but he decided to start an organization with his daughter and his team. And he started the organization. And from there, they started adding teams, one team per age group until they started filling the age group. As he continued to age on, they were filling back, filling behind them and building this organization. One team per age group. And eventually his team aged out. I think the 2018 was the grad year. And when he aged out or slightly before he aged out, he passed on the baton, if you will, to a gentleman by the name of Jason Jones, who became the president of the organization. Of course, through that time, they built a whole board and put bylaws together and really structured the organization. And so Jason has been the president up through the current time. And however, he's getting at that point where he's soon going to be aging out as well. And so it's kind of interesting because he's taken the organization from where Ryan had brought it or started it, if you will. And Jason has continued to build the organization and has taken it further than Ryan has, which has been awesome. He's done that by numerous things, bringing in additional teams. He's expanded the organization outside of that Knox County, Mount Vernon, Ohio area, which would essentially be my first team. The team that he brought, which was us in Northeast Ohio. And that was kind of the beginning of adding more teams outside the area. So he kind of took it to another level where we got to a point where we were adding, essentially having two teams per age group, playing competitive softball, mostly in Ohio, playing what we would consider some of the best tournaments in Ohio and doing some nationals at the end of the year and that kind of thing. So we fast forward to today and Jason is, you know, we sat down and we discussed, you know, what the future might hold. He's knowing that his time is coming to an end soon. We had to make some decisions. And, you know, he wanted to leave the organization better than when he got it. And he was hoping that someone could take it on that would, you know, take it further than what he has brought it to so far. So, you know, we sat down and started thinking about and talking about and strategizing about where we wanted the organization to go, where is it now, and where we want it to be in five years. And so, you know, we felt that this organization has built itself and its reputation on being a premier, if you will, a premier team, but mostly Ohio-based. And so, you know, we play in a lot of the good tournaments, the big tournaments here in Ohio. A few of us go outside of Ohio to play some, but we kind of fly under the radar. That was the best way I could describe it in another instance. The organization has been doing a phenomenal job of helping girls continue to develop and even giving them opportunity to go beyond the high school ranks. But we've been doing it all along under the radar. And just the name recognition because of that has been maybe not as significant as other organizations in the area, in the state, maybe in the region. And because of those things, we said, you know what, we can take this further. There are ways to do this. We have the tools. We just need some help. We need some influx of talent at the leadership level. And we need someone to take this on and take it over from Jason. And so, since then, we have found some talent that we think from a leadership standpoint that will help us do that. I accepted the opportunity to take the role of Jason Jones's position when he is finished, and which would be to be the president and run the organization. But we have also brought in other folks like Angela Cedars and Julie Christopher who are going to add an enormous amount of talent to our leadership board. But with that talent, our goals are going to be to take the organization to a whole other level, expand our footprint outside of Ohio, establish our name with some of the top-ranked organizations out there that are running maybe in this part of the country. And so, you know, kind of to sum it all up, that's kind of a little historical on Ohio Storm. You know, how they started, where they've come, and where we want to go. And so, you know, part of that final piece is that we just started making announcements of what and how we want to go about that. And so we're going to be launching next year a whole new tier of teams called our Premier Tier Teams. And they're going to be what we would consider teams that will play A-level tournaments, multi-state, or even you can consider them national. It just depends on how you want to define that. Essentially, it means we're going to go out and we're going to put our organization out in front of a lot of top-level tournaments. And we're going to pursue that heavily, and that's going to be a new transition for our organization starting next year. Yeah, that's all it's all been encouraging. And yeah, I'm certainly looking forward to watching the evolution of it all. And I think there's a lot of great things to come. There are a lot of organizations there are, depending on where you live and certainly across the nation, there's pockets where certain organizations have strongholds or more of a presence. And Ohio is no different, right? There's a lot of organizations here. If you were talking to a parent about their kid joining Premier or any other level, how would you describe or lay out what makes Ohio Storms stand out? Not dogging or pointing fingers at other organizations, but what are the things you're like, man, this is what makes us special as compared to maybe some other experiences they might have? Sure. Well, it's a great question. And we can lean on our experiences. We feel strongly about how we go about handling our families and our players. And I think that it goes a long way. We're very family-based and family-oriented, trying to teach core fundamentals and developing skills for not just softball, but for beyond softball that can help these girls in life. And that's a big deal. We really, really emphasize those types of things. And the core morale and values of a family environment are really, that's the fundamental piece that we bring to the table. And it's funny because we're always talking about it. We've had this with both of my teams so far. It's interesting when you have people that will come and play and say sub with you on your team. It's just really gratifying to understand that the feedback we get is that they just absolutely love playing because we seem to draw these families that are very, I don't know, they're a lot of team-first families. They're very much willing to put their hand in the pile and try to do what we can as a group to help everyone succeed. And it may be it's because of how we interview players and families when we bring them on. And some of those kinds of things seem to be real difference makers for us. And while we fly under the radar, like I said, we are a very, very competitive organization that has done very well. And we seem to do a really good job of bringing folks like that into our group. Yeah. And I think that's so, I mean, just from my own experience doing this and the various teams and organizations we've interacted with, I just think it's such an underrated piece of this whole thing. There's talent and there's, hey, we got to get in the best tournaments and we got to have the best team. And certainly we're all trying to put a great team on the field, but having that relationship inside the family, inside the families of the team, you spend a lot of time together, a lot of hours at the fields, a lot of hours in the hotel, traveling, all the things like that. And I just, now looking back at it, I can't stress the importance for people just that you've got to really find an environment that is supportive, that you can get along with people. And they don't have to be your best friends in life, but the people that you behave are in your corner, and they want to see you win and want to see you, and you mentioned it, like want to see your kid become a solid grown adult woman. Like that's what this, I mean, yeah, we want them to go get a scholarship and all that jazz, that's cool. But at the end of the day, they need to be strong adult women. Those are harder things to pick up just by watching some team on Game Changer or the tournament where you're like, wow, they're really good, I'd love to play with them. Man, the culture may be toxic. So yeah, encouraged to hear that you guys are putting that first and making that a priority. We do, and it's, you know, we just have a different approach in that regard. And as coaches, we, I feel, in general, as a whole, and as a whole, I can't say that it's always 100%, but in general, I feel like our coaching staff and our group of coaches do a very good job of teaching girls how to play the game and teaching them skills that are life skills. You know, it's not us, we're not, we've never really been the organization that just brings in the most talented players there are around and pull the most polished and most developed and most talented kids for those age levels and put them on a team and go out and start blowing everyone away. It's just not been our MO. Our MO has been to bring girls up, to pull them up from, you know, lower levels, even, and teach them and coach them up and pull them up into higher level of play. And a lot of it has to do with, you know, we're very interested in mental well-being, which is a big deal. That's a whole other topic to get on. And, you know, that whole approach of understanding, you know, understanding young women and children and how to put them in the best position to succeed, not just from a softball standpoint, but from a mental standpoint and just a life standpoint. And I think we just do a great job of that. That is probably one of our key bullet points, if you will. Yeah, so important. So important. Yeah, I'd love to, maybe we can do another recording on, yeah, just some of the different specific experiences and even the skill sets and things you guys are trying to drive home to grow these young women into adults and maybe even some of the specific examples of being able to do that. I'd love to hear some of those stories and also get into some of the recruiting stuff, too. I mean, obviously, that's an important topic is how do you get kids to that next level? And that's a whole other topic on the expectations around that and what that looks like. Let me pivot to maybe a question that I'd love to ask anybody who comes on this podcast, just because I think we learn so much from each other's experiences and we don't probably do enough of just listening to other people that have been on this softball journey and go, hey, what did you learn? What did you see? What piece of advice would you give me? And I know when I've done that, I've always walked away with like, man, that's good. Or that's something I really need to think about. Or if I'm invalidated, like, oh man, yeah, that's exactly how I feel. Thank you for sharing that. So I'd love to hear from you. I mean, you've kind of got both pieces of this, right? You've got the dad piece you mentioned. You've got the coaches piece. Maybe let's start with the coaching piece. What's one piece of advice you would give coaches out there if they were listening to, whether they're new coaches, long-time coaches, what's some advice you would give them just as they lead their softball? I think maybe one thing that stands out to me and has been, I think what I would say has been effective for me, let's put it that way. I don't know if this works for everyone. I think that boys and girls are different and they can and need to be coached differently just because of, we're just different components. You get more out of taking the positive approach than you do the negative or the yelling approach. Not that we don't hold the kids accountable. Of course we do. And we have to coach them up. But it's amazing how much these girls will do for their coaches when they know that you've got their back and you're there for them and what's best for them and they feel that. That's just a piece that has always been a good thing for me. I'm not that guy that bra beats or yells or that kind of thing. Maybe from a coaching standpoint, that would be the one thing I'd throw out there. I've heard that similar advice talking to other coaches. Definitely a different dynamic. Also a lot of trust building that has to happen as you call that. Sometimes there's some correction or discipline that maybe needs to take place. But when the girls know that it's coming from a place of, hey, I believe in you and I want the best for you and you can trust me. Even in my correction of you, it's from a place of wanting to see grow in your game or grow in your character or whatever the case may be. I've heard that from various coaches. You've got to build some trust and foundation before you can really even think about being a little more vocal. Not that that's even needed all the time, but when you do it, you've got to have a backing of trust there, which I think is so crucial. Yes, agreed. Last question would just be any advice you have for any parents out there. This is a wild journey. It's a long journey. It's an expensive journey. All the things you could list. What's maybe one piece of advice you would give them as they go on this with their daughter? Sure. Well, everybody's going to know about the costs, that part of it. To me, I think there's two things that stand out equally to me, if you will, if I could throw them out there. First and foremost is really understanding who the coach or coaches are on a team that you're pursuing. I think the coaching is an enormous component of that. Seeking what you might want or what you think you might want out of a coach. I just think that's a big deal in finding good coaching, someone that's going to be good for your daughter in that regard. I guess it's twofold. That kind of runs in with the same thought of, I've been saying this for a long time, and I'm sure others will say it, maybe some will disagree, but I don't think people should be consumed with what is the name on the front of the belly. There's so much more that can be had and can still be accomplished and not have to be consumed with that. That would be my advice. While that's great, and that on the front can be great, and I don't want to discount that, but there are other things that could be more important, and coaching could be one of them, than just that name on the front. I think that would be my piece of advice to a parent. Yeah, so good. I feel like that's the hard part. There's a lot of attraction to, yeah, you got to go with a big name. I got to know where everybody else is going. I got to do all those things. Then also, it's a fast moving world. You think about joining a team, you go to a tryout, you get an offer the next day or something, and you feel like you're having to make decisions very, very quickly. I always told my wife, I was like, man, wouldn't it be great if it was just almost common practice? You want to check out a new team, you go to a tryout or whatever the case may be, and then you go to dinner together. Just give yourself one shot to see if you can handle spending time with this coach and the parents, just a casual gathering together. I know there's a lot of pressure to make decisions quickly, and you're right. You got to do your homework. Got to make sure you understand the coach, what they're about. You probably have even heard a little bit about that through the grapevine, and then not being so caught up on all the shiny stuff, and really do what's best for your kid. It's great. Definitely. Yeah. Thanks for the time tonight, Scott. I obviously wish you guys well. Hope you guys have an amazing couple of months and year ahead as you guys transform and push towards premier level. All the best luck to you guys. We'll be rooting for you. Obviously, we'll be there along the way, and really just appreciate you taking the time to meet with us tonight. We appreciate the time as well, Ryan. Thank you for having me and giving us an opportunity to talk about Ohio Storm and some other things. I think we're just getting to the tip of the iceberg here. Thank you very much. Hopefully, we'll get back at this thing again, and we'll talk some more softball. Awesome. Thanks, Scott. Thanks for listening to the Ohio Storm Coach's Corner. We hope this episode encourages you as you go through your own softball journey. Please take a couple of seconds to subscribe to the podcast and come back often. We would love for you to share the podcast with other coaches, players, and parents. Thank you for listening. We really appreciate it.