Los Angeles Southwest College recently appointed football head coach Marguet Miller as athletic director. He has plans to enhance the student-athlete experience on campus and expand athletic programs.
“I look forward to our athletic department bringing in student athletes from the community,” Miller said. “Watching those student athletes grow as students and matriculate and graduate and transfer on to four-year universities.”
The goal is to ensure that Southwest is a strong academic foundation that will help its student athletes pursue higher education.
“In the past, ideas that I might have had just for the football team and our success on the field and in the classroom, now I can oversee it, implement that in all of our athletic departments,” Miller said.
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Southwest currently has three teams: football and men’s and women’s basketball. They aim to add women’s volleyball, soccer, track and field, and softball.
“It’s going to be busy within the next two years of bringing in student athletes and expanding our whole athletic program,” Miller said.
Miller has been working at community colleges for 31 years. Prior to working at Southwest, he coached football at West Los Angeles College from 2008 to 2022.
With Southwest, he became the 2023 Metro Conference Coach of the Year. Next year, he led Southwest to the Western States Bowl game. Whether at West L.A. or Southwest, Miller ensured his team had a grade point average of 2.6 each season.
“We had seven players this year make the All-State Academic Team,” Miller said. “I think we had 15 that had the All Dean’s List, kids that really achieved academically over a 3.0.”
When it came to building the team philosophy, Miller implemented the same tactics as his mentor, Henry Washington.
Washington was also the football head coach and athletic director at Southwest.
“[Washington] had a good culture because it was structured in discipline,” Miller said. “We structured our culture on discipline and we went out and we got the best football players we could in surrounding areas.”
During his time at West L.A. College, Miller gleaned from the athletic directors at the time.
Throughout his career, Miller coached players that went on to be successful in several fields. His former players include Antonio Pierce, Rocky Seto, and Delanie Walker. Others have earned academic scholarships, become professors, firefighters, social workers, and graphic designers.
“I want to be there for them and help them off the field any way I can,” Miller said. “Sometimes the player is still trying to find himself or who they’re going to become, and you can play a pivotal part in helping them.”
