Coach Dick Miller Pavilion Dedication Ceremony

[Applause] Good afternoon and welcome to the dedication of the Coach Dick Miller Pavilion. We are honored that all of you could join us. So many of you. I'm so pleased to see so many of you. Um, we have needed this pavilion for a long time, and I'm so glad to see that it finally happened, thanks to many of you who donated to it. So, we're very glad you could all join us today.

My name is Nancy Oswall, class of '68. But most importantly, I had the privilege of being the Manchester High School principal for 19 years. And even more importantly, I worked the cross country invitational for many, many years. So, I don't even want to count. When I returned to Manchester in 1985, I was first guidance counselor and girls athletic director. I learned my first lesson from Mr. Jim Smith, sitting right out there, who was the assistant principal and athletic director at the time, and that was that I could not miss working the Manchester Cross Country Invitational and the sectional, regional, and semi-state that followed that. So, whatever I thought I was doing on a Saturday in October, cancel those plans.

So, uh, I soon found out why that was so important because we were certainly the center of all cross country events in northeastern Indiana. And that year that I came back home, um, 1985, both our girls team and boys teams went to the state finals. Many years later, as a member of the IHSA board of directors, I traveled to high schools all over the state of Indiana. And whenever high school principals or athletic directors would ask me where I was from, and I said North Manchester or Manchester High School, they'd all go, "Oh, Dick Miller, cross country." You know, everyone, everyone knew us. We were famous for cross country across the state, and that was really wonderful.

So, um, at this time, I would like to read a plaque that's hung here in the uh pavilion across the way about Dick, and um, hope that you take time later to look at the plaque as well as all the donors.

Dick Lamar Miller. This building is dedicated in memory of February 14th, 1939 to May 25th, 2014. Dick Miller was a mathematics teacher at Manchester High School for 38 years. During his tenure, he served as cross country coach and track coach for 28 years. His cross country teams won 15 consecutive conference titles, earned 19 consecutive semi-state appearances, and finished top 10 in the state meet three times. His track teams won 11 consecutive conference titles, which included three All-American athletes. One of his most notable accomplishments was founding the largest cross country invitational of that time, the Manchester Invitational, which he led for 27 years. Miller was nominated for the Indiana State Coach of the Year seven times and twice won the Regional Coach of the Year from the National High School Coaches Association. He was awarded the Manchester College Claude Wolf Coach of the Year Award in 1983. Finally, he was inducted into the Indiana State Cross Country and Track Hall of Fame in 1997. Coach Miller was a family man, a teacher, and a coach whose unwavering commitment, leadership, and compassion for running inspired many generations of athletes.

Finally, I would like to introduce and give recognition to some special people in attendance today. Mary Miller. Mary, there you are. And I could tell a few stories about Mary running the shoot. You didn't mess with Mary at the shoot. I can tell you that. And uh, I believe their children, Dick and Mary's children, are also here today. Cindy, Mara, and Mike. Some other special people, at least certainly to me in cross country. One of those is, he's giving me that look already, Jim Meyer. And many of you may not know this, but Jim Meyer wrote the computer scoring program that we used for years. That was the envy of every cross country program because we could get results out quicker than any other school, couldn't we? Yeah. We got our results out online before the next race had finished. Yes. And that was, that was amazing back in the 80s and 90s, let me tell you. And then certainly Jim Smith, who I've mentioned before, uh, who's been a longtime supporter of Manchester Athletics and uh, uh, helped me get to where I am today, certainly. Um, so we appreciate all of your support.

Um, back in the day, we used to run up next to the building, uh, and some of us were seated in the choir, choir room. Dave Zinsmeister would call out the kids' numbers, and uh, on the front of their jerseys, I'd put them in the computer. Jim had put the times in, and we were off to the races, literally. Okay.

At this time, I'd like to introduce a video from Phyllis Orbert Peter, class of 1981, and Scott Hippensteel.

Hi, my name is Phyllis Orper Peter, and I was the first girl to go out for cross country at Manchester High School back in 1979. I went out, and about a week later, Susanna Strode joined. So, there were two girls on the team that year, and we were officially part of the boys team because girls cross country was not an official sport. And so, most of the races we ran were with the boys. We were running the 5K with the boys. Um, and but Coach Miller immediately, um, saw how important girls cross country was, and he made sure that we had opportunities. I remember the Manchester Invite. We actually had a girls race at that invite. I remember because two girls from Indianapolis came and beat me, and I was kind of bummed, but it was great to get that head-to-head competition with other girls rather than just running against the boys. Coach Miller was always so supportive and welcoming to us and made us feel like part of the team. Um, the other big thing I remember about Coach Miller is how he emphasized personal improvement. He was kind of famous for, before a race, having a whiteboard where he would like have a big chart of how I want this pack to be running, and you guys are going to stay together, and the sixth runner is going to displace this team's fifth-place runner, which gives us another point. And I just remember how much he emphasized how important every single member of the team was. And after a race, he'd always take that whiteboard and he would write down who had PRs. So, to him, the personal improvement was just as important as your top runner. He, he made sure that every athlete felt important and part of the team. Um, and then he took us to road races in the summer. We went to Peru and Fort Wayne. And of course, he organized the Funfest 5 for years, and in the winter, he took us to indoor meets down at Indiana University. And so, I have a lot of fond memories of those trips down to Bloomington to run at Indiana University in the winter and get a jump start on the track season. Um, and the other thing that I do remember for girls that he did was that first year, he took me to the unofficial girls state meet, and he said, "This is really important that we go to this meet because we need to show the IHSA that girls cross country should be an official sport in the state of Indiana. They need to see these girls that have run this race and what that they want it to be an official sport." And so we went down there and ran that race. And then, of course, the next year, um, there was a more official race. I, I don't think it was actually officially a sport until I was a senior. But then that next year, there were a couple hundred girls at the state meet, and it was also at Indiana University, and I was able to get 17th place at that race. So, that was a real highlight for me. Um, I just want to thank Coach Miller's family for sharing him with us all those years ago and just thank him for the profound impact he had on my life and countless other runners' lives. He was so positive, and um, I'm just so pleased that this pavilion is being dedicated and in his honor because he was just a good person all around. And good luck to the current girls running cross country. I hope that running brings you joy like it has brought me joy over the years, and good luck, girls. Thank you.

[Applause] Hey guys, good afternoon. My name is Scott Hippensteel, and uh, it's such an honor today to be honoring, um, be part of the celebration here for Coach Miller. I regret that I couldn't be there, but of course, the things that he did for me in my life have caused me to, uh, not be able to make it set today because I had a cross country meet in Texas today that I coached. But, um, as, at, at the time you'll have seen this, but I, I was very blessed to, uh, have Coach Miller in my life. Coach Miller completely changed the direction of my life. I was a, uh, incoming freshman in high school. It was, uh, early, uh, August of 1977, and I was about to be a freshman. I was driving through town with my dad, and um, I saw some guys running, and one guy's name was Chris Brandenburg, and he was on the basketball team, and I knew he's a really good player, and we, my dad said that one of the things he was doing was he was running because, uh, he wants to get in shape for basketball. Well, I was a basketball player at the time, and uh, I thought it was really a good idea that, um, I talked about running so I'd be in shape and be ready to play basketball. So, um, we went talked to Coach Miller. Long story short, within, uh, 40, 48 hours, we packed up a beer box, and uh, we put my clothes in it, and we drove to Northern Michigan where I stayed for 8 days and ran. And during those eight days, I almost ran a 100 miles. And at the same time, uh, by the Saturday afternoon, we did a three-mile time trial, an out mile and a half and a mile and a half back, and I ran at 18:20, and I was very, very blessed to, uh, be able to run. So, long story short, as high school went, went, things got better and better for me. I was, I developed into a decent high school runner. And uh, as, as of today, I'm still the Indiana, uh, the rather the sectional record holder and the high school record holder for the, um, the, uh, 1600 meter run at Manchester High School. I actually, as a senior in high school, I anchored the fastest time in the United States. I was the, uh, 4x800, which we ran 7:52.2. And then, um, basically because of Coach Miller, right after my senior year in high school, where I ran at the Indiana State track meet, Coach Miller, um, made a connection with the University of Texas coach. His name was James Blackwood, and Coach Blackwood recruited me to the University of Texas, where I was fortunate enough to be a part of the program there for four years. At the conclusion of that time, I, I worked for about one year before I found a job coaching cross country and coaching track. I've been at the same high school now, Lockhart High School in Lockhart, Texas, for 38 years, and been very fortunate again because of some, so many of the things that, uh, Coach Miller taught me. Um, I just truly blessed. Coach Miller did so much for me behind the scenes. One of the things he would do in the wintertime, he'd drive me down to Bloomington to run indoor track meets. Of course, I wasn't always in the best shape of my life during the winter, but he kept doing it and kept, kept, kept pushing me and putting me out there and training me to the point where I, I was very fortunate. As life went forward, uh, 13 years ago, because of Coach Miller and my involvement in running and our love of running shoes, I was fortunate enough to open up a running store in Austin. I feel it's the finest running store in Austin. It's called Ready to Run. And, uh, Ready to Run is in our 13th year. And again, because of the things that Coach Miller did for me back in between 1977 and 1981, I was fortunate enough to do things like, uh, start a running store. So, the, what we're doing today for Coach Miller is, is a blessing. What he did for so many people was a blessing, and we're, I'm very pleased and honored to have been a part of, of the great career that he had. He was tremendous as a coach. I like to tell my runners often, if there were 500 coaches in Indiana, I'm sure he was probably the best. He was outstanding as a coach, and he left quite a legacy on the community of, uh, Manchester, North Manchester, Indiana, and he's left quite an impression and long, long-lasting, um, effects on so many lives. So, we're very grateful for everything he did. And this, uh, facility will only be, uh, uh, something that we get to honor him for forever. Thank you very much, and you guys have a great day.

[Applause] Thanks to, um, Scott and Phyllis for those words, and you can have no better words than to come from two people like them. Um, at this time, I think Mary has a couple things she'd like to say, and we'd love to bring her up.

Well, since she's already introduced me, but, um, I, one of my pet peeves is people get up to talk, and we don't know who they are. They don't introduce themselves. So, I'm going to say I'm Coach Miller's spouse. Some of you know me as Coach Mary because some of the boys started calling me that. So, that's who I am. And, um, I, it, I just think this is a wonderful tribute. I can't believe all these people that are here. It blows my mind. When I was in Arizona last winter, I heard a rumor that Jody was going to raise funds to build a building here. And I thought, he'll never get that done. I got home in May. He said, "We got enough money to start building." And I said, "You're kidding me." And the next thing I know, he says, "We're fully funded." I said, "What?"

[Music] So, this guy is phenomenal, and he's our current cross country coach. He reminds me a lot of Dick. Easygoing but firm and steady and pushing the kids just enough for wanting them to run more. Um, I wanted to recognize Nancy. She already introduced herself, and Jody is the current coach here. And, uh, Kevin Walder was one of Dick's assistant coaches. Um, Mike Miller and his wife Joy were coaches for assistant coaches for Dick, and, uh, Orville Seal coached the girls. And I, I'm sure I missed somebody. But if I did, I'm so sorry. So, if, don't come up and tell me if I made a mistake. Many, many of the former parents, uh, and would come back athletes would come back and help with coaching like pole or throwing the disc or whatever that they knew how to do it better than some of the coaches, so they would come back and help. So, um, I know Keith Mezer was told to start a race at the time it was supposed to start, even if the one before was not finished. And at one time, the girls who had won the state the year before weren't at the finish line, and the coach said, I think that was Carmel, said, "My girls aren't here yet." Keith says, "I'm sorry, we're starting the race." And here came the girls running from the bathroom, and they caught up. Now, I'm, I'm, I'm a little before you, Nancy. When we first started the cross country invitational, the runners had cardboard tags on with their number, and uh, Dick opened up a, a hanger, a metal hanger, and the girls would take the tags off, and they put them on the hanger. If you want to know more about how that happened, you can ask my daughters Cindy and Marva because they worked on that team, and heaven forbid if it rained, the t, the tickets were disintegrating.

[Music] Oh, he was talking about the finish shoot and how tough I was. Well, this is one thing that happened. We had a guy come up, a, a father of one of the girl runners. "I am going to get get in there and help my daughter." I said, "No, you're not allowed in the shoot." "Well, I'm coming in there." And I said, "No, you're not." He put up his dukes and he said, "You going to fight me for it?" I said, "If I have to, I have to. Those are my instructions." And he left. Early, an early runner, I think he was from Laketon. Um, he preferred to run with no shoes on. So, he was a very good runner, but I think he might have been the one that caused the the ruling that now you have to start the race with two shoes on and finish the race with one. So, you can't run with no shoes. Um, when I say we, I mean the team. Um, when we went to Fort Wayne to the, uh, I think it was the regional, we wanting to go to the state for another year, and we knew it was really close, and we're all hollering because one of our runners had gone down, and it was Mark Robinson. I'll never forget it. He was about 8 or 10 feet from the finish line, and we knew we had to have him to continue the streak. We're all hollering at him. He went down, and he crawled across the finish line so we could go to state. That was really something. Also, one time there was a sheet draped over a semi way down by 13 with, I don't know what the words were on it, but when Dick saw it, he said, "Take it down." And it came right down. Also, also, one of our female runners thought if she didn't eat breakfast, she could lose weight. Well, she's in a, in a big meet, and I can still see her right over here. She went down, and guess what coach told her? "If you don't put fuel in the furnace, the furnace won't run." I, I'll remember that forever. At cross country camp, we had a runner that didn't show up for, for the evening meal. And we were all worried about where he was. Cuz if you know high school boys, they're there to eat. Well, when he finally came, we said, "Where have you been?" He said, "I got chased by a bear." So, I had to come home a different way. Oh my god. So, um, he also knew how many points his track teams had, and he also knew how many points other teams had when we were at the big meets. And, um, so he got his, one time I know of for sure, he got his 400 relay team together, and he said, "We're going to run our fastest runner first, and then the other guys are going to keep it. We can either be first or second and win this meet." So, that's what they did. And there were teammates all around the inside of the track yelling for the kids to go. And I don't remember if they were first or second, but I know they won. And if you think about it, he was a math person. He had that all figured out. So, that way it went. Not much more. Oh, the year the both boys and girls went to state, we stopped to get something to eat at like one of those buffets, you know, like it was real popular back then. We had 25 kids and went in this place, and they said, "We can't serve you because our computers are down." And Dick said, "Well, in this group, we have a whole lot of math people. We can just keep track for you and you can put it in later." He said, "No." I don't know what we did. I don't remember. I really don't know how Dick did everything he did. He taught. He practiced the kids. Coaching. He ran himself. He ran marathons. He coached football. I mean, officiated football. U all, all of those things. But he also was good at home. And so, uh, it's been said that there was a plaque made for him that said, "Of all the accolades you've had, you've done some of your best coaching at home." And I would agree with that. After he was done coaching, he, he decided so many times when we had track meets, uh, Wade can probably tell you this. A lot of times they'd come across the line in a blanket finish, and in those days, there were guys standing there saying who was first, who was second, and a lot of times our boys were missed, and that did not make coach very happy. He said, "Once I'm not coaching, I'm going to set up a timing business that will show the pictures like in a horse race. You know how they win by nose, and everybody will know what the order was." And that's what he did all over the state of Indiana. I want to thank everybody that came. I appreciate it all. It's almost overwhelming, but some of you runners will know this. Let's go run around 40 Creek.

[Applause] Thanks, Mary. And finally, I'd like to introduce Jody Sarber, the mastermind of this whole project and our current cross country coach and a math teacher, too. So, he fit in well.

Thank you. Thank you, Nancy. I feel like I don't need to say my name, but Mary's still sitting there, and I heard what her pet peeve was. So, I'm Coach Sarber, Jody Sarber. I've been the head cross country coach since 2007 when the program was resurrected. And for the last 18 seasons, our team has lacked space. I know we're runners, and we can run wherever, and they do just that. Um, but we wanted a place to store equipment, to, to meet for practice, and to gather for team meals and dinners like we're going to have tonight. A place to better accommodate hosting an invite, conference meet, sectional meets, uh, and a place to call home for this deserving group of hardworking young people over here. So, after seeing a pavilion built along the finish line at New Prairie High School, uh, many years ago, I knew I wanted something like that, only better. Sorry, Tom. So, with a little dreaming, some inspiration, and a lot of motivation, here we are. Uh, but like Nancy, everywhere our team would go, uh, people knew Dick Miller and Manchester cross country, and they'd come up to me and ask about the invite. And, uh, anyway, over time, I began to just learn more and more about the history. And I've enjoyed talking to many of you out here over the phone or via text, um, even email, and just thought there was no one more deserving to name the building after than Coach.

So, at this time, I would like to thank a few people. Uh, first of all, I'd like to thank our school for allowing us to do this and their support. I see our superintendent hiding right over there, Mr. Tony Castle. Our athletic director hiding over here, Mr. Tyson Sylvius. And then several of our, um, several of the individuals and businesses that donated time and resources to make this all possible. Uh, so we've got Mike Flory with Flory Construction, Jared Monz with Design Collaborative, Brandon Volt with Manchester Underground, Andy Brown with Fos Brown Plumbing, uh, some of our parents, Randy, Aaron, Cora Shoalter for the landscaping out there, Chad Fitzpatrick for installing our audio equipment and running the the volume right behind me. Uh, and many current athletes on this team who spent hours during the summer or even came in after practice to move dirt and just help prepare the space. So, thank you to all of those. Of course, this project would not be possible without the support of many of the donors from this community or those that at least have roots here in this community. Um, so I do encourage you, like Nancy said, if you get a chance to come look at the donor wall, read the plaque, um, after the ceremony. Uh, but there's one contributor who deserves special recognition. Uh, so thank you, John and K. Rhyn, for believing in this project and Coach Rhyn for your 10 years of service to the program. So, at this time, I would like John to come on up.

[Applause] Thank you. I'm, uh, John Rhynold, and, uh, I've been coaching here with Jody for the last 10 years, and, uh, I think I was on the bus the day that we had that, um, discussion after being up in New Prairie and seeing the facility they had, and, and, uh, I think we thought this is just a distant dream. It just can't, it's just going to happen. So, I think we probably even really put it on the back burner for a couple years, and we didn't really do much about it. But, you know, in the last year or so, we kind of the idea came back, more Jody than me, but the idea came back that, hey, let's, let's try to give this a shot. Part of our motivation is that if, if I were, um, going to cross country practice and I need a piece of equipment, um, I might go in that ticket booth right back there because we had a little bit of space in there where we kept some of our things. But it also might be in that broom closet over there in the main building where we also had some kind of things. Or it might be in the back of that ticket booth over there where we also have a few things. And the fi, fl, the final one or the fourth one would be in the storage room in the back of the concession stand by the football field among the cases of soft drink. We also had some things there. So, if I were looking for that piece of equipment, it probably would be in one of those four places. And so, uh, obviously it's great to have something like this. You know, like I say, it was a, it was a wild dream that we had, and to see that dream become this is just, is just absolutely amazing. And certainly, that's thankful to many, many, many of you. I want to change the, change my, uh, thinking just a little bit here for a minute. Um, before I retired, I, the last job I had, I worked at the University of St. Francis as a statistics teacher and a math teacher. I was a math teacher also. But, um, in statistics class, one of the, um, ideas that came that came up, or one of the terms that's used is called correlation. And correlation is a term that's used to describe how two different variables kind of interact with each other. And so, to introduce that, I found a paper, a newspaper clipping, um, about a school board meeting in a ne, I wasn't here at North Manchester, but in a neighboring school, and at this, uh, school board meeting, the, uh, athletic director was, uh, trying to convince the school board that, uh, it would be good for them to create a tennis program. And so he was describing all, all the reasons why we needed a tennis program, and, and there was one quote in there that really caught my, really caught my eye. Among the things he said was that statistics show, that's why it caught my eye, but statistics show that students who are involved in extracurricular activities get better grades and have better attendance than those that don't. And so I read, I read that, that, uh, quote to my statistics class, that says, "How can it be that if I swing a tennis racket, I'll get a better grade in chemistry?" What's the connection between those? And so that would start a lively discussion among the members of my statistics class about extracurricular activities. Certainly cross country being one of those, but, but I would broaden that to many, many, many other activities. And I, I think I, and I used this same, same intro over several classes and several years. So, it's probably several hundred statistics students. And it's just absolutely amazed me the kind of stories they would tell about the, the impact that their extracurricular activities had on their lives. And I, I love the video here when he's explaining the difference that made in his life. And so I know that many of you help contribute to this particular cause. And, uh, have you ever thought about why, why would you do that? Why would you do something like that? I hope that you would say that part of that, at least, would be that our young people are very deserving of everything we can get to them, and there's nothing better than us spending our time and our talents to promote that, and that's what this is all about. So, I think it's really, really important that we think about those things, not only of this pavilion and, and cross country, but our young people in all, all things we can do. So, as young people, keep on participating, keep on running, keep on doing that. As parents, you know, promote those things, you know, help your students, get them to places they need to go. As grandparents and other folks, you know, it's really, really important that we continue to do that. And so, you know, as I look at this thing, I, I, I knew Coach Miller, not nearly as well as the people that spoke before me, but I was a coach, um, for many years at East Noble up in Noble County, and, uh, our teams used to come to the invitational, and we weren't good enough to get to the semi-state usually, so we didn't get to there, but we did that. Later, my, our own children went to DeKalb Central High School, and we also would come to these, come to these things as a parent, and our, our teams did make semi-state several times, so we were here a lot of times. I always found Coach Miller to be very kind and very accommodating and very patient, and I was always amazed at the precision of those meets and how every little detail he had figured out. Now, like I say, I was just a visiting coach that would come by, and I'd only be here maybe a couple mornings a year, but you could tell there's a reason why they would come from all over the state of Indiana to be part of that invitational. It was the best one in the state. There's no doubt in my mind. I remember Floyd Central being here. You know where Floyd County is? Floyd Central is down there. It's a, it's a suburb of Louisville, and the Bloomington schools, and the Columbus schools, all over the state. It was the place to be. I cannot think of a, a better ambassador for the sport of cross country than Dick Miller. Awesome person. Keep up the good work. Thank you.

Well, at this time, we'll have an official ribbon cutting. So, if Mary, John, Nancy, you guys will follow me over there.

[Music] [Applause] [Music]