Odell Miller had won only four games in his first two years as Woodland Hills’ basketball coach, when he decided he had to do something drastic that might not be popular. He went all young on the Wolverines.
A few years ago, Miller got rid of the upperclassmen and decided to play almost all sophomores and freshmen. His thought was a season or two of pain and suffering would someday pay off in winning big.
Someday is here.
Those young players grew up and Woodland Hills’ win total has gone up drastically the past two seasons. Last year’s team made the WPIAL semifinals. This year’s team is 19-3, the most wins for the Wolverines since the 1998-99 team went 21-3. Woodland Hills also won a section title this season.
Woodland Hills is one of the biggest turnaround stories in the WPIAL in recent years. To think, this team went 0-21 only four years ago. And from 2000 through 2016, only nine teams in the entire WPIAL had a worse winning percentage than Woodland Hills.
Now Woodland Hills has a section championship plaque and a high seed for the WPIAL playoffs that begin Friday night. And if ever a school needed something like this, it was Woodland Hills.
Over the past year or so, the Woodland Hills district has had to endure deaths of a few students from shootings; a school principal accused of threatening a student; a resource officer accused of violence toward a student. It seemed the only news coming out of the Woodland Hills has been bad news.
That makes the basketball team’s accomplishments positively uplifting.
“I’m just happy for the kids and the community because it’s something they can feel good about,” said Miller, 60, who is in his sixth season as coach. “The community has started to come around. When we played Penn Hills [Feb. 9], the gym was packed. The place was electric.”
Miller has certainly put a charge into Woodland Hills. To fully appreciate where the Wolverines are now, you must understand what it used to be like. The school that had a tremendous football program for decades was pretty much awful in basketball for close to 20 years. From 2000 through 2016, the Wolverines had nine seasons where they won five games or less. The 2011-12 season provided some good times when the Wolverines went 17-6 under coach Mike Decker, who left after that season. Miller took over after Decker.
“I used to always say to myself how could this school be so big and the basketball team be so bad,” said Miller. “I’m sure everyone said it because I was saying it. After my second year, I said there would be no quick fix like I thought. So I got rid of all the seniors and went with ninth- and 10th-graders. I knew we wouldn’t win. You can’t win [in the largest classification] playing with sophomores and freshmen. We had Amante Britt starting for us as a freshman and he was a captain. That’s how bad it was.”
Now Britt is a senior point guard and is something unheard of in high school sports: A four-year captain. Britt has been the cornerstone of the rejuvenation project. He is the school’s all-time leading scorer and averaging 20 points a game this season.
Three other seniors start for Woodland Hills, which could mean the Wolverines aren’t a one-year wonder.
And to think, a few years ago Miller told then athletic director George Novak that if Novak wanted to make a coaching change, he would understand.
“But I was convinced that all the coaches they had here weren’t bad,” said Miller. “They just needed some time.”
Court proceedings
Central Catholic surprised boys basketball coach Chuck Crummie last Friday with a ceremony marking the naming of the school’s basketball gym as Chuck Crummie Court at Alumni Hall. It was the second time in a few months that a WPIAL school named its court after one of the league’s winningest coaches.
In December, Blackhawk had a pregame ceremony for naming the court after legendary John Miller, the sixth-winningest coach in WPIAL history with a record of 657-280 from 1969-2005 at Riverside and Blackhawk. Miller won eight WPIAL titles at Blackhawk, which ties for the second most in league history.
Coincidentally, Crummie is right next to Miller on the wins list. Crummie is seventh with a record of 647-332 since 1980. Crummie has one WPIAL title.
2,000 and 1,000
Not many players in the history of WPIAL basketball can say they had 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in their career. But now Mars’ Robby Carmody can.
Carmody, a 6-foot-4 senior, scored his 2,000th career point a few weeks ago. He pulled down his 1,000th rebound Feb. 9. It is not known exactly how many players in the history of the WPIAL scored 2,000 points and snared 1,000 rebounds in a career. But it’s only a few. Career rebounds aren’t available for many of the 29 players who have 2,000 points. Kevin Price, a 1993 graduate of Duquesne High who played at Duquesne University, is one known to have 2,000 and 1,000.
What makes Carmody’s feat impressive is that he is a guard. Getting 1,000 career rebounds as a guard is highly unusual.
LaVar the coach
LaVar Arrington is considered one of the greatest football players in WPIAL history. This fall, he will be a high school head coach.
Arrington, a 1997 graduate of North Hills, was hired earlier this week as the new coach at Maranatha High, a private Christian college prep school in Pasadena, Calif. In the past, Arrington has expressed his desire to possibly coach high school football, maybe someday in Western Pa.
Football news Tuesday
For those wondering what the WPIAL football playoffs will look like this year, and where the title games will be played, you’ll know Tuesday. That’s when the league announces the playoff formats, as well as sites for title games. Also Tuesday, the WPIAL will release sectional alignments for boys and girls basketball next season.
Mike White: mwhite@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mwhiteburgh
First Published: February 15, 2018, 12:00 p.m.
