Published: June 20, 2007 11:36 pm         

Father coaching son on football field for final time

TERRE HAUTE — They’ll probably be more sentimental about what takes place this week a few years from now.

Late Tuesday morning, however, the main thing that mattered to both Broc Miller and Michael Engle is that they were back wearing pads, sweating at the end of a hard practice and preparing to play a football game at the end of the week.

“We’re out here to have fun,” said Miller, a recent Northview High School graduate and one of the quarterbacks on the North squad for Saturday’s Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association all-star game, “and it’s all a lot of fun right now.

“But come Saturday night, we’ll get serious.”

“It’s been a lot of fun,” agreed Engle, “getting to know a new group of people, and being able to play football for a week in the summer.”

After a practice conducted in varying degrees of sunshine, cloudiness and showers, it was suggested to Engle — one of the South quarterbacks in Saturday’s game and a recent graduate of Terre Haute South — that the all-stars had benefitted from not having their week of practice a week earlier, when the temperatures were routinely in the mid-90s.

“Quarterbacks are funny, I guess,” he responded. “I’d rather it be 95 degrees than raining.”

The two future college players are among as good a crop of Wabash Valley quarterbacks as the three-year all-star game has enjoyed.

Miller, who will be practicing on the same field in the fall as a freshman at Indiana State, is one of five quarterbacks on the North team. He’ll be splitting time with Terre Haute North’s Matt Seliger — also a future Sycamore — and North Putnam’s Class 2A all-stater Brayden Dahlstrom, while West Vigo’s Cogan Keith and Riverton Parke’s Tyler Engle are expected to play in the defensive secondary.

“Getting timing with the [new] receivers is the main thing right now,” said Miller, although two of his favorite Northview targets, Chase Yocom and Zach Sanabria, are all-star teammates. “Hopefully we can start bringing some wins home — Saturday night, and then next season [at ISU].”

One of the three quarterbacks selected for the South team, however, hadn’t made an appearance as of Tuesday so Engle — headed to DePauw in the fall — and Greencastle’s Cal Gard figure to get the work at that position. “I’m not complaining [about extra playing time],” Engle said with a smile.

Engle’s expertise about the offense would have been necessary anyway, because the South team is running a lot of the Terre Haute South offense. Jay Engle, Michael’s father and the Braves’ former coach, is the offensive coordinator for all-star head coach Bill Evans of Red Hill.

Jay Engle resigned after the 2006 season, so this week is his final coaching opportunity.

“I’m having a lot of fun this week, being able to work with a lot of kids from a lot of schools,” he said Tuesday. “I plan on being a fan next year, something I’ve looked forward to for a long time.”

The coach will be headed to Pittsburgh after completing his obligations this week, where he’ll help daughter Sarah find an apartment as she prepares for law school. His other daughter, Laura, recently accepted a job with Reebok at Indianapolis.

“We’ll be all over,” he said Tuesday of his family’s future plans, “but at the top of my list is being Michael’s No. 1 fan for the next four years.”

“Being able to play for him has been a great experience,” the younger Engle said. “He’s taught me so much, and made me a much better player.

“Having one more game — my last high school game, his last high school game — is a great experience, and hopefully we’ll win one for him.”

Miller’s sentimental moment this week will come Friday night, when his grandfather is one of six inductees into the WVFCA Hall of Fame during a 6 p.m. banquet in Hulman Center. Evans is another inductee that night, as are the late Frank Ciolli, John Hasten, Charlie Karazsia and Dennis Raetz — whose son, Mark, is Jay Engle’s successor and another member of Evans’ South all-star staff.

Tom Miller was a longtime coach at Garfield and then at Brazil, where he coached the offensive line until the school consolidated into Northview in 1995.

“He’s one of the main reasons I played football,” Broc Miller said of his grandfather. “He taught me all I know.

“He’d go out and throw with me when I was little,” Broc added. “We had one of those Nerf Turbo footballs, and he used to throw it to me underhand; drove me crazy.”

Broc said he always knew he had a knowledgable fan in the stands on Friday nights.

“I knew at a pretty young age [that my grandfather was a highly respected coach],” Broc said. “I looked up to him because of that … him going into the Hall of Fame? That’ll be cool.”