Sports: Kurtenbach: How many 3-pointers can Curry make in a game?
Coach Miller instills a sense of social justice, winning attitude for his team at Gunn High
PALOALTO>> Gunn High football, undefeated this season and on top of its division, is no ordinary turnaround story.
Three years ago, when Jason Miller was hired as head coach, Gunn was more likely to appear atop a ranking for academics than on the right side of the scoreboard. That may even still be the case, but Miller says he’s harnessed these students’ drive in the classroom and applied it on the field — often in unique ways.
His players have spoken up for social justice off the field, including marching last summer for Black Lives Matter and again this spring amid the surge of antiAsian hate crimes. This month the team brought its fight to the football field with letter-A decals on their helmets to raise
awareness about violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. At Gunn, 44% of the students are of Asian descent, many of them first or second generation immigrants.
“This is gonna be in our DNA as much as weightlifting or offensive and defensive schemes,” said Miller, who also teaches a social justice class at the school.
Those factors make Gunn’s rise from a threewin team the season before Miller’s arrival so remarkable.
Five of the eight schools in the El Camino Division — Monta Vista, Lynbrook, Saratoga, Cupertino and Gunn — are among the top 50 academically in California and the top 200 nationally, according to U.S. News & World Report. With parents concerned about football’s safety and students focused on Advanced Placement classes as well as other extracurricular activities favored by Ivy League colleges, it’s rare for schools such as Gunn to sustain success in the sport.
Many struggle just to sustain a football program.
Monta Vista coach Ceazar Agront said he had to cut his junior-varsity program last season because he had only nine players. Saratoga coach Tim Lugo said his roster has exceeded 30 players only once in 13 seasons. A typical high school football roster is 50 players. De La Salle is carrying 75 players this season.
Gunn’s roster has 28 players, including a linebacker who will play piano at Carnegie Hall this fall — junior Eric Wang — and a defensive lineman, senior Ken Erlan, who speaks five languages.
“When you talk about how he handles his low numbers, I thought it was brilliant what he was doing,” Lugo said. “If you watch them closely, they rest as much as possible.”
Miller teaches his players to walk on and off the field and to and from the huddle; to stay down after tackles and to milk the clock.
“What he’s done to keep them as fresh as possible,” Lugo said. “I just think it’s really smart on his part how he does things.”
When Saratoga’s enrollment began to drop, Lugo found a system in the spread passing game to compete with smaller numbers, utilizing its athletic talent at quarterback and receiver, similar to the way Miller has refined his own offensive system at Gunn.
A quintet of rushers, led by senior running back Richard Jackson IV and junior quarterback James Lambert, have totaled more than 1,750 yards on
the ground — more than 11 yards per carry — running the Double Wing-T system to near-perfection. In most offensive sets, the quarterback lines up under center with a fullback behind him and wingbacks on either side.
Miller learned the offense from a master of the system, Don Markham, who hired Miller two decades ago to run the junior varsity program at his alma mater, Leuzinger High in Lawndale.
With a career that has taken him in and out of coaching and between Inglewood and Compton, Palo Alto is a different environment for Miller but not an unfamiliar one.
Miller has caused a stir among the league’s coaches twice this season.
While discussing the decision to cut the school’s junior varsity program, a coach at another school used language Miller interpreted as racist and sexist. Other coaches, who spoke with this news organization on the condition of anonymity, disagreed with the characterization, as well as Miller’s method of a league wide email to raise attention to the incident.
Midway through a scrimmage with crosstown rival Palo Alto, Miller’s team walked off the field, accusing the Vikings of cheap hits against a few players.
In a report in the Palo Alto Daily Post, opposing coach Nelson Gifford called the team walking off “the most cowardly act I’ve ever seen a head coach take.” Gifford declined to comment for this story. Miller said that it was a “safety issue.”
As to the league-wide email, Miller said: “If I see injustice, especially at a time when we’re confronting issues of gender in sports, with Black coaches, then I’m going to confront it at every turn.”
Don Austin was hired as superintendent of Palo Alto schools shortly after Miller became the head coach at Gunn. Since taking the job, Austin has “challenged me not to just come in and be
a teacher, not just be a football coach (but) to lead,” Miller said.
“I’m not sure he needed the encouragement,” Austin said. “I’m a very firm believer that when you have coaches that are excellent coaches and are excellent role models, they’re perfect to drive important work for an entire school district.”
In the classroom and in the locker room, Miller said he doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable topics with his pupils or his players.
In recruiting players, Miller said he confronts stereotypes about football being a “Black or White sport.” He argues that football can be worth their time. Once parents give their OK, it’s about translating high IQs and academic work ethic into football.
“We have serious academic students who have transitioned that energy into being serious football players,” he said. “They are attacking athletics in the same way they attack academics.”
Last spring, Lambert, Gunn’s quarterback, and some teammates took it upon themselves to participate in the Black Lives Matter marches, an action that caught Miller’s attention because, “Without me asking, my kids are marching through the streets for Black Lives Matter, and I might be the only Black person they know.”
Lambert, who’s of Korean descent, was inspired by his coach. A year later, the team took another stand when Lambert’s community was under attack, debuting helmet decals to raise awareness about violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
“It’s more than just football,” Lambert said. “We’re working to fight social injustices. It’s really cool to see. … Without Miller, I don’t think we’d be working so hard against social injustices like that.”
In the words of one parent, Eva Dobrov, Miller is “a very inspiring coach. It’s almost like we have a ‘Friday Night Lights’ TV show coach, honestly.”