McNeese Grad Shares Coach of the Year Honor

    Pat Miller (class of 1990) has tied with Jules Sullen, for the Lake Charles American Press Southwest Louisiana Coach of the Year Award.  Miller, who coaches at Oberlin, received 29 votes and Sullen, who coaches at  LaGrange, also received 29 votes.  Of the sixteen coaches who received votes, eleven are known to have graduated from McNeese State University.  
    Miller graduated from Kinder in 1978 and from McNeese in 1990.  He worked construction for four years and worked offshore for three years before attending McNeese State, where he graduated in health and human performance with a minor in social studies.
    "I took a job working offshore.  I got laid off and on the way home, I decided it was time to get a job that I really like, and I like sports, so I decided I was going to go back to school and get a degree and go from there.:
    After graduating from McNeese in 19990, Miller worked as an assistant at both Kinder and Merryville, before taking over as head coach at DeQuincy in 2001.  From there, he moved to Merryville for a year, then to Oberlin in 2008.
    At Oberlin, Miller had big shoes to fill.  The previous coach, Larry Alexander, took over as principal after leading the Tigers to a 24-10 record in three years, including a 10-0 regular season in 2006.  He has done pretty well, with  nine straight wins this past year.
    He credits the mentorship of Alexander and the support of his assistant coaches.  "There's just a lot of camaraderie.  We get along really well.  These guys work hard, they do their homework and they make my job so much easier," Miller says.  "The community really got behind us on our way to the regional playoffs, it was absolutely crazy around here.
    Congratulations Coach Miller on being named Coach of the Year for Southwest Louisiana!