Miller Already Knew the Drill

The rebuilding job Larry Miller has undertaken as Hueneme High’s first-year football coach appears to faze him not at all. Perhaps that’s because the 42-year-old Miller already has created something out of nothing when it comes to football.

Several years ago, as a member of Professor Al Nava’s secondary education classes at Cal State Northridge, Miller traveled to Ensenada, Mexico, and put together one of the country’s few high school football teams.

During the three-day stay in Ensenada, Miller diagramed plays, taught conditioning drills and demonstrated proper technique to Mexican players and coaches who were thrilled to show up at 6 a.m. and stay all day for the lessons.

Miller even put the coaches through all the drills so that they would understand what they were supposed to accomplish.

“I spoke very limited Spanish but your actions and sincerity get you over the barrier,” said Miller, who used a classmate fluent in the language to interpret for him. “You could see their appreciation and when someone appreciates something, you’ll walk over broken glass for them.”

Miller continued to reach out to his amigos once he returned to the States. After getting the Hueneme job, he enlisted the aid of coaches and administrators from around the Channel League to gather used football equipment to send to Mexico. He also plans to bring the Ensenada team, which now plays in a league of its own, up to Hueneme for a preseason scrimmage next fall.

“Larry planted the seeds down there and they’ve been growing ever since,” Nava said. “He was my star pupil. You get one in a million like Larry. He made a very good first impression as a leader and his questions were very mature, the kind that usually don’t develop until you’ve been out in the field for a year.”

Miller’s return to Hueneme as football coach this season has been doubly sweet for him. Not only does he guide the fortunes of the team for which he once played, but once again he lives in the town his family first moved to in 1965, and where his parents still live in their original house on E Street.

“I came back all the time to see my mom and go to church and it saddened me to see some of the kids I grew up with not going anyplace past high school,” Miller said. “It was evident there was a lot of work to be done because everyone who was successful here always left.

“I wanted to be here and in a position to make a difference in someone’s life. If you lead them and guide them and keep doors open for them, they will take it from there.”