Dave Miller’s 45-year coaching career was celebrated Saturday with his induction into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
“To be nominated and inducted into the Hall of Fame is such a blessing,” Miller, who coached at Concordia Lutheran and Bellmont high schools, Central Lutheran School and St. John Lutheran School – Flatrock, tells PSM. “You start out coaching a long, long time ago, and you don’t even think about that. It’s just the day-to-day, and you’re working with your kids.”
Miller was one of 17 former players and coaches named to the Class of 2025.
Miller spent 18 seasons (2003-04 through 2020-21) at Concordia, where he led the Cadets to 3A state championships in 2010 and 2012. Miller won 299 games and cut down the nets on nine sectional titles, four regional titles, two semi-state titles, two regular season Summit Athletic Conference titles and an SAC Holiday Tournament title. He was named SAC Coach of the Year in 2014.
Prior to that, Miller coached the girls program at his alma mater, Bellmont. After a season as the 8th grade girls coach, Miller spent the next 13 seasons (1986-87 to 1998-99) as high school varsity head coach. Under Miller, Bellmont won five sectional titles, two regional titles and two Northeast Hoosier Conference titles and 180 games. Miller was twice named NHC Coach of the Year. Miller taught at Bellmont from 1985 to 2014.
Statewide, Miller was selected Indiana Coach of the Year in 2012, Indiana All-Stars head coach in 2012, and an Indiana Junior All-Stars assistant in 2007.
Miller started his coaching and teaching career in 1975 at St. John Lutheran School – Flatrock in Monroeville. He served as girls basketball coach and athletic director. Among the girls he coached on those grade school teams was Jody Beerman, a future Indiana Miss Basketball and fellow hall-of-famer out of Heritage High School. Miller left St. John – Flatrock in 1982 for Central Lutheran School in New Haven. There, he coached basketball and volleyball for the next three years.
While Miller played one season of high school basketball at Bellmont, he did play three years of college basketball at Concordia College in Seward, Nebraska (now Concordia University, Nebraska). He earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Concordia College, then his master’s degree in education from Indiana University. He finished his teaching career in 2017 at Woodburn Lutheran School.
His final high school coaching stat line reads: a 479-227 record over 31 seasons with two state championships, 14 sectionals, six regionals, two semi-states, four regular season conference championships and a conference tournament championship. And now, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025.