Much of what a football player achieves on the field is taken from what is learned in the weight room.

“A lot of that comes from the strength and conditioning coach rather than the head coach,” first-year Memorial head coach Brian Morgan said.

That was his train of thought when Morgan hired former Lamar head strength and conditioning coach Josh Miller to the same position last month.

“He was the most important hire,” said Morgan, who worked at Lamar from 2010-14, spending the last two seasons in Beaumont in the chief S&C role. “He has an unbelievable way to teach in the weight room. It’s all in his attention to detail, how to run faster and be a better athlete.

“He’s an absolute stud.”

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Said Miller of Morgan: “He presented an opportunity and sold it real well. He’s a great guy, someone I look forward to working for and helping support him through this opportunity he has.”

Miller is just working with football this season, but Morgan’s plan is for him to be S&C coach for each of Memorial’s athletic programs. Miller will also teach health when classes begin next month.

Morgan cautioned Miller that he’s not stepping into a program where the players have to be motivated. A school-record 15 football players signed national letters of intent with a college team in February, five of them to Division I programs.

“I think what this is going to do is help the kid who’s kind of the middle-of-the-road athlete who’s been overlooked in the past,” Miller said. “Not just that, but when you really think about it, the athletes we are able to send to the high-end programs, they’re going to be a step ahead of the game, whereas before, maybe they had to take a redshirt year because they were just underdeveloped as far as their physical development. Now, at this point, maybe they come in and play right away. A lot of young men, these days, that’s a big interest of theirs, getting in there and being able to participate.”

 

Rarity for high schools

Memorial has joined a short list of American high schools that have hired full-time S&C coaches and is the only 5A school in Jefferson County to do so.

AthleticBusiness.com cited, in a May 2017 article, an estimate that 1,000 high schools employ someone in that position out of almost 25,000 high schools in the United States. (The National Strength and Conditioning Association, reached by phone, did not have any immediate employment statistics for high schools.)

“After being around college football, [I learned] that person is very important in the improvement of a football program,” said Morgan, who worked with Miller at Lamar during the 2014 season. “Kids in Port Arthur already have strength and discipline. I told Josh when he was hired he’s not coming in here having to motivate. The kids already show up and work hard. But it’s more than about working hard.”

It’s about performing the little things in training that can be translated to the field and help a team win or go farther in the playoffs, Morgan added.

Miller said he initially “pulled back the reins” after seeing he didn’t have to coach effort among the Titans, who reached the 5A Division I Region III semifinals last December. But he asked the 2018 Titans to “respect the process” of his training in their quest to improve.

“The human body is the same,” Miller said, asked about coaching high-school kids given his experience in Division I colleges. “Whether I’m working with 14- to 18-year-olds or 19- to 22-year-olds, the thing I seem to be mindful of — and the great thing is, knowing I have the background that I do — is you need to remember these are not just young men, but some of them are kids. We need to make sure we put them in a position not only to where they will be successful, but that will help them develop. It’s making sure we knock out the basics first and they understand what they’re doing is what’s asked of them. That will help their progression tremendously.”

 

On-field benefits

Senior quarterback Kam Ladia is starting to see the benefits of Miller’s impact.

“It’s a blessing to have a strength and conditioning coach helping us out, getting us quicker, faster, stronger for the season,” Ladia said. “Always taking advantage of all the reps we had on our strength and conditioning sheets, running all those 300-yard shuttles — those things are very hard — but we always have to push through. [Not every team] has a strength and conditioning coach.”

Miller isn’t limited to S&C with the football team. The former baseball walk-on at Southeastern Louisiana will coach tight ends and assist offensive line and wide receiver coaches during position meetings.

“It gives me the opportunity to coach on the field, but I can put my primary focus on these young men as far as strength and conditioning,” he said.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews