Hal Miller is filled with gratitude. As he manages an MSHSL state
tennis tournament this week for the 64th and final time before
stepping away, he is grateful for all the friends he has made and all the fun
he has had. And everyone who knows Hal Miller is beyond grateful to call him a
friend.
That group numbers in the hundreds, if not thousands, because Hal,
74, has had a positive impact on more lives than can be counted. Every fall, he
has guided either the Class A or Class 2A girls state tennis tournament, and in
the spring he has done the same for the boys. He has been doing so for 33
years, missing only two tournaments that were canceled due to Covid-19.
“There certainly will be sadness at the finality of it,”
Miller said before the boys state tournament began its Tuesday-through-Friday
run. He is spending his final week on the job managing the Class A site at the
InnerCity Tennis center in south Minneapolis.
“Certainly
I’ll miss the people, I’ll miss the challenge, I’ll miss being involved,” he
said. “The excitement that comes from watching kids compete and play and their
sportsmanship. I’ve made some great, great friends, not just with coaches, but
with parents who come back and visit and say hello. It’s been not even a labor
of love, it’s been an experience of love and appreciation. I think the world of
the high school league and its people and its mission.”
It's
a little odd that a person who is so strongly linked with high school tennis in
Minnesota never played competitive tennis, either in high school or college.
Miller played football, basketball and baseball during high school in
Alexandria, played football for one year at St. Cloud State and was a batting-practice
catcher and manager for the St. Cloud State baseball team. Being part of a team
has been important to him throughout his life.
After
college he was hired to teach in Willmar in the late 1970s. The high school had
an opening for a girls tennis coach and Miller was asked if he was interested.
He took the job despite having little knowledge of the sport.
“I
knew two things; how to keep score and how to buy tennis balls,” he said with
his familiar laugh. “I went to camps and clinics and I had so many good
mentors. That first team won 14 matches and went to the section finals. It
wasn’t because of me, they were well-taught before me. They almost took me to
the state tournament. I got hooked on it because of those kids.”
That’s
been the tent pole of Miller’s educational and coaching career ever since: the kids. During team play at
state tournaments, he is well-known for conducting pre-match meetings with both
teams that are filled with a mixture of congratulations, sportsmanship,
camaraderie, and gratefulness. He puts a smile on everyone’s face.
In
recent days, sorting through boxes at his home in the small town of Raymond, he
discovered a letter from 1990. Dorothy McIntyre, then a member of the MSHSL
staff and a pioneer in Minnesota girls sports, had written to Miller with an
offer to become a state tennis manager.
“That
was a jog back in history,” he said.
He
credits McIntyre not only for her outstanding work on behalf of Minnesota high
school kids, but for being a mentor to him. She is one of many people Hal has been
thinking about during his final week as a tournament manager.
Litchfield
tennis coach Greg Matthews was one of the first established coaches who helped Miller
understand the keys to building a successful program.
“I watched
the program Bernie Rolle created at St. Cloud Apollo, and Bill Ritchie and
Jerry Sales from Tech,” Hal said. “I remember talking to Ted Greer (Edina)
about ways to get our team to the next level and play in the state tennis
tournament. He gave me terrific advice, which elevated us to make nine team
tournaments. John Eberhardt, Dave Edwards, Les Zellman, Jeff Demary, Dave
Stearns, Rich Strokirch, Steve Paulson, Perry Forester, Bruce Thompson, Lisa
Salo, Mike Cartwright, Paul Bates, Ted Warner, Tara Reichmann.
“Loren
Holter from our program, Cheryl King and Dallas Hagen and Crookston coach Mike
Geoffrey were just some of the many coaches and friendships I cherished and
learned from. They were friends with a great passion for the game and I
learned so much from each one of them. These coaches never punched a time
clock, they simply worked until the job was done and they were more than willing
to help a player from another program to reach their full potential.”
Hal coached
the Willmar girls tennis team for 28 years and the boys for 22 (four as an
assistant, 18 as head coach).
He likes to
tell stories about growing up in Alexandria, including tales of his time with
friends at playgrounds, ball fields or gyms.
“We
learned to play each game the right way, respect our opponents and enjoy the
game itself from coaches and teachers. I took those lessons to heart when I
took over the girls tennis program. I went to clinics, talked to successful
coaches and asked a lot of questions. I also watched other programs outside of
tennis and observed how they built and developed their programs.”
Once he became involved in state
tournaments, Miller suggested changes to make the experience even better for
the teams and players. He pushed to allow alternates to play exhibition matches
at state on courts that would otherwise be empty, which has become the norm. He
also urged the MSHSL to have matches in each class at a single site; the format
used to call for teams that lost in the state quarterfinals to move to an
alternate site for consolation matches.
When told that using one site would
mean longer days for himself and other tournament staff, Hal didn’t hesitate.
“I said, ‘I don’t care. It’s not about
me.’ It’s about the kids, coaches and parents. It’s their magic carpet ride.”
When he was hired at Willmar, the young man was informed that he
was in a special spot.
“They
told me the day I signed my contract, ‘This is a place you can spend your
entire career. It’s a place where you can stay and be happy.’ ”
That
played out. Even in retirement from teaching, Miller remains a fixture in the
community. He works as a public-address announcer at Willmar High School
events, volunteers with school and civic groups, and stays active and involved.
Everyone knows Hal.
His honors
are many, and he is grateful for all of them. He was named the Class 2A girls tennis coach of
the year in 2003, was inducted into the Willmar Cardinal Pride Hall of Fame in
2011, received the Distinguished Service Award from the National Federation of
State High School Associations in 2015 and was
inducted into the MSHSL Hall of Fame that same year.
“I benefitted from some really
good kids,” he said, as always turning the focus away from himself. “I started
some kids really young in summer programs. The kids that were on the team took
part and helped build the program, because they loved it.”
Longtime tennis coaches Steve
Haug of Alexandria and Rick
Engelstad of Pine City have worked alongside Miller in managing state
tournaments for years, relationships that Hal called “exceptional and what a joy.”
Tournament managers are involved in event preparation, site setup and they spend each
tournament day greeting players, coaches, families and fans, all while doing
everything possible to ensure a high-level, fair competitive experience.
Miller
said, “For all these years, the first question I’ve asked is how do we make
this better? That’s been the case since the very first day with Dorothy. The goal
is to have a first-class tournament and have fun doing it. We want to create
memories that will last a lifetime, for players, coaches, parents and people who
come. That hasn’t changed.”
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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