Damon Miller tried everything to keep from becoming a football coach.
His father, Jack, was a coach, and it was the last thing he wanted for his only son Damon.
“We tried to steer him away from coaching all during his high school days,” Jack says, now retired after finishing his career as the head coach at Sunset.
“We got him started in that direction, but he backed out on it.”
The son could not deny genetics, however. At the relatively young age of 30, Damon Miller was named head coach of the Woodrow Wildcats.
Papa couldn’t be prouder.
“I was coaching when he was born, and he’s lived in a coaching family, so he knows what it takes,” Jack says.
And now that Damon is a head coach, he is also starting a family. His wife, Lea-Ann, gave birth to son Cayn in March.
“New kid, new job,” says Miller, who spent the last five years as the defensive coordinator at Woodrow. “The kid has changed my perspective a lot. But I’ve always wanted to be a head coach, and when this job came up, it seemed like a natural.”
For someone who spent much of his life trying to be anything but a football coach, Miller somehow got on the coaching fast track.
He grew up in Cedar Hill, where he was an All-District linebacker two years and a state qualifier in the discus at Cedar Hill High. From there he went to West Point, where he was on course for a career in the military. He planned to major in engineering.
However, his heart wasn’t in the military, and he transferred to the University of Texas, where he switched his major to business.
But Miller wasn’t long for Austin. Soon he was at Texas A&M, where he changed his major again to biology. He walked on to the football team and made the traveling squad his second year in College Station. By his senior year, he had earned a scholarship as deep snapper and backup linebacker behind future NFL players Johnny Holland and Larry Kelm.
By then, the yearning to coach couldn’t be denied. Miller changed majors one last time, to physical education, and set out to be a football coach.
His first stop was at East Texas State in Commerce, where he served as the defensive line coach while earning his master’s degree.
From there, he landed at Woodrow in the fall of 1989. The Wildcats had just gone through a staff shake-up and were without a defensive coordinator.
After two-a-day practices ended, Miller earned the coordinator’s job.
Some coaches spend all their lives trying to reach the level Miller has attained by age 30. He says he realizes how fortunate he has been.
“I really do,” says Miller, who turned 31 Aug. 6. “Most people, when they come out of college, don’t get a defensive coordinator position, either. It was really luck.”
Miller says not much will change about the Wildcats under his direction. He will still be in charge of the defense, serving as his own coordinator, while Ron Elliott will be the offensive coordinator.
Former head coach Bruce Land is now the full-time athletic director at Woodrow, leaving Miller the opportunity to concentrate strictly on football.
However, there are added responsibilities that go with being a head coach. Dealing with parents, the booster club, and the media comes with the job description. Miller says he can handle all that.
“What worries me the most is getting the kids to and from the games,” Miller says. “Doing all the paperwork, getting all the buses, that’s what’s new to me, the administrative stuff.”
“Once I get on the field, I’ll be very comfortable.”
His father, Jack, says one of the worst things about coaching was not being able to spend as much time with Damon when he was growing up. While Damon was in high school playing in games, Jack was miles away, coaching someone else’s kids. Damon is determined not to have those same regrets.
“It used to be, and I think everyone who knows me would say this, that school was first,” Miller says. “It (having a child) is definitely going to detract from that. I’m not going to lie about that, because I want to be with my kid. But it’s not going to affect my time with football.”
“Football is still my life. My wife understands that. It got me where I am, and it’s part of who I am.”
Miller says the coaching staff’s priority at Woodrow remains the same. Wins and losses are important, but at a school such as Woodrow, success is measured on a different scale.
“We’re not here to build a football team. People always ask us how we’re going to do, and I always say we’re going to do our best.”
“We try to build character. I’ve told the booster club and everyone else, I’m willing to lose a game to prove a point. If that means sitting out a good player, so be it. We’ve got to have discipline. Discipline’s a part of life.”
