One of the most accomplished high school coaches in Garden State history, as well as an integral part of the football resurgence at Rutgers, Mike Miello enters his third season as the William Paterson head coach in 2007.
During his first campaign at William Paterson, Miello led his team to a 5-5 overall record, finishing the 2005 season with three consecutive victories, including a dramatic 20-19 win against No. 2 Rowan, a team that reached the semifinals of the 2005 NCAA Championship. Last fall, William Paterson showed tremendous resolve as the Pioneers played through a rash of injuries, particularly at the quarterback position. Two-thirds of WPU’s 2006 losses were by a touchdown or less as the Pioneers played a schedule that featured three eventual NCAA Division III Playoffs participants.
The hiring of Miello in 2005 as William Paterson’s 11th football coach attracted big, bold headlines befitting the arrival of a man of his accomplishments. Of them, the one that ran in the Herald News said it best: “WPU Lands One of State’s Top Coaches.”
These words from Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano summed it up: “There is no one I can think of who is better to lead the William Paterson program than Mike Miello. William Paterson is getting the best of the best.”
High school coaches across the state, not to mention college coaches across the country, have always had the utmost respect for him for his accomplishments on the high school level and then as an assistant coach at Rutgers University for four seasons.
In addition to helping develop a successful program at Rutgers, Miello built Ramapo and Hackensack into high school state championship contenders year after glorious year. Much of his success came at Ramapo, where he was the athletic director and architect of the Green Raiders’ rise to statewide prominence from
1978-2000. In 23 seasons, they won four New Jersey state sectional championships and four Northern Bergen Interscholastic League titles.
Miello prepared his charges well, sending 148 of his players off to play in college. He coached Chris Simms, one of the top quarterbacks in New Jersey prep history who is currently a signal-caller for the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and another of his protégés was Justin O’Connor, who played in the 1994 Rose Bowl as a tight end at Penn State and finished his career at William Paterson before becoming an assistant coach with the Pioneers. Prior to his time at Ramapo, Miello guided Hackensack’s program from 1970-75 after serving as an assistant in 1968 and 1969. During his head coaching stint, he led the Comets to the 1971 NNJIL and Group 4 state titles.
Miello began his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater, the University of Rhode Island, in 1967. He then had a one-year stop at Columbia University as the running backs coach in 1969, and he also broke down the game films of college prospects for the New York Giants from 1981-84. Miello was a two-year starter at tight end for Rhode Island from 1965-66.
Off the field, Miello’s involvement in the community has been acknowledged with numerous accolades. He has been inducted into the New Jersey Football Coaches Association, New Jersey Interscholastic Coaches and Ramapo High School Halls of Fame. In addition, Miello was named the YMCA and UNICO (Hackensack chapter) Person of the Year in 2004 and was the recipient of the President Gerald R. Ford Award from the All-American Football Foundation in 2003.
Miello earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and health from the University of Rhode Island in 1967, and a master’s in administration and supervision from Seton Hall University in 1977. He lives in River Edge with his wife of 36 years, Diane. They have two married daughters, Dawn Williams and Denise Kelly, and a grandson, Patrick Michael Williams.