BRUNSWICK — For 13 years, Jason Miller has watched from the side of Don Glover as the famed Brunswick High School boys lacrosse coach won game after game, championship after championship.
Miller was an assistant coach to Glover for four state titles (2007, 2015, 2017 in Class A, 2018 in Class B), as well as a four-year player for the legendary coach. That kind of familiarity with a coach makes the choice of predecessor easier when the decision needs to be made.
Glover decided last year that it would be his final year, and after an interview process Miller blew athletic director Jeff Ramich away to become Brunswick’s second boys lacrosse coach in 23 years.
Miller was aware of the work Glover put into the program, not just for a few months in the spring but all 12, so he was a bit apprehensive at first when the conversation originally came about.
“I actually really didn’t want the job to start,” Miller said. “I see Don as a father figure and huge mentor and I knew the role he played. It’s a year-round thing, the time, commitment, love, passion, for me mentally trying to wrap my head around it all was a little overwhelming.”
So he sat back and watched. Miller analyzed every aspect of Glover’s coaching style closer than before and became more and more ready for the potential coaching change.
“Once we started talking about it a couple years ago I started watching what he did in the background and I watched what he did so I could do what he was doing, hopefully to the level he was doing it,” Miller said. “Just the year-round process that he went through was intimidating.”
Glover finished with a career record of 303-43 with the vast majority of wins coming with the Dragons. Miller has also been apart of many of those wins, as well, which makes the changing of the guard a no-brainer.
“It was a conversation that would come up briefly between him and I, and I have been with him since 2007, and so I think in his mind I was the logical choice,” Miller said. “We worked well together and I have a similar system as Don the way I coach and approach players. If anything it would have been a pretty seamless transition.”
Ramich agreed, and after the great interview he awarded Glover’s predecessor the job.
“His knowledge of the game is very impressive,” Ramich said. “When we were in the interview process, him explaining things to someone who played baseball his whole life and never saw lacrosse until seven years ago when I took the AD job here, he explained everything technically sound and he explained the x’s and o’s to someone who doesn’t know the game. He’s great with kids, his patience level and his rapport he has with kids put him over the top.”
In May, longtime Brunswick boys’ lacrosse coach Don Glover celebrated his 300th victory with his team. In June, Glover retired as the Dragons’ coach. File photos
Glover believes that Miller’s year on the Gorham Rams’ coaching staff the year before he joined the Dragons was critical in Miller’s growth.
“I think with his coaching career, going to Gorham was really good,” Glover said. “Coming back, he’s networked really well and has picked up a lot of the coaching style we’ve had and I think that’s a strength that definitely the kids are going to reap the benefits of. He’s a younger me and he has the energy needed and he’s closer to the kids.”
Miller was only able to have just a single meeting with his team before the season and hands-off period was postponed. He was able to pass out a packet of tryout philosophies to help his team get into shape before the season.
“I’m just trying to be as optimistic as I can and I’m glad that it’s delayed and not canceled all together,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of drastic measures. If we abide by the intent of all that then it can slowly blow over and return to our normal lives.”
Miller’s care for his kids is something that stuck out to Ramich and Glover. When and if the kids do return this season, Miller will be ready because of what he learned under Glover’s wing.
“It’s his concern for the players and he uses lacrosse really as a way to pass on life lessons and how to prepare for life,” Miller said about Glover. “How to go from a boy to a man. Just the way he treats the kids, it’s a hard thing to explain but his relationship with the kids, he treated them like his own. He turned those kids into his own and to be as successful as they could be.
“The plan is to minimize the shock between one coach to another. We are really similar, other than a few schemes and vocabulary words so it’ll be a pretty seamless transition.”
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