Coaching Hero: Bob Miller Ushers In Winning Seasons, Higher GPAs

DETROIT (WWJ) - Sometimes in life you come across individuals that were born to lead, and Redford Union High School found that man when they hired Bob Miller as the manager of their baseball team.

WWJ's sports reporter Ryan Wooley features Bob Miller -- this week's Coaching Hero.

Redford's Miller can be called many things; son, coach, leader. But as of today, he can also add "Man Of The Year" to that list as he accepts the 2016 award from "The Redford Connection" -- something he was shocked to learn he had won.

"Very, very humbled by it, I'm a lifelong Redford Township resident ... I got a call and was told I won it, I was very shocked, very surprised," says Miller.

In five short years Miller turned around a Panthers program that was struggling both on the field and in the classroom, turning their 5-20 record and 1.5 grade point average into back to back league titles and a 3.5 GPA.

The award, which is now in its second year, fits exactly what Bob Miller stands for according to paper owner Chuck Haas.

"I would say he's a giving person - he always looks out for other people and he's a real community person who is interested in the values of Redford, the values of community and the values of family," adds Haas.

Bob has proven that with not only the job he did by turning around the Redford Union baseball team by winning back to back league titles and flipping the team's GPA from a 1.5 to a 3.5 within a five year span -- but also for helping create a one day water drive for the city of Flint that took 11 semi's to deliver 230,000 bottles of water.

Bob says he is very proud of what he has been able to accomplish both on and off the field -- but is most proud of the life lessons he has been able to teach over the years.

"I feel like I know the game," says Miller, "I grew up on it - I have a pedigree on baseball and it's been great and we've done really well but that comes secondary to the lives that have changed because of playing baseball at Redford Union -- who are getting their college degrees or meeting their future wives there and things like that -- and that's what I'm most proud of -- I want to continue that as long as I can."