Taylor McQuillin is quite busy these days working two jobs: coaching and pitching professionally.

For the former Arizona softball standout, life couldn't get much better as she's around the sport she loves.

McQuillin had started thinking about "what would I do if I didn't have softball in my life?" way back before she graduated from Mission Viejo High School in Southern California.

"For me, getting into college, experiencing what that was like having a good group of coaches around me, coaching me and teaching me as I grew up, I just wanted to be able to pay it back to the game and help grow the game in any way I could," McQuillin said. "Part of that is (playing) professionally, but then the other part of that is my other profession: coaching. (I just wanted to) make it bigger for future generations to come, to have more than what I had and more than what the people before me had."

As a professional softball pitcher, McQuillin had quite a few firsts with Athletes Unlimited. She was part of the inaugural season of Athletes Unlimited in 2020, as well as last season's new league, AUSL. She will play again this year.

McQuillin also has international experience, playing for two seasons in Japan's Diamond Softball League on Hitachi Sundiva. She played in the 2020 Olympics for the Mexican National team.

The coaching side of things started when she was a graduate assistant at Arizona after her collegiate playing career ended.

During her time at Arizona (2016-19), the lefty was a two-time All-American and put up these numbers: 842 strikeouts and 82 wins in 716 innings pitched, with a 1.90 career ERA. Opponents only hit .194 off her. She pitched 34 shutouts; 15 in 2018, which led the nation.

And in a twist of fate, her first shutout in her first game in a Wildcat uniform came against Southern Utah, the same program where she currently is an associate head coach.

While McQuillin is only a handful of years into her coaching career, she said her style isn't quite formed yet. Some days it's a little more relaxed, other days not so much.

One thing that stays constant is that she's a "straight shooter."

McQuillin tells her players that they will always get the truth from her "and that we're going to grow and get better from it."

"I think I've come to realize a lot of women at the collegiate level and at the professional level, they respect honesty, and they're here for a reason, and they've worked hard to be here for a reason," McQuillin said. "They've had some tough conversations, so keep having the tough conversations, but being honest with them and loving them and supporting them through everything."

The other constant is that McQuillin relies on the lessons she learned from her coaches throughout the years.

There are four coaches who have shaped her: legendary coach Mike Candrea at Arizona; Mike Stith, who coached her travel ball team, OC Batbusters; and former Arizona pitching coaches Stacy Iveson and Taryne Mowatt-McKinney.

McQuillin feels especially connected to Iveson and Mowatt-McKinney (now at Mississippi State), two of the best who pitched in the circle at Hillenbrand and went on to become coaches.

"Stacy was really great at being that coach you could count on. (She was) that motherly figure (with) the coach's perspective, who would sit down and have the conversations with you. Maybe not as head on but just being able to allow you to talk through scenarios. I think (I have) a little bit of that, just allowing my players to come talk to me, talk things out and work things out," McQuillin said. "Taryne reshaped the way that I thought about pitching from a different lens. I've taken a lot of that and use that for myself (when pitching) but also try to (give) that to our pitchers on my staff now. I think something that Taryne did really well is continuously learning, continuously growing, and that's what she brought to the table. (That is something) I love about coaching."

McQuillin is always looking to grow, always looking for an edge — an approach that has helped her evolve and continue to be successful as a pitcher.

It also carries over to her coaching. McQuillin said that still playing has made her a better coach. She brings back what she is learning from both a player and a coaching perspective. From her coaches, she gains so much, including observing how they communicate the same information in multiple ways, as each player processes things differently.

Back home

In another twist of fate, Southern Utah started this season at the same Hillenbrand Stadium that McQuillin calls home.

The Thunderbirds dropped both games to the Wildcats 8-0 in five innings.

McQuillin continues to spend a lot of time at Hillenbrand in her off seasons training. She also gets a chance to throw batting practice for the Wildcats during that time and even before postseason in the spring when she's done coaching.

Still, this experience was completely new for McQuillin. Sitting in the opposite dugout and coaching against her alma mater.

"Home is great; home is where the heart is. Being able to be home and experience it this way, in this light as a coach now on the field instead of the athlete on the field, I think it hit me a little bit with the nostalgia and the surrealness when I walked in. That kind of gave me the emotions that I wasn't really expecting," McQuillin said. "You show up to someplace every day and you think it's your home, and it is, and then you look at it from an outside perspective. You're like, 'Wow this place is really special, and this is the place that raised me.' I'm really grateful that I got a 360 moment and getting to come back here and coach at this field for the first time."

PJ Brown is the founder of The Undercovered, a Substack newsletter covering untold stories in women's college, professional and Olympic sports. Find more of her work at theundercovered.substack.com.

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