Full-time realtor loves part-time coaching

Part-time hockey coach Matt Miller has developed characteristics and skills both playing and coaching hockey at a high level over many years.

“Sports are terrific for making you work well with others, recognizing that everyone has something to bring to the table,” says the 33-year-old. “Leadership qualities for sure, organizational skills, communication and time management is a huge one.”

He adds competitiveness to the list, and his recent experience in coaching competitive levels of hockey stands as proof that he can hang in there when the heat is on. They are all also skills that also help him in his full-time job as a sales representative with the Miller Group, including managing his time with showings for clients and buyers.

Growing up in the Ajax/ Pickering area, Miller rose through the junior hockey ranks to play first with the Durham Fury, and then with the Cobourg Cougars of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL). In 2009, he went on to earn a spot with the NCAA Division 3 SUNY Potsdam Bears of the SUNY Athletic Conference.

After two years at Potsdam, Miller, whose family by then had moved to Niagara, finished a BA at Brock University, with a minor of sorts in sports management. From there, Miller caught on with The Skating Lab, a Toronto facility that offers high-performance off-ice training to hockey players specific to their skills levels and needs.

Soon he was working for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in their ticket sales department, while also doubling up in their hockey development ranks and helping to operate hockey camps. 

That’s when his networking efforts resulted in his move to coaching, working first with the Don Mills Flyers AAA organization before joining the Toronto Marlboros AAA program. There, he worked with players such as Jamie Drysdayle, the NHL’s number six overall draft pick in 2020, now playing for the Anaheim Ducks, and left winger Will Cuylle of the Windsor Spitfires, who was chosen by the New York Rangers in the second round that same year. 

When he decided to leave Toronto to join his mother Sally and his older brother Will in their real estate company, he immediately put his name forward to the Niagara North Stars AAA organization. 

“We had a successful season my first year as (U16) head coach,” Miller says. “I took over a seventh place team and we finished in second on the season and advanced to the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) championships just before COVID hit.”

Minor hockey’s U16 age group is known as the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) draft year. Two members of Miller’s 2020 Niagara team found spots in the league: Tai York (Barrie Colts) and Derek Smythe (Ottawa 67’s). The following year, cut short by COVID, both Nate Day (Flint Firebirds) and Jordan Schanbacher (Barrie Colts) were drafted into the OHL. 

NOTL resident A.J. Harlond’s son Evan played on Miller’s team in his second year coaching the North Stars. Evan only experienced Matt’s expertise for a short period of time. “We really enjoyed his junior-style practices that were always well executed,” A.J. said. “He spent a lot of time correcting and explaining different things. He was one of the most transparent and honest professional coaches we have ever had, and he took a zero-parent influence policy, which was quite refreshing. I could see him coaching even above Junior B and heading onto an OHL bench like a seasoned vet.”

This year Miller moved on to take an associate coach role with the St. Catharines Junior B Falcons. They are currently in the first round of the playoffs in the Greater Ontario Junior B Hockey League’s (GOJHL) playoffs. 

“They’re an excellent organization,” Miller says. “It’s a great culture, they provide a great environment for the players. There’s a certain expectation for the players’ behaviour both on and off the ice. And the number of volunteers involved, it’s second-to-none in the Niagara region.”

Miller, who married his wife Andrea last summer (they met years ago when they both worked at Bistro 61 on Queen Street), and does not have children of his own yet, says his focus in coaching has always been on development. 

“That’s with respect to skill development and personal character development,” Miller insists. “And work ethic, too. I would identify myself as a player’s coach who takes an interest in each of my players’ lives, and treats them with respect and care. In return, I expect a good attitude and hard work. Success will come with that.”

When asked who his coaching mentors were, Miller points to Billy Carroll, a former NHL player who won three Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders and one with the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s. He also mentions Wayne Marchment, his Junior coach back in his Cobourg days.

“I was a vocal, charismatic player in those days, with a smart hockey IQ,” Miller says. “I think both of those guys recognized that I had potential to be a coach back then.” Outside of his current role with the Falcons, Miller continues to run his self-named hockey school and camps, which in the past have taken him as far away as Minnesota and China. And he has run a number of camps in the Niagara region, especially when he was involved with the North Stars.

Miller continues to coach for all the right reasons. He does it because he loves it. It’s his passion. Though he admits it would be a dream to make hockey his full-time job, he also has a practical side that means he has to make the difficult decision to miss a practice or arrive 10 minutes late from time to time. 

“People want to see homes when they are home from work,” he explains, “which is generally evenings and weekends. Well, that’s generally when hockey is. I’ve become a master navigator of my time, I manage my schedule to a ‘T’. I never jeopardize my real estate work with hockey. Real estate takes the front seat, and hockey goes to the back.

“We won’t back down, we negotiate very hard for our clients,” he says of the Miller team. “We’re not afraid of an agent, or a difficult buyer or seller on the other side. We try to represent our client’s interests as best as we can.”

Even if he does some day find full-time work behind a hockey bench, Miller says he will always be involved in the family business, which he loves just as much as his favourite sport. And after all, as he points out, he loves the competition.