University of Oregon Softball Adds Blake Miller as an Assistant Coach

The 10-year college coaching veteran joins the Ducks after serving as head coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville the past three seasons

www.goducks.com

EUGENE, Ore. - University of Oregon softball head coach Mike White announced Monday that the program is excited to add Blake Miller as an assistant coach for the 2010-11 season.

The 10-year college coaching veteran joins the Ducks after serving as head coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville the past three seasons. In prior stints, he served as the head coach at Darton College (2006-07) and an assistant coach at East Tennessee State (2005), Missouri Western State (2004) and Mesa State (2001-03).

"We're thrilled to add someone of Blake’s caliber to our coaching staff," White said. "As a U.S. National Team member he was known for his competitiveness and was a leader by example. His versatility on the field and at the plate were impressive, as was his intelligence on the field - he looked for the little things which are big in our game. Adding in his experience as a head coach at two successful Division II programs, he will help our players, particularly our young ones, continually increase their softball knowledge."

Altogether during his coaching career, he coached two All-Americans, nine Academic All-Americans, and guided four teams to regional bids and one Junior College World Series trip.

His Texas A&M-Kingsville squad went 32-22 in 2009 and climbed as high as 23rd in the national rankings after it won five games against teams ranked top five nationally. In 2010, the Javelinas staked school records in batting (.306), slugging (.470), home runs (34) and on-base percentage (.385), while the ’08 squad paced the Lone Star Conference in stolen bases (88).

In his prior two-year stint at Darton College, he guided the Cavaliers to a 64-44 record, the school’s first Region XVII Championship, and a bid to the 2006 NJCAA Division I World Series. His squad shined off the field with a 3.26 GPA his first season, and NJCAA national-high 3.59 mark the second campaign.

In his prior coaching stops as an assistant coach, he helped Mesa State to a pair of NCAA Division II regional appearances (2001, 2002) and an NCAA Division II season home run record (98, 2002), while East Tennessee State set a school stolen base record (98).

Fastpitch softball fans are also familiar with Miller as a seven-time member of the USA Men’s National Team. In his 15 years at the professional level, he was a four-time, first-team All-American, and helped the U.S. capture a gold medal in the 2002 Pan American Qualifier in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and a silver medal in the 2003 Pan-American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Miller played on International Softball Congress world championship gold medal teams in 2008 and ’09 for the Kitchener, Ont., Riversharks, and the same team won the U.S. title in '10. A four-time first-team All-American (1999, 2002, ’05, ’07), he played on silver-medal U.S. teams in the 2003 Pan Am Games, 2007 European World Cup, the gold-medal squad in the 2007 American Challenge Series and fourth-place team in the 2009 ISF World Championships in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

He and his wife, Renee, have two daughters, Ashley and Blakely.

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