Coaching tennis is about analyzing problems on the court and finding solutions. In high school tennis, this means finding an optimal way to organize the best six players in pursuit of a state championship.
After winning six state titles in 11 years of coaching, assistant boys and girls tennis coach Brian Miller has a formula.
As an actor, on stage, formulas guide Brian towards how to light a scene, the proper notes to stress in a singing duet or his blocking directions throughout the show.
Brian is the king of contrasts, working as an actor and a tennis coach. But to him, these jobs are more similar than they’re different. Each one with its own formula, united by problem-solving.
“I've always had kind of a split brain,” Brian said. “And to me, [theater, teaching and coaching] is all very, very similar. There are little moments of brightness, in pretty much everything you do. Finding those [moments] in theater helped me find them in every moment.”
Theater has always been the biggest part of Brian’s life — part of high school, college. And even most of his childhood after weekends of traveling with his family in their ‘70s Woodland Green Ford Econoline Van to sing gospel at local churches.
But Brian didn't think he'd become a professional actor until the Wichita Center of Performing Arts theater director Joni McNeill decided to attend the 9 a.m. service at Derby Immanuel Baptist Church and saw Brian sing.
Brian had been working on his master’s degree in education at Friends University while simultaneously working a desk job at PEP Systems when McNeill approached him with an opportunity. If he dressed in a leather jacket with jeans and sang “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley for the other directors, he would have a job playing the lead in the musical ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ at the Wichita Center for the Performing Arts for the next two months.
For the next 20 years, Brian had different shows lined up all across the country and the world, in places like Argentina, Australia and England.
“One time I got a call in the airport because I just finished a show, and the producer that was supposed to do a different show had broken his leg,” Brian said. “So they were like, ‘Brian Miller, please pick up the white courtesy phone.’ She's like, ‘we need you.’ And I'm like, ‘Awesome, cool. I'll be there. Give me a second. I’ll change my flights right now.’”
Miller’s constant travel eventually brought him back near his hometown to perform the musical “Les Cage aux Folles” in the Mary Jane Teal Theater in Wichita, Kansas. It was this show where he met Leah Miller, his future wife.
After starting rehearsals and getting to know each other, they both found it rare to find someone in the theater world who’s interested in sports. A quick bonding point became their shared love of football — despite her support for the Colts and his for the Cowboys.
When watching one of his shows, Leah explained that she’s more nervous than he is because she sees his acting process behind the scenes. Before a show even starts, Leah often helps him run lines or gives him feedback.
Their kids, Jonah and Brilee, spent much of their childhood running between rows of velvet and dark-stained wood seats. Both have acted in high school shows as well as performing in choir.
“I think it's been a cool atmosphere for them to grow up in and to just see you don't have to fit a certain mold in order to love theater or be good at it,” Leah said. “And I think that has affected our kids. They're like, ‘Oh yeah, I can love engineering and also want to act.’ ‘Or, I can love drawing and also want to go and perform.’”
On the tennis court, Brian is known as the “chill” coach who finds a way to make every practice fun and entertaining, according to freshman varsity tennis player Molly Trenkle.
“I was director of the sound crew and lighting crew at St. Paul’s for the past three years,” Trenkle said. “And it just adds an element where I kind of relate to him more and it feels more like we're kind of connected.”
Sports can make someone obsessed with the results, but for Brian, tennis is a lot more about honing the craft and finding those moments of brightness.
Very few people know about his acting side. But those who do respect the success Brian has had in an industry where actors only work 23 weeks out of the year, according to Brian.
“People are like, ‘Oh, you didn't make it to Broadway, you didn't get movies,’ but I was a working actor for 20 years, and there's not many people who get to say that,” Miller said. “I'm from a small farm in the middle of Kansas, for goodness sake. I got to see the world. I've performed in London. I performed in South America. I am just overwhelmed with the things I have gotten to see and do because I can sing and act.”
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