June 12, 2001
University of Notre Dame softball coach Liz Miller announced her retirement today after nine seasons with the Irish and 26 years of coaching overall, bringing to an end one of the most notable coaching careers in Notre Dame athletic history.
Miller steps down after leading the Irish through a string of highly-successful seasons and helping establish Notre Dame as one of the top softball programs in the nation.
Miller’s announcement comes on the heels of the most celebrated season in Irish softball history. Her 2001 team won a school-record 54 games while losing just seven, was ranked as high as eighth in the country and earned the team’s first number-one seed in the NCAA Championship. Four members of the 2001 Irish squad earned National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America honors, three were chosen for the United States National Softball Team and two were named to the Verizon Academic All-America first team.
“I had been thinking about it (retiring), but I didn’t want to make a decision until it felt right,” Miller says.
“Usually at the end of each year I think about it briefly and this year it was more on my mind than ever before.
“There is never a perfect time to end it, but after 26 years of coaching, this just seemed like the best time.”
“It’s never easy to make a decision like this, but it seemed like the right time.
“We’ve had a long list of great things happen as far as Notre Dame softball over the last nine years. It’s been a tremendous experience, and I appreciate the support of so many people at the University.”
“Liz has done exactly what we would hope all of our coaches can accomplish — build a program so that it can compete with any other in the country,” says Notre Dame director of athletics Kevin White.
“We’ve reached the point where Notre Dame is a household name in softball circles, and that’s a compliment to Liz and what her teams have achieved both on and off the field. She deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the way in which she went about putting this progam together.”
Over the course of her nine years at Notre Dame, Miller led the team to nine conference regular-season titles, earned five conference coach-of-the-year awards, and compiled a 376-156 (.707) record. Combined with her 17-year record at Lake Michigan College (1975-91), Miller won 917 career games, lost just 298, claimed 21 conference titles and posted 13 consecutive winning seasons. While at Notre Dame, the Irish won over 30 games every season of her tenure and made six NCAA Championship appearances.
Most of the major Notre Dame softball records were established during the Miller era and she coached 10 All-Americans, 14 Academic All-Americans, 25 NFCA all-Mideast Region selections, 27 all-BIG EAST first-team selections and 13 all-Midwestern Collegiate Conference selections.
Miller became just the second softball coach in Notre Dame school history in 1993 and built off the success of former head coach and current Notre Dame assistant athletic director Brian Boulac, who began the program in 1989. Miller constructed a national program, bringing talented players in from as far away as Connecticut and Hawaii. Her aggressive scheduling took the Irish to numerous early-season tournaments, including the traditional yearly trek to the highly prestigious Kia Klassic tournament in Fullerton, Calif. (in which the Irish finished third last season).
Miller came to Notre Dame from Lake Michigan College, where she implemented the women’s athletic program and served as the head coach for basketball, volleyball and softball. The LMC Hall of Fame inductee posted an unprecedented 1047-331 (.760) combined record in all three sports, including a stellar 541-142 (.792) mark in softball. Her success at the junior college level led to her induction into the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Coaches Hall of Fame in 1999.
She began her athletic career at Western Michigan University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1969 and a master’s degree in counseling and personnel in 1971. She played both field hockey and volleyball at WMU, while also spending six summer on an American Softball Association travel softball team. While at WMU, Miller presided over the Women’s Recreation Association and has since been named to the Western Michigan Athletic Hall of Fame.
Miller is particularly looking forward to spending more time with her husband Lloyd and her family.
“My husband also is retiring and I will be able to spend more time with him and we are looking forward to traveling,” Miller says.
“My daughter (Jennifer, a 1993 Notre Dame graduate) also is expecting our first grandchild and we will get a chance to spend more quality time with them as well.”
Liz Miller’s Notre Dame Record
Year W L Pct. Postseason Play/Notes
1993 36 13 .667 MCC Champion/Ranked Fourth in Region
1994 41 20 .672 MCC Champion/NCAA Mideast Region/
MCC Coach of the Year
1995 40 19 .678 MCC Champion/NCAA Region I Runner-Up/MCC Coach of the Year
1996 48 16 .750 BIG EAST South Division Champion/
NCAA Region II/BIG EAST Coach of the Year
1997 35 25 .583 BIG EAST South Division Champion
1998 34 22 .607 BIG EAST South Division Champion
1999 42 20 .677 BIG EAST Tournament and
Regular Season Champion/NCAA Region VI
2000 47 14 .770 BIG EAST Touranment and
Regular Season Champion/
NCAA Region VIII/
BIG EAST Coach of the Year
2001 54 7 .885 BIG EAST Regular Season Champion/NCAARegion VII Runner-Up/
BIG EAST Coach of the Year