It’s fitting that, for the Miltner family’s current coaching opportunity, the family was able to go back to where it all started.
Jack Miltner and his daughters, Mindy and Morgan, are currently working just a few minutes from the family home off of Gallagher Road near Strawberry Crest High School — the school the girls would have attended if it were open 15 years ago. Ask them, and they’ll say they never expected it to be like this.
They’ll also say it’s been a blessing.
LAYING DOWN ROOTS
Jack is doing retirement on his own terms: taking it easier than before, but not letting his loves of softball and working with youths become things of the past.
A coach in the Tampa Bay area for over 30 years, Jack may be best-known for opening up and running his own baseball school at the family home in 1990. The seven-plus acre plot of land held just about everything a young player could ask for in a local training facility, from batting cages and wall ball areas to practice fields. The coach also fielded several travel teams, the Team Miltner Buzzards, for competition.
“You could have 80 kids there, easy,” Jack says. “It was magnificent. I was working really hard, watching the young kids, and I wanted to see how I could help and motivate them. I wanted to give back to the community and do something fun.”
But some of his favorite concepts to pass on to his students were the mental intangibles.
“Teaching life lessons, mostly,” Jack says. “Respect for the game, and all of that.”
He coached at Bloomingdale High School for a while, finishing with a 40-15 record and back-to-back district titles in two seasons as head coach (1993 and 1994), and was an assistant on the 1991 state runner-up team.
After the time came for Jack to move on from his school in 2003, he eventually returned to the high school game. He helped open up Lennard High in 2006 and, to his delight, was able to do so with his daughters.
STICKING TOGETHER
Mindy and Morgan grew up playing sports and attending camps together, so it was natural that they eventually found their way into coaching together.
Mindy began playing softball at about 5 years old and also played volleyball. She’s more into softball these days, with her role as the Lady Chargers’ head coach. But it was in volleyball that she won the 2000 FHSAA state championship at Durant, before continuing to play both sports at Florida Southern College. She then transferred to St. Leo to continue her softball career.
“I liked playing volleyball, because it gave me something different to do, but softball was always my first love,” Mindy says.
Morgan, on the other hand, gave up softball in the sixth grade after a medical issue took her out of the game for a short time. When she was ready to play sports again, volleyball season came first — and she was hooked.
She was also on Durant’s 2000 state championship team with Mindy and picked up another title in 2002 before going to play at the University of Tennessee. Morgan says that, after college, neither sibling expected to be coaching for a living — let alone coaching with their father.
“I don’t think either one of us ever really said we wanted to be a coach,” Morgan says. “Coaching chose us. It’s in our blood. It’s in our family. It’s our life. We’ve always been around educators and coaches and, next thing we knew, we’re nine years in.”
Both Miltner girls got their coaching start at Lennard, starting the softball and volleyball programs. When Crest was built, and looking for coaches, the family just couldn’t pass up on the chance to start another new project.
“We wanted to come back home,” Mindy says. “This is where we were used to. These were the kids we were used to. This felt comfortable.”
Although Jack is a veteran of the boys game, he’s been having a blast since moving to the softball diamond to work with his daughter.
“It’s mainly because of Mindy,” Jack says. “I started coaching her when she was 6 years old, and through her career. The game is faster. It’s funner.”
He doesn’t get involved with the volleyball team, but Mindy does serve as Morgan’s assistant coach.
The softball team may have gotten off to an uncharacteristically slow start, but Crest fans won’t see Jack and Mindy as anything but upbeat. After all, this family has had an opportunity that many don’t get: to be able to pursue a shared passion together and create something with staying power from scratch.
“To go and work with their two daughters that know as much as you do, and working with all of the kids — changing lives here — that’s just remarkable,” Jack says. “To be able to do what we do with kids that you love so much, it doesn’t get any better.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
CATCH A GAME
After Tuesday’s softball game against Tampa Bay Tech, the Lady Chargers officially entered their spring break period. The girls will be back in regular-season action on March 17, and will enter a four-game home stretch.
All games start at 7 p.m.
3/17: vs. Wharton
3/20: vs. Brandon
3/24: vs. East Bay
3/27: vs. Plant City