Jay Miller
Jay Miller
Title: Head Softball Coach/ Sports Information Coordinator
City: Leesburg, Fla.
Phone: (352) 323-3655
Email: MillerJ@lssc.edu

Originally from Chillicothe, Ohio, Miller enters his ninth season at the helm of the Lakehawks after starting in August of 2015.

In eight seasons with the Lakehawks, Miller's teams and players have broken 39 of 45 marks in the programs all-time records book. He has amassed over 200 wins and in his third season became the all-time winningest softball coach in program history. Miller has initiated several camps and showcases on campus resulting in over 35+ participants eventually becoming student-athletes at LSSC. At the end of the 2016 season, he was voted in as the Mid-Florida Conference Softball Chair. and now holds the same title in the Sun-Lakes Conference. In eight years at Lake-Sumter, six of his teams have reached NJCAA All-Academic status while producing 20+ NJCAA All-Academic softball players.

The 2023 season marked the best finish in program history. A record setting 43 wins led to the program's first ever regular season conference championship and an FCSAA Region VIII title. LSSC finished runners-up in the Distric P champioship series, falling in game three in extra innings. Coach Miller boasted seven All-Region players, including Player of the Year (Molly Bender) and Pitcher of the Year (Ali Shenefield) while Miller himself collected Conference and Regional Coach of the Year awards. 

In 2021, Coach Miller’s team tied the program record for wins in a single season with 32 while finishing fourth in the Mid-Florida Conference. It also produced, a team record, five All-Conference selections with SS Alyssa Opsahl (1st Team), OF Morgan Johnson (1st Team), Util Emily Kolwicz (1st Team), 2B Jeritza Montero (2nd Team) and OF Mackenzie Trgo (2nd Team). Johnson and Kolwicz went on to be selected to the Region 8 All-Region 2nd Team. As a team, the Lakehawks broke the record for runs scored (320) and runs batted in (252). 

The 2018 season was one for the ages. Coach Miller became the winningest coach in program history while the team posted their first winning record (32-28) since 1999. A third place finish in the Mid-Florida Conference was the best finish since the conference moved to seven teams. The teams 32 victories were the most in a single season since the program started in 1998. Rachel Phelps became a two-time Academic All-America & two-time All-Conference selection while becoming the first LSSC softball player to earn the Jean Williams Scholar-Athlete award. As a whole, the team made their third consecutive season as an NJCAA All-Academic team with a 3.00 or higher team GPA. 

Miller’s softball coaching career started in Citrus County where he was the head coach for the Citrus Chaos travel ball team. He got his start at the collegiate level while at Oklahoma Panhandle State University as the recruiting coordinator for the Aggie softball program.

Miller attended NCAA DII affiliate Northwest Missouri State University where he was the Assistant Softball Coach and the Graduate Assistant to the Sports Information Director. During his time at Northwest, the Bearcat softball program made back-to-back MIAA conference tournament appearances. The team also boasted a team batting average over .300 and the 2014 MIAA Freshman of the Year.

Before working with the NWMSU, Miller was a collegiate baseball player at the University of Rio Grande in Ohio and Oklahoma Panhandle State. As a pitcher, Miller earned Academic All-Conference honors for both schools he played at, finishing his career at OPSU as a catcher, hitting over .300. 

He completed his undergraduate degree at Oklahoma Panhandle State in Exercise Science in 2012 before finishing his Master’s in Applied Health and Sports Sciences at Northwest Missouri State in 2014. Miller authored and published his first book in December of 2019 titled The Island: An Unconventional Way of Coaching People, not Players. Which is available on Amazon.

After settling down at LSSC, Miller bought a house and currently resides in Inverness, Fla. with his wife, Candace. Candace is a former All-Conference college outfielder who started her career at Hillsborough CC. The couple has two boys, Beckett, who is eight, and Maddux, who is four.