Old-school football coach Max Miller leads new generation into Optimist All-Star Classic
Max Miller is like a cockroach in all of its splendid gritty glory, and this is meant in the kindest, most affectionate ways, of course.
He won’t go away. You can’t shoo him or stomp him. Age doesn’t deter the timeless football coach who has roamed area sidelines since 1963. Weather doesn’t scare him off. Neither would anti-bug pesticides.
Miller is best known for his frantic in-game behavior from as far back as one can remember, agonizing on goal-line stands and standing disheveled after games. He won 264 games, mostly in two tours at Cordova High School, and he’s been a tireless ambassador for all things good in local football since his first teaching and coaching job in 1963 as a flat-topped go-getter at Cordova.
Miller will coach the South team in the 63rd Optimist All-Star Football Classic at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hughes Stadium. This is the charity game for area senior stars, and no one champions a good game and a good cause quite like Miller. The man is in his 80s but hasn’t lost an ounce of his youthful fire or bombast.
Will he chew on referees? Well, does it snow in Tahoe this time of year? The referees might be disappointed, or at least concerned, if Miller doesn’t fume a bit at them. A few years ago, John Volek, another old sage coaching legend, and Miller raced each other to the referees at the half of an Optimist game to express concerns as opposing coaches. They laughed about it then and now.
“Max is a classic and is great for this sport,” bellowed Volek, the one-time Sacramento State coach who is in more regional and state Halls of Fame than he can keep track of.
Miller hasn’t gone by “Mad Max” for his good looks. He is never dull. He is always spirited. Take his first practice sessions with the South. Some of it was in the driving rain. An old-school Miller might have gleefully ordered up blocking sled drills in the mud. But this is new-age football, and there is field turf.
“We didn’t do much in the rain and I didn’t want to,” Miller explained. “Rain shrinks me, and I’m already too short.”
The coach added, “We’re having so much fun. We’re really having a great time. The kids have been great. They’re so attentive. They’re talented, smart kids. The kids are excited. Shoot, I’m excited. Football does this to me. I was thinking that this might be my grand finale in coaching, but the coaches and kids say, ‘Keep it going!’”
Miller’s wife, Sally, backs his desire to coach, as long as he doesn’t fib about what he had for breakfast on his regular run to the bakery. Miller is supposed to sip on coffee and maybe have one pastry. Miller’s considerable waistline suggests otherwise, and Sally has caught him with too much frosting on his chin more than once.
This is how long Miller has been in the game: Forever. After graduating from UC Davis by way of Nevada Union High School, Miller jumped into coaching headfirst, and it started with the 1963 Optimist game when it was held in the summer and students shacked up for a week in the dorms at UCD. The South coach in 1963 was Dewey Guerra, the famed Folsom coach who started the Cordova program from scratch in 1963 and nurtured it into a national powerhouse.
Miller also coached the Optimist game as head coach or assistant in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, last decade and this one. That’s seven decades of at least one Optimist game. He has seen it all.
“That 1963 Optimist game, we had this special teams guy, a runner named Leon Horne from Grant, and he was fast, a dart, and I remember telling Dewey, ‘This guy is going to run one back!’” Miller said. “He ran one back 100 yards. That was our first coaching experience together. I just couldn’t get enough of football.”
Miller is a throwback in that he likes to run on first down, and second down, and third and long. He embraces the two tight end look, a fullback and tailback and maybe a receiver. But he’s evolved. He might use two receivers in this showcase game in an era of wide-open, spread football.
“Oh, we’re modern football now,” Miller said with a laugh. “We’ll be throwing the ball, running the ball, doing as much as we can.”
What adds to Miller’s coaching joy, especially if this is indeed his grand finale, is having his sons — Greg and Kevin — coach with him in this game. They never tire of their old man’s “Maxisms” — one-liners or old stories to bust up a room.
Miller hasn’t just been good for football , but it’s been good to him. The mark of a great coach is how he builds a program and sustains success. Miller’s Rio Americano teams of the 1970s rose from nothing to something in quick order. His Cordova clubs of the 1980s led the region in victories. His 1984 Lancers team was the first in Sac-Joaquin Section history to go 14-0, thanks in large part to a tall, lanky, skilled quarterback named Troy Taylor, who coached Sacramento State to championship success in recent years and is now preparing for his first season as Stanford’s head coach.
Miller’s Johnson teams of the 1990s were league champions, and his best coaching job very well might have been his second tour at Cordova, when the once-proud Lancers had collapsed but rose again under Miller’s sheer will and drive. Miller was also the sort of coach to stock his refrigerator in his classroom with food for players who may not have had a meal at home.
In 2010, Miller was the defensive coordinator for Folsom’s first CIF State championship team. He hasn’t coached at a high school in years, long since retired from the teaching grind, but he’s deeply involved in the National Football Foundation, Sacramento Chapter. And the Optimist has a hold on him, so much so that Miller implores his Optimist players to appreciate what they have. He reminds them that kids at Shriners Hospital for Children would do anything to have what Optimist players have — healthy legs and limbs with which to run and play.
“I’ve told our players that they should go visit the Shriners to see what they’re playing for,” Miller said. “Football can be such a wonderful experience. In this game, we have kids playing with guys they went against over the years. Now they’re teammates on the same side. I know football has always been fun to me. It makes my blood better. It makes my oxygen better.”
Players galore on Saturday
What might help Miller exhale smoothly is getting the ball to his playmakers. He has a ton.
If Miller goes old school and runs a lot, the South has Bee All-Metro backs Arthur Draeger, a record-setting rusher at Liberty Ranch, and Monterey Trail speedsters Ali Collier and Jervin Navarro. If the South goes to the air, and it is possible, Miller has two standout passers in All-Metro arms Jesiah Machado of Sheldon and Maddox Varrella of Oak Ridge.
And there are receivers to behold in Bee Player of the Year Scott Nixon of Sheldon, and fellow All-Metro targets Malachi Bean-Seay of Laguna Creek, Hasaan Miller of Monterey Trail and Sebastian Sutton of Oak Ridge, who caught passes with one hand or both in 2022.
Sacramento State-bound tight end Fata Puloka of Monterey Trail can block and catch as a tight end, and he blocked kicks and played ferocious defense at linebacker. Puloka first played football as a freshman, and got hooked.
“It’s not rocket science,” he said. “You play hard and you have fun.”
Puloka is an example of a player who stands as a role model. He has two younger sisters, and he’s driven to be the best player and student he can be. He had a 4.0 grade-point average for the fall semester.
The South also has stoppers, headed by Bee Defensive Player of the Year Conner Dasmann of Oak Ridge, a rush end/linebacker. Another defensive stalwart is Elk Grove’s All-Metro linebacker Lati Vaefage and Dixon All-Metro defensive back Brent Green, who led the state with 12 interceptions in 2022. If it comes down to a kicker, the South has the best one in the section in All-Metro leg Carson Nichols of Oak Ridge.
“I know one thing,” Miller said. “We’ll have fun. That’s what this game is all about. We’ll play hard and have fun with it.”
63rd Optimist All-Star Football Classic
Saturday, 1 p.m.
At Hughes Stadium
SOUTH
(with jersey number)
0 Scott Nixon, Sheldon, WR
1 Maddox Varella, Oak Ridge, QB
2. Malachi Bean-Seay, Laguna Creek, WR
3 Issac Halbourg, Laguna Creek, OLB
4 Jalen Kennedy, Pleasant Grove, DB
5 Jeremiah King, Cosumnes Oaks, DB
6 Arthur Draeger, Liberty Ranch, RB
7 Ayreon Smith, Folsom, CB
8 Chris Dodson, Elk Grove, DB
9 Conner Dasmann, Oak Ridge, DL
10 Jared Quenga, Cosumnes Oaks, DB
11 Crew Santero, Vista del Lago, LB
12 Brent Green, Dixon, DB
13 Sebastian Sutton, Oak Ridge, WR
15 Mason Vasquez, Elk Grove, LB
16 Jesiah Machado, Sheldon, QB
17 Carson Nichols, Oak Ridge, K
18 Fata Puloka, Monterey Trail, TE
20 Brian Bogne, Granite Bay, LB
21 Hasaan Miller, Monterey Trail, WR
22 Jervin Navarro, Monterey Trail, RB
23 Alfred McDaniels, Burbank, DL
29 Lati Vaefaga, Elk Grove, LB
30 Davon Donaldson, Monterey Trail, LB
31 Zepunali Wright, Capital Christian, LB
34 Ali Collier, Monterey Trail, RB
40 Eric Gladney, Vacaville, LB
44 Fareni Fa’anati, Sheldon, LB
51 Marcus Perkins, Monterey Trail, LB
52 James Minot, Elk Grove, OL
53 Seyyid Smith, Dixon, DL
55 Jonathan Godbout, McClatchy, LB
59 Dallas Fineanganofo, Elk Grove, OL
60 Pita Mauve, Capital Christian, DL
65 Kam Kaminski, Granite Bay, OL
71 Brian Haley, Capital Christian, OL
73 Nate Lynch, Capital Christian, OL
76 Gage Tucker, Sheldon, OL
Head coach: Max Miller
NORTH
(with jersey number)
1 Josh Taylor, Casa Roble, RB
2. Josh Maxwell, Placer, TE
3 Develle Barksdale, West Park, QB
4 Hayden Dotson, Lincoln, DB
5 Jagger Shaddix, Jesuit, RB
6 Elias Brown, Rocklin, RB
7 Eli Hardy, Rocklin, DB
8 Josh Hamilton, Grant, RB/DB
9 Akio Martinson, Del Oro, DL
10 Brandon Graydon, Roseville, QB
11 Carson Rennick, Bella Vista, RB
12 JoJo McCray, Grant, QB
13 Austin Adams, Rocklin, DB
14 Luke Miller, Sutter, QB/DB
15. Ian James, Bella Vista, TE
16 Jalen Suggs, Placer, FB
17 Trenton Dewar, Jesuit, WR
18 Dubee Lopa, Grant, LB
20 Isaiah Bickham, Whitney, RB
21 Cade Lawley, Del Oro, WR
22 Landon Howard, Christian Brothers, LB
23 Jaxon Ramirez, Placer, OL
26 Robbie Faupula, Sutter, LB
30 Raiden House, Del Campo, LB
42 Sam Murray, Del Oro, LB
44 Dustin Regino, Christian Brothers, LB
46 Dominic Laidlaw, Placer, DB
52 Kaleb Larson, Rocklin, LB
54 Jesse Whitfield, West Park, LB
55 Jayce Ordiway, Lincoln, OL
57 Nathan Cory, West Park, OL
62 Ryker Davis, Roseville, OL
63 Colby Perlkins, Antelope, OL
69 Collin Bray, Placer, OL
76 Dylan Dowd, Rocklin, OL
77 Devin Dhillon, West Park, OL
78 Frank Leilua, El Camino, DL
80 Kenny Gull, Colfax, TE
81 Lamar Johnson, Antelope, WR
82 Liam Crow, Roseville, DB
88 Garrett Cavalli Casa Roble, DL
94 Jared Emery, Sutter, OL
95 Blake Ashlock, Colfax, DL
Head coach: Mike Sabins
This story was originally published January 19, 2023 at 6:00 AM.