Miller named athletic director at Colusa High

Bob Miller will have more than just the football team on his plate when the school year begins at Colusa High.

The veteran coach and administrator will be taking over as the athletic director of the Redskins in addition to his teaching and coaching duties.

With 35 years of combined coaching experience at Lindhurst High, Yuba City High, Yuba College and now Colusa, Miller is one of the most seasoned athletic leaders in the area. He also knows how to get things done behind the desk, as evidenced by his two decades of service as an AD.

"I was the athletic director at Lindhurst for 20 years and one year at Yuba City," said Miller whose hiring was approved in May by the Colusa Unified School District Board. "Been there, done that."

As Colusa's football coach for the last two years, Miller has stressed academics and citizenry to his players in addition to competitiveness. The result yielded the Redskins being awarded the Northern California Officials Association's Vance de Peer Sportsmanship Award each of the last two seasons. In 2008, the Redskins finished 5-5 and just missed making the playoffs.

And Miller, like his predecessor Mike West, plans to keep that mindset instilled in all of Colusa's teams.

"We're students first and athletes second and that's the way it's going to be," Miller said. "My goal is to get grades up and get more kids participating, that's the No. 1 thing."

Though West will no longer be the athletic director, he will still be at the school.

"We're switching up administrative duties," Miller said. "We both wanted to be in the classroom so it's a pretty neat deal. There's not a big change, we're going to be low key."

In fact, Miller doesn't foresee too many changes now that he is in charge, though he admits the current economic climate in public schools may cause some problems.

"Right now it's the budget; we're sitting on pins and needles," said Miller.

But even with some monetary uncertainty, Miller remains resolved to grow the athletic department, most notably the wrestling program, which is showing signs of progress after a couple seasons, he said.

Miller is looking forward to the coming year, where he will also be a teaching assistant principal at the Colusa Alternate High School. For the veteran, it's a great place to be, especially because he never thought he would be there in the first place.

"I wasn't really looking for the job but it happened," said Miller about the move to Colusa. "I wanted to get to a smaller town because it's more fun."