The epic career of Scott Miller

KELLOGG – For nearly four decades, Scott Miller has been working with athletes of all ages and skill levels, but at this point, simply calling him a coach feels like a disservice. Through all of the navigating of both emotional highs and lows of high-level competition, Miller became so much more to so many. 

Miller, 61, has been the head wrestling coach at Kellogg High School since 2010, he has also served as the school’s athletic director since 2023. In March, he announced his retirement as head wrestling coach, capping off a 39-year career with a third-place finish at the 3A State Wrestling Championships.  

He may be hanging up the whistle, but he is sticking with his new administrative duties, which include running athletics at both KHS and the middle school. When asked what prompted his decision to hand over the wrestling program, he didn’t have any single major reason. 

“It was just time,” he said.  

Miller’s journey to Kellogg is worthy of a novel – or at least a TV miniseries – and includes crossing the country, enjoying the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  

Like most popular things on TV these days, Miller’s story began in Montana, where he started his athletic journey as a passionate basketball player. However, in a twist of fate that ended up defining his career, everything changed following his family’s move to North Idaho.  

“I was a basketball player in Dillon but was cut from the team in Coeur d’Alene,” Miller recalled. “A few weeks later, I was reading a newspaper article about Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls going to a tournament in Dillon.  The athletic director at Post Falls was Dick Menti, who previously was the wrestling coach at Dillon.  In the article, he said Montana wrestlers were 10 years ahead of Idaho wrestlers.  Since I had just moved from Montana and I had a 10-year head start over Idaho wrestlers, I changed my winter sport to wrestling.”  

That change of sports came as a shock to everyone, including Miller himself, who had spent most of his life on the hardwood. Miller’s uncle, Casey Keltz, is enshrined in the NAIA Hall of Fame for his work guiding the former Western Montana College (now known as the University of Montana Western) basketball team to 409 wins in 28 years as head coach. Miller had spent years as the team’s towel boy and thought basketball was his future. 

What Miller discovered was that he loved watching his uncle work. From the behind-the-scenes preparation to the live execution, coaching was the thing that made him tick.

“I loved watching him coach, and all I can ever remember wanting to be was a college coach,” Miller said. “I loved watching him interact with his team, the strategy that went into winning games, and watching his practices and how he got the guys to do what was needed to be successful. It’s just all I ever wanted to be.”  

In the meantime, Miller went on to be a three-year varsity wrestler and state qualifier at Coeur d’Alene High, which he parlayed into a wrestling scholarship at nearby Eastern Washington University. Which is also where his coaching journey would begin.  

“I started my career at EWU as an assistant coach in 1986 and spent most of the 1988-89 season as the acting head coach due to the head coach recovering from a health issue,” Miller said. “I then became an assistant at Springfield College in 1989-90 before becoming the head coach at Campbell University in 1990.”  

From Cheney, Washington, to Massachusetts, and then down the East Coast to North Carolina in five years is a lot – But Campbell University would play an important role in how Miller approached coaching for the rest of his career.  

At the time, Campbell was among the country’s smallest Division I schools. And in 1997, Miller recruited a gem in Billy Jack Saylor. Saylor, a three-time state champ in Florida, had turned down offers from Big Ten and Big 12 schools to join Miller at Campbell and was working to cut his weight to wrestle in the NCAA 190-pound division. But in the early hours of November 7, Saylor collapsed during a workout and died because of cardiac arrest.  

“That was a devastating period, and I still carry a lot of guilt because of something I said the night before,” Miller said.  

Whatever was said will stay between Miller and Saylor until the end of time, but it changed how Miller interacted with his athletes. Instead of leaving things to the wind, Miller strived to maintain positive relationships with his athletes, even when circumstances were uncomfortable or challenging.  

In the aftermath of Saylor's death, Miller became a staunch and vocal advocate of safety measures for all athletes, but especially for wrestlers attempting to cut weight.  

“Every time another kid died, I’ve had to relive it over again,” Miller said previously. “We want to move in the forefront of the wrestling community as far as weight loss is concerned. This is something that could tear up a school.”  

Miller would be on the move again in 1998, headed back to the Northeast to take over the wrestling program at Syracuse, in New York. This would prove to be another challenging step in Miller’s career, but also something he wouldn’t trade.  

Wrestling at Syracuse was on life support, and with his hiring, Miller was tasked with raising $2 million to endow the program. In 2001, after failing to meet the university’s number, the program was cut.  

“Not reaching that goal was a painful loss,” Miller said.  

This setback was the first time since 1986 that Miller left a job without it being his choice. He was in the wilderness and needed time to find his direction, but after taking a year off, he decided to pursue an even greater challenge in 2002.  

Most people would consider a move from Division I to Division III a massive downgrade, but for Miller it was an opportunity to take over both the men’s and women’s wrestling programs at Pacific University.  

For six years, Miller ran both programs, but in 2008, he was worn out.  

“We have two programs, and they have taken all of my time,” he said previously. “It’s really two years jammed into one.” 

For Miller, the plan was to retire from wrestling and return to the Spokane area and enter the private sector. But in 2010, he received an offer to return to coaching. This time, at the lowest level he’d ever been. 

“While considering the KHS job, I talked to John Owen, one of my mentors, and asked him what he thought,” Miller said. “I wasn’t sure I was cut out to coach below the college level, and he laughed and said, ‘You called me to talk you out of it.  You’ll be fine, take it.’  I’m smart enough to take good advice.”  

Kellogg High School has a rich wrestling tradition but was in the midst of a transitional time during the late 00s. The program hadn’t been able to keep a steady high school coach, and the youth ranks were dwindling. Miller jumped in with both feet. His first goal was to find a staff of assistants who would stay in lockstep with him at every level, including club, middle school, and at the high school.  

A couple of guys who immediately stood out to Miller were James Bush and Travis Berti. Both were former standout wrestlers from KHS who seemed to be interested in regrowing the program at every level. Together, they would assemble a staff that has produced 200 state qualifiers, 75 state placers, 17 finalists, and seven champions over the past 15 years. 

For Berti specifically, it didn’t take much to convince him that Miller was the right guy for the job. In fact, it was something Miller did before they even touched a mat that proved why he was going to be a good fit.  

“One thing that has always stuck with me about Scott that many people probably don’t know or don’t remember is that he took the head wrestling job about a month before the levy failed and they dropped wrestling, among a few other sports,” Berti said. “Without having any true ties to this community at the time, he could have very easily said, thanks, but no thanks, and gone on to his next venture. Instead, he jumped in and was one of the main contributors to the Save Our Sports fundraising efforts, which saved all of the sports that were previously dropped.”  

Proving even more that guys like Bush and Berti were great fits, if you ask them what their favorite memories are from working with Miller, they’re almost exactly the same favorite memory that Miller has from working with them.  

All of them come back to working with the kids.  

“Every kid we have had in the program has had a moment where they were the hero, pulled out a big win, or was a great workout partner,” Miller said. “Getting hugs from each of the champions sticks with you but so does consoling those who did everything they could and came up a little short. Seeing their hurt is tough, but I was also so thankful for the effort and the trust they gave me and our coaching staff.”  

Beyond just Berti and Bush, Miller credits guys like Rodney Cochrane, Kyle Hudson, Steve Ivie, Tyler Wingerson, Ray Heely, Dan Guy, Taylor Bush, Will Yergler, Blake Ivie and TJ Haynes for his success at Kellogg. He also credits previous assistants and mentors Scott Amundsen, Danny Osborne, and Heath Grimm.   

“These are the guys that helped me have a successful career both here at Kellogg and while I was coaching college,” Miller said. “Great wrestling coaches, but more importantly, great people who cared about others.”  

Miller’s last day coaching saw the Wildcats win third place at the state tournament, with sophomore Colton Storey finishing as a state champion. Not many, if anyone, knew that was Miller’s last ride, but from his point of view, the effort and the result made it a perfect send-off.  

Will he miss it? Absolutely. But the thing he loved most about coaching wrestling is something that will live on.  

“Every day going into the practice room was a highlight for me,” Miller said. “I love the room. You see the kids develop throughout the year and become a team. Every time I see or hear from one of my former wrestlers, whether they are coming into the room, running into them on the street, seeing them at matches, or now, going to see them inducted into some sort of hall of fame, that is, without a doubt, the biggest highlight for me.”  

    Kellogg wrestler Colton Storey hugs head coach Scott Miller following Storey's championship win at the 2025 state championships. Storey was Miller's final state champion after 15 years of coaching at KHS.