Whether he’s on the baseball diamond or on the football field, one thing is for sure about Matt Miller: He likes to hit.
The 5-foot-11, 184-pound Righetti High School junior is a standout as a slugging left fielder and as a starting free safety for the Warriors.
While his football team ran through its first spring practice on May 11, Miller watched from the sidelines. His baseball season isn’t up for a couple more weeks, after the team makes a run at a California Interscholastic Federation championship. Righetti finished fourth in the Pac-7 standings, and Miller finished in the top five in the league in home runs and eighth in stolen bases.
In football—the sport he prefers for its action and the possibility of redeeming a bad play immediately—he’s a two-time All-League defensive selection and the team’s defensive Most Valuable Player.
Like Baltimore Ravens’ All-Pro safety Ed Reed, whom Miller said he patterns his game after, Miller is a double threat for an interception or a vicious hit over the middle.
Righetti football coach Gary Wilson said Miller, who also laces ’em up as a wide receiver and spot running back, is the type of player the team needs to get the ball to as much as possible.
“Matt Miller is your all-around athlete who excels in just about everything he does,” Wilson said. “Athletically, he’s a playmaker on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, he’s quick, smart, very aggressive, and just an all-around football player who’s going to end up going someplace.”
Miller recently turned a few heads at the nationally recognized B2G Elite Camp at Righetti, where the Central Coast’s best high school football players came together to scrimmage and show off their athleticism in front of big-time college coaches.
Righetti strength and conditioning coach Monte Nash said the sky’s the limit for Miller.
“For what he does on the field, he’s off the charts for what he brings to our team,” Nash said.
While Miller said he’d go to any college that would pay for his schooling, he’d prefer to stay in California. Miller has talked to Cal Poly and San Diego State about scholarships for baseball and hopes to go to UCLA for football.
“For me, there’s always room for improvement,” Miller said. “I want to be able to hold that reputation as the guy they look up to and continue to get better. This is my last year here, so I’m going to try to finish the best I can and hopefully move on.”
This article appears in May 14-21, 2009.