Gregg Miller completed his fifth season with the Manhattanville men’s soccer team in 2015, as he continues to build and develop the young talent in the program into one of the top teams in the conference and the region.
Miller continued to lead the Valiants in a positive direction in 2015, compiling a 10-7-5 record overall in a year that featured a very challenging non-conference schedule. The Valiants faced six regionally or nationally ranked teams on the season, and picked up an impressive victory against regionally ranked Merchant Marine.
The Valiants had a very impressive year in MAC Freedom play, holding opponents scoreless over the final five contests of the season en route to their first postseason appearance since 2012. Despite losing in the first round of the MAC Freedom tournaemnt, the Valiants went on to reach the ECAC Metro/Upstate Tournament Championship game.
At the season's end, the Valiants saw seven members named to the MAC Freedom All-Conference Team. Sophomore Christoffer Staahl was named MAC Freedom Defensive Player of the Year after being named Rookie of the Year the previous season. Along with Staahl, seniors Eddie Silber, Willie Silber, and Steve Singson, sophomore Robin Schaufele, and freshmen Huho Landberg, and Oskar Martinsson were all named to the All-Conference squad after impressive seasons on the pitch.
Returning 18 players and welcoming nine newcomers in 2014, the Valiants finished Miller's fourth season with a 7-11 record, including a 3-4 mark in Freedom Conference play. Many of last year’s freshmen made great strides forward and were frequently of the starting XI. Two of the biggest additions came from across the pond, as Swedish freshmen Robin Schaufele and Christoffer Staahl both earned numerous honors including Freedom Conference Rookie of the Year (Staahl) and second-team All-Freedom Conference (Schaufele).
During his third season, Miller was faced with the task of completely rebuilding the program, as his 2013 squad featured 15 freshmen and 17 newcomers overall to go with only nine returners from a year ago. While it took the team a while to find its chemistry, the Valiants finished with a 5-10-2 record and a 2-4-1 record in the Freedom Conference. All but two of the team's goals were scored by newcomers this year, as the emergence of several key freshmen and sophomores provided hope for a quick turnaround. Sophomore Kevin O'Reilly also earned All-Freedom Conference honorable mention recognition.
During his second season, Miller oversaw a unit that finished the season with an overall record of 8-7-4, with a Freedom Conference record of 5-1-1 and thus earning the top seed in the Freedom Conference Tournament. In guiding his team to its second straight top-seed in the tournament, Miller was awarded as the Freedom Conference's Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the regular season.
At the conclusion of the season, a team-record eight members to the Freedom All-Conference teams. For the second year in a row senior Eros Olazabal was named a first-team selection along with classmate Edmond Addison. The Valiants also placed four individuals on the second team and had a pair of honorable mention honorees as well.
In his first year as the helm, Manhattanville set a new program record with 15 victories and earned the top seed in the Freedom Conference Championship with a 15-4-1 overall record. The squad earned the program's second NCAA Tournament berth as an at-large selection and was regionally ranked by the NSCAA in every Mid-Atlantic Region poll during the season, reaching as high as fourth over the course of the year.
Under Miller's watch, junior Eros Olazabal was named the program's first-ever All-American with a D3Soccer.com second-team selection after shattering school records for goals and points in a season, finishing the year with 26 goals (including a record seven game-winners) and five assists for 57 points. Olazabal was one of seven Valiants named to the All-Freedom Conference teams after the year, the most since the program joined the conference in 2007 and the most overall for the team since 1999.
Miller came to Purchase from Brown University, where he spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the school’s nationally recognized men’s soccer team and helped compile a cumulative record of 32-14-10. With Miller on staff, the Bears appeared in the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two seasons, including an appearance in the Round of 16 and a 10th-place finish in the final NSCAA Division I national rankings in 2010.
Prior to his time in Providence, Miller built the men’s soccer program from the ground up at Division III Johnson & Wales University and helmed the Wildcat men’s team for 14 seasons, leading the squad to five conference championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances. A three-time Great Northeast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year (2002, 2003, 2005), he posted a 10-6-2 record in the program’s second season and a 142-106-16 overall mark at the school. He truly excelled in his final six seasons, compiling an 83-40-10 mark and guiding the program to four conference titles, four NCAA Tournament berths and a 2004 ECAC New England championship. He was inducted into the Johnson & Wales Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
In addition to his collegiate coaching duties, Miller also has served as the Director of Coaching for Bruno United FC since 2007 and is responsible for all facets of the 14-team development-based premier soccer club. During his tenure with Bruno, no fewer than 10 teams won state championships, and the club boasted in excess of 18 state finals appearances. He also has served as a staff coach for the Brown University Soccer Camps since 1998 and as an assistant director since 2008.
A native of Birmingham, England, Miller is a 1995 graduate of Johnson & Wales and coached the nascent men’s and women’s soccer teams for two seasons at the start of his coaching career. He also received his master’s degree in international business from the school in 1997.
Year by Year Record
At Johnson & Wales:
1995: 10-6-2 GNAC Tournament Title
1996: 9-9-0
1997: 5-11-0
1998: 7-11-1
1999: 8-8-1
2000: 14-6-1
2001: 6-13-1
2002: 14-9-1 GNAC Tournament Title, NCAA Tournament
2003: 16-7-3 GNAC Tournament Title, NCAA Tournament
2004: 13-6-3 ECAC New England Tournament Title
2005: 15-6-1 GNAC Tournament Title, NCAA Tournament
2006: 15-6-0
2007: 14-5-3 GNAC Tournament Title, NCAA Tournament
At Manhattanville:
2011: 15-4-1 NCAA Tournament
2012: 8-7-4
2013: 5-10-2
2014: 7-11-0
2015: 10-7-5
Record at Manhattanville: 45-39-12 (.531)
Career Record: 191-142-29 (.559)
