The track and field coaching staff was finally completed two weeks ago with the addition of another assistant coach.
Nathan Miller, the newest member of the staff, specializes in jumps and short sprints. He started nearly two weeks ago, the third new coach hired this semester. Joseph Lynn, distance coach, and Janine Kuestner, throws coach, were also hired over the summer.
Miller attended Grand Valley State University where he was a high jumper. He was an All-American his junior year, and jumped 2.13 meters, nearly seven feet.
After graduating in 2011, he coached at Northwood University.
“When I was at Northwood, I was coaching a whole array of events. I was coaching hurdles, jumps, sprints, I even did a little bit of middle distance,” Miller said. “I wanted to go back and specialize in the jumps because that was where my passion was.”
Andrew Towne, ‘04, head coach for the men and women’s Hillsdale cross country and track and field teams, said he recognized Miller from when he was a high jumper at Grand Valley.
“Because he was at Grand Valley I didn’t like him,” Towne joked. “I really didn’t know him at all.”
But after interactions with Miller at Northwood, Towne was impressed by Miller and his passion for the sport. He invited Miller to help work at the Hillsdale camp last summer for high school students, mostly just to observe him in action. When a coaching position opened at Hillsdale, Towne knew that Miller was the man for the job.
“Even though each coach does things a little bit differently, his teaching philosophy, his day-to-day approach is really similar to mine, so the kids will have a pretty seamless transition,” Towne said.
Senior Cassidy Kaufman is one of the captains of the men’s team, representing the jumps. He said that the team has already learned so much from the new coach.
“We’ve only had him for a week, but a lot of us have fixed certain things that we’ve had trouble with for a long time. We are all pretty excited about this season,” Kaufman said.
He also said that both Miller’s youth and his experience are helpful in relating to the young team.
“He is very clear, very communicative in his instructions,” Kaufman said. “And at the same time, he’s very young, so he can show us a lot of the movements, which is nice. He is very fluid, he knows his stuff, and he practices what he preaches.”
Towne said that the staff– in terms of recruiting and developing athletes– is composed of some of the most talented coaches in the country.
“One of the things that I wanted to do when we started to assemble our staff was that we bring in the best possible people,” he said. “We want to make sure that we are giving our kids every chance to be successful, and I think we were able to do that across the board. That’s one of the reasons the kids are excited, they can tell they are working with really good people.”
Though compiling a new coaching staff has not been easy, Towne said that he believes Hillsdale offers more opportunities than challenges. He said that the goals are to get athletes to graduation, and to be a podium team, which means finishing in the top four teams. Last year was the fourth time in school history that the women’s cross country team qualified for the NCAA Championship.
“I would be very surprised if the year didn’t finish even better than it did last year, probably by a significant amount,” Towne said. “I’m excited to be here and start my fourth year. I’m excited for our program.”
Miller echoed Towne’s hopes for the team this season.
“I hope that our team is not only competing at a high conference level, but also a national level,” he said. “When I talked to coach Towne when I interviewed here, that was his goal, and that was my goal as an athlete, and I hope that will be the same for our athletes here.”
