Jeff Miller has made the walk from his office in the RHS Weight Room to the sidelines at Tiger football fields thousands of times in the past 14 years.
But Friday it was different. Two days previously it had been announced he was leaving Rockdale to assume head football coaching, and campus athletic director, duties at his high school alma mater, Cypress-Fairbanks, a Class 6A mega-district in the northwest Houston suburbs.
“There’s a lot of emotion here today,” he said looking at the almost brand new facility which went up the year after Miller’s Tigers won a Class 3A state grid championship in Texas’ grandest sports venue, Arlington’s AT&T Stadium, in December, 2017.
BACK ‘HOME’—There’s a great deal of irony in Miller’s destination.
He, and the legendary coach Miller is replacing, arrived at Cy-Fair at the same time, the fall of 1982.
“Ed Pustejovsky was a 22-year-old rookie coach and I was a freshman in high school,” Miller recalled. “He’s been at Cy-Fair all 38 years. Now I’m following him in a head coaching position he’s held for 19 years.”
It’s almost eerie how Miller and Pustejovsky’s head coaching careers have paralleled each other at Rockdale and Cy-Fair.
Both won state championships in 2017. Miller took 12 teams to the post season, Pustejovsky had 13.
Miller averaged eight wins per season, Pustejovsky averaged nine. Miller coached 14 seasons and that’s the record for RHS. Pustejovsky’s 16 seasons is the most ever by a head coach at Cy-Fair.
“I don’t think I would have left Rockdale for anywhere else,” Miller said “This is an opportunity that doesn’t come along too often.”
Cy-Fair has had three head football coaches in 38 years.
Miller said things happened quickly. “Ed announced his retirement in Late January, I went down there and interviewed on a weekend, was called back for an other by the next Thursday.”
Early the next week, Cy-Fair offered him the job.
Rockdale ISD announced the hiring the next day (last Wednesday) and he’s been receiving visits, phone calls, emails and texts of the “say it’s not so” variety ever sense.
“Yes it’s been a hard decision because so much or our lives has been here,” he said.
Miller, wife Angel, son Gunner and daughter Payton have been big parts of the community and that’s by design.
“When we came to Rockdale we intended to do that,” Miller said. “We have supported the community and, man, has this community ever supported us.”
An example? Saturday night, well after his departure from Rockdale was well known, he attended the annual Policeman-of-the-Year/Fireman-of-the-Year banquet at the KC Hall, something that’s certainly not in a head football coach job description.
(See editorial, page 4A.)
THE MOMENT—There’s more to the word “support” than just handshakes and “good luck, coach” exhortations on football Fridays.
In 2005 Gunner Miller was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a type of bone cancer.
The community responded with many forms of support for the Miller family, the most visible of which were annual “Gold Outs” which raised many thousands of dollars for cancer research and education.
Gold Out also drew support from Tiger football opponents.
Gunner Miller remained on the Tiger football team. When Jeff Miller was asked for his most remembered moment from his 14 years at RHS, the answer wasn’t hard to anticipate.
With Rockdale leading Brock 45-29 in the 2017 state championship game, and the clock running down to zero, Jeff Miller sent Gunner into the game to “take a knee” on the final snap.
“Yes, that’s one moment,” Jeff Miller said. “You know that was, or course, an athletic memory but it means so much more than athletics. That’s a great moment in our lives.”
It’s certainly unparalleled in Rockdale sports history.
Gunner Miller graduated in 2018. “He’s fine now,” his dad said. “It’s been a long journey to get to this point.”
‘POST-SEASON’—For pure sports memories, Miller picked the entire 2017 post season.
“Those last six games seem like one fantastic, wonderful time,” he said. “It started our with Malakoff and we had watched a lot of film of them and they were so good. I don’t know if I actually believed we could be beat them.
“Then we went up against them and it dawned on us, not only could we play with them we could beat them and we did!” Miller said.
“Then it was like that every week. We knew we could win and we went out and did it. Even when we got behind 21-0 in the championship game against Brock, we knew we were going to win. And we did.”
LEGACY—Miller had the idea for the Rockdale Athletic Hall of Honor which honors the best athletes over the years from Rockdale and Aycock schools.
He guided the effort through its crucial initial years. Its success is easy to see as the hall just west of the RHS Gym is lined with plaques and photos commemorating the enshrined athletes.
“You can even see people from out-of-town, coming to athletic events, stopping and reading those plaques,” Miller said.
Another idea he brought to Tigerland was the script Tiger logo.
“You know there are probably hundreds of ‘Tiger’mascots for schools in Texas, but if you’re within 100 miles of here and you see that script ‘Tiger’ on a shirt I’ll bet you think of Rockdale,” Miller said.
He also reintroduced the “Vegas Gold” color on uniforms, a throwback to past glory days of RHS athletics.
And then, speaking of legacies, there’s that little matter of 106 football victories.
Can he sum up his Rockdale coaching experience in just a few words.
Probably not, but he can come close: “This whole town has been our family for 14 years,” he said. “Whether its been all the friendships we’ve made inside or outside the Rockdale ISD, or the many displays of support, passion and, yes, love from so many people.”
NEXT STEP—Miller still has a couple of weeks in Rockdale. Typically, he’s staying for events he deeply cares about, including last Friday’s Athletic Booster Club Father-Daughter Dance at the KC Hall and this week’s Rockdale Relays.
Jacob Campsey, defensive coordinator and head power lifting coach, will serve as interim athletic director while trustees and the administration search for his replacement.
Miller said he does not know if any current RISD assistant coaches will follow him to Cy-Fair.
“Working with an athletic director like Jeff Miller has been a great experience,” Rockdale ISD Supt. Dr. Denise Monzingo said.
“Jeff not only cares about teaching students about athletics, but he wants them to be great adults,” she added.
“He leaves Rockdale with a winning tradition that we will work hard to continue,” Dr. Monzingo said. “Losing Jeff Miller is a blow to Rockdale ISD and the community of Rockdale. He will be missed.”
“Cy-Fair High is lucky to get him,” she concluded.
Miller’s new job is at a large Class 6A facility. Cy-Fair High School has an enrollment of 3,200. That’s almost 60 percent of the population of Rockdale.
Not the Rockdale ISD, Rockdale.
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