Miller’s road to becoming a Trojan

FAIRFIELD - It has been a long and winding road for Jeff Miller to arrive as the Fairfield High School's girls basketball coach.

He graduated from Ottumwa High School in 1978, having participated in a number of sports.

While in high school, he ran track and played basketball for one year. He played football and baseball for 4 years. He was a defensive linebacker in football and played shortstop, catcher and centerfield in baseball.

'We were very successful in baseball during my 17- and 18 year-old years,” Miller said.

In football, the Ottumwa Bulldogs won more games than they lost when Miller played, compiling a 5-4 record in each of his junior and senior years.

He played baseball for the Ottumwa Legion team because Ottumwa Schools didn't have a baseball team back in the 1970s.

He enlisted in the Army out of high school, then began his college education at the University of New Mexico while he was in the Army.

'When I started to get my college degree I was in the Army, stationed at Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico,” Miller said. 'I originally wanted to get a degree in Economics, because I really liked working with numbers. I was doing fine with the algebra, calculus and trigonometry, then had to take a quantum theory course and knew immediately I wasn't going to get through that.”

College is an eye-opening time in young people's lives and he saw he had to change his course of study.

'So after taking three semesters of classes, my enlistment was up and I moved back to Ottumwa,” Miller said. 'I thought I was going to change and get an Accounting degree, but I was asked to coach the seventh grade football team.”

A simple request put him on a different path.

'I didn't really want to do it, but the football coaching staff talked me into it,” Miller said. 'After one week of coaching, I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my live. I loved coaching the seventh graders.”

So he started his Elementary Education degree and took classes at the Ottumwa campus.

'I was able to use my Army bonus to help pay for classes and living arrangements,” Miller said.

The rest is history.

'I finished at Buena Vista University with a degree in Elementary Education,” Miller said. 'I then got certified in Secondary Special Education from Morningside College. I have a Master's in Educational Leadership and a Specialist in Education, both from Drake University.”

As for coaching, his first experience was with the seventh grade football for Ottumwa Schools. He also coached seventh and eighth grade boys basketball and track and field at Ottumwa. He then was an assistant ninth grade boys basketball coach before becoming the head coach for the ninth grade girls at Ottumwa.

'That was my first year coaching girls,” Miller said. 'My coaching style has always been pretty consistent with both boys and girls. I treat middle school student-athletes different than high school athletes.”

He coached the junior varsity in baseball and the junior varsity in football at Ottumwa.

'I then got a teaching position at Davis County High School Schools,” Miller said.

At Davis County, he started coaching the junior varsity football team as well as the seventh and eighth grade track and field teams.

He then coached ninth grade girls basketball for one year before his accumulation of experience allowed him to become the head boys basketball coach at Davis County.

'I look for student-athletes to learn the fundamentals, work hard, be a good teammate, be a good sportsman and have a positive attitude,” Miller said of his coaching style. 'If we can get the team to work hard with these aspects, success will follow.”

Miller had a combined record of 31-9 as the boys coach before becoming the head girls basketball coach at Davis County. He also was the head softball coach and girls golf coach at Davis County for three years in each sport. He has a 139-66 as the girls coach at Davis County.

'At the high school level, I have had the same expectations no matter the sex of the athlete,” Miller said. 'I coach each sex pretty much the same.”

He last coached at Davis County 12 years ago and left for a school administration position, taking over as the grades seven-through-12 principal at Van Buren County. This past season at Fairfield was his first season back on the bench and in the gym coaching.

'I came to Fairfield because we played Fairfield every year when I coached at Davis County and I found that Fairfield was a school of great character and had high expectations and accomplishments,” Miller said. 'Overall I enjoyed my first year at Fairfield. There are a couple of games that I will remember for outstanding play and then there's the fact that we did not win conference. That will always sting. But, ultimately I will remember the great personnel I was surrounded by including administration, coaches, community members and players.”

Being surrounded by great personnel was a welcome change from an experience Miller had during his baseball playing days as a teenager.

'We played 64 games a year with the first doubleheader being played at Ft. Madison Prison when our team played against the prisoners,” Miller said. 'Those were interesting experiences. During my 17-year-old year someone escaped just as the first game got started and the prison went on an hours-long lockdown and we were stuck inside the prison for six hours.”

Please read more on Miller's experience on the prison lockdown in tomorrow's Southeast Iowa Union.