Former coach Randy Miller adjusts to life's changes

OTHELLO — Teachers are people too. They experience life changes. Just ask Othello eighth grade science teacher Randy Miller.

After more than 20 years in the profession, Miller’s no longer a wrestling coach. The first of his children, who was as much a companion as a son, is off to college in Nebraska.

And the decision he made to come to the Othello may not have been the right one. Nothing wrong with Othello. It’s just that the move didn’t solve a dilemma Miller was sensing at the Royal School District.

Miller sought a teaching job in Othello to potentially be in a position to advance into administration. He’d heard some administrators at Othello might be retiring soon.

Then the very thing Miller hadn’t considered happened. With incoming Superintendent Roger Trail at the RSD came several other changes in administration.

“If I had stayed at Royal, I might have moved into administration,” he said. “But who can see the future? None of us has a crystal ball.”

The No. 1 reason Miller gave up coaching is injuries. They made the final years tougher than they needed to be.

Miller was told by his doctors last spring he needed a second spinal surgery. The first one, a few years ago, had fused discs 6 and 7.

“Six and 7 collapsed on the nerve that goes down my right arm,” Miller said. “Five and 6 are the most used. When 6 and 7 are fused, the use of 5 and 6 goes up.”

Miller doesn’t want the new surgery, saying, “you’re never the same” after fusion. He would lose more mobility and flexibility with the new surgery.

Miller decided to take cortisone shots in the neck and a shoulder that experienced a rotator cuff tear when he was in high school.

“It feels great,” he said.

That injury was aggravated when he was a sophomore wrestler for Boise State University. That was unfortunate in several ways.

“In Division 1 you’re part of a well-oiled machine. If one part fails, they go out and get a replacement part,” he said.

When Miller returned from injury, he was made a floater, wrestling at 141, 150 and 164 pounds, as needed.

That injury has nagged at Miller his entire coaching career. It was he who had to provide the competition when his best or biggest wrestlers practiced.

Miller might have given up coaching sooner, but he didn’t want to miss out on his son Darrin’s prep wrestling days. Darrin turned out to be pretty good, placing fourth or higher at state all four years.

The Millers are a wrestling family. Randy’s father wrestled at Cal Poly. Darrin’s first exposure to the sport was from a playpen Randy set up at practices, some times matches, his first time at Royal in the 1990s.

“One time he jumped over the side and ran out on the mat,” Miller said. “The ref had to stop the match. I was okay that my kid lost in the end.”

Miller said he exposed his son to the sport but did not push it on him. Darrin enjoyed practices, but he declined when Miller asked if he wanted to go to tournaments. The first one had bored him.

“One day (at elementary school age) he came into my room real early and tugged on my sleeve and said, ‘I want to go to the tournament,’” Miller said. “He was beaten soundly in his first match.”

Darrin left recently for Seward, Neb., where he will wrestle for the tough NAIA program at Concordia University. After all of the years on the mats with his son, it was tough for Miller to let go. He shed tears.

Miller plans to watch his son wrestle in college, at least occasionally. He has plane reservations for a match Concordia will have this winter in South Dakota.

When he’s not teaching, Miller turns to pastimes. He rides his quarter horse Blue. He plans to fish and hunt more with his father. He builds things for his wife Heidi and he rebuilds classic vehicles.

Miller’s first experience with auto rebuilding was his freshman year in high school at Standpoint, Idaho. He and a buddy bought a 1969 Mustang Mach II for $200 from a junkyard for a shop class project. They sold it for what they put into it.

“We had no idea it would be worth $50,000-$70,000 today,” he said. “Like I said, no one has a crystal ball.”

The first classic vehicle Miller rebuilt on his own was a 1971 GMC pickup. He sold it for $3,000. It’s probably worth $30,000 now.

Miller recently finished a 1964 Mustang. It was intended for Darrin, but it was decided that it was not the right vehicle for Darrin while in college. It was sold to a fellow in Florida who shipped it to Iraq.

Miller is rebuilding an old King camping trailer for Heidi. He is doing a 1949 Chevy pickup for daughter Gracelynn.

Guys who challenge her to a race will be surprised, if she really gets to keep it. She’s likely beat them off the line.

Miller has installed a 283-cubic inch Chevy V-8 engine with 4-barrel carburetor. He loves the sound when he fires it up and the loud rumble when he revs it.

It’s a good way to ease the melancholy when he thinks of his son off at college and the fact that next year his daughter will be gone too.