Kris Miller
Kris Miller enters his second stint as head coach of Oklahoma Christian University’s tennis programs in 2008-09.
He served in the same role at Oklahoma Christian from 1987 to 2003, a stint highlighted by the men’s team winning the 2003 NAIA National Championship. He accumulated a 288-114 record (.716) on the men’s side and a 95-43 mark (.688) with the women’s team.
Miller, who has served as a professor of biology at Oklahoma Christian since 1994, returns to OC’s head coaching post after being an assistant at the University of Oklahoma.
In his first tenure, he produced 31 male and 17 female NAIA All-Americans, plus 17 NAIA Scholar-Athletes. Miller’s coaching tree includes four current NCAA Division I head coaches in Eastern Illinois University’s John Blackburn, Southern Illinois University’s Dann Nelson, the University of Tennessee’s Sam Winterbotham and Oklahoma State University’s Chris Young.
After capturing the Sooner Athletic Conference and NAIA Region VI titles in 2003, the Eagles rolled through the national tournament and downed Azusa Pacific (Calif.) 5-1 in the finals. To cap off the national championship season, Miller was named Wilson-ITA National Men’s Coach of the Year for the third time in eight years (1996, 1998).
Miller also earned 2000 National Coach of the Year honors in women’s tennis as he simultaneously turned the Lady Eagles into an NAIA power. Both OC teams qualified for the national tournament in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.
In addition to OC’s team success, Winterbotham won the 1996 ITA National Men’s Singles Championship while Michaela Kratochvilova and Luca Somorjai won the 1997 ITA National Women’s Doubles Championship. Hermon Brhane and Lucie Sipkova won the 2011 ITA Small College NAIA women's doubles championship.
Miller, an OC alumnus, earned his master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and his doctoral degree in biochemstry from the OU Health Sciences Center.
He and his wife Robyn have three children: Chase, MaKenzie and Luke. Robyn chairs OC’s School of Education and serves as a professor in the department.
