Franklin graduate Todd Miller, left, takes over as head coach at Marian University after several different stops as an assistant.
Submitted photo
The baseball coaching career of Todd Miller touched seven bases over the course of 18 seasons, but now he’s finally being waved home.
Earlier this month, Miller — a 2002 Franklin graduate who was a two-year starter at third base — was introduced as the new head coach at Marian University in Indianapolis.
Nearly two decades as an assistant serve as proof that Miller’s patience paid off. With every stop, he matured, learned and further prepared himself for the day he might run his own college baseball program.
That day is now.
“I always thought that if you do your job well and be present, people will notice,” said the 40-year-old Miller, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Davidson University in North Carolina. “I just tried to be the best coach I could be.”
Miller played football, basketball and baseball as a Grizzly Cub before attending Hanover College, where he continued playing football and baseball.
He succeeds former Marian baseball coach Todd Bacon, who stepped down in May after 11 seasons to transition into an administrative role at the university. The Knights recorded 240 victories during Bacon’s tenure, highlighted by three trips to the NAIA national tournament.
Miller’s coaching career began at Bluffton University, continued at Hanover, and has since included stops at Catawba College, Belmont-Abbey College, Tusculum University, Tennessee Tech and finally Davidson.
He inherits a Marian squad coming off a 25-27 season — the program’s fourth consecutive sub-.500 showing.
Miller, the Knights’ eighth head coach, looks forward to leaving his own imprint.
“To me, having the chance to run your own program is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Miller said. “Marian, I feel, is kind of a sleeping giant in baseball, so it’s kind of the right time and the right opportunity.
“I want our team to be fundamentally sound, play fast and be aggressive. You’re either applying pressure or feeling pressure. My background … I love hitting. We will have a great offense. But championships are won with pitching and defense.”
Catawba baseball coach Jim Gantt, who recently completed his 28th season in charge of the Division II Indians, had Miller on his coaching staff for four seasons and continues to be a mentor.
Gantt is confident Marian that hired the right man.
“I was really, really happy for him, and knew he was going to his family,” Gantt said. “He’s really worked hard for this, and I think he’s going to do a great job. Todd has a great perspective on everything, he knows he has a calling and he’s stuck with that. He’s in it for the right reasons. Todd is a good baseball coach, but an even better person.”
A portion of that perspective from which Gantt speaks came in the early morning hours of March 2, 2007. Then a first-year assistant at Bluffton, Miller was part of a bus crash that killed seven people outside of Atlanta, making national news. The team was driving to Sarasota, Florida, to play a series of games over the school’s spring break.
The impact threw Miller, who was seated two seats behind the driver, through the windshield. Five Bluffton players died, along with the bus driver and his wife.
“I landed on the overpass. My next memory was waking up in ICU,” Miller said. “I had sustained a skull fracture, four broken bones in my back and a broken jaw.”
It was during the aftermath of the crash when Miller met his future wife, Leigh Zajac, then a senior softball player at nearby Tiffin University. Zajac was spearheading a fundraiser, and she and Miller ultimately crossed paths. Fast forward to today and the couple has been married for 12 years, with three children — daughter Madeline, 11, and sons Brooks, 9, and Boone, 6.
“Sometimes we get caught up in things we think are important at the time,” Miller said. “I got to learn some of those things, especially seeing how important relationships are.”
