How Rockford success story became head coach at age 22 and who helped him along the way
Mike Miller is Rockford’s most famous young coach. He became Guilford’s head boys basketball coach at age 24 and led the Vikings to a second-place finish in Class AA two years later — the highest finish by any NIC-10 school in the last 68 years.
Still, Miller, who went on to become the NIC-10’s second all-time winningest coach, was sometimes known as Mikey in his younger years.
“That was (former Boylan coach) Steve Goers trying to be demeaning, but my family called me that for years,” Miller said. “It didn’t bother me.
“Back then, that was really, really rare,” Miller said of becoming a head coach at 24. “Every other coach when I started was my dad’s age or older. Frank Cushing was my assistant back then and we’d have times where I would be coaching on the sidelines and the referees would run past and say to Frank, ‘Tell your assistant to sit down.’ He’d have to say, ‘No, that’s the head coach.’”
More: One of the Rockford area's all-time winningest basketball coaches retires
Thirty years later, Miller has helped start the career of an even younger coach who is also having an immediate impact. And as young as Micah Voigt is, he looks even younger. Opponents and referees usually think he is one of Durand’s players or even the student manager.
“That happens more often than not,” said Voigt, who has now led Durand to its first two winning seasons in over 40 years.
Voigt turned 24 earlier this month and he became a head coach at 22. He played at Hononegah under Miller. He didn’t make the varsity there until his senior year and even then rarely played. But he stood out as a student of the game.
“I was very good in film sessions and they had some openings, so I helped coach our freshman team my junior and senior year,” Voigt said.
“Micah was really into it and enthursiastic and I like having people who have been around our program do stuff with us if we can,” said Miller, who coached his last 21 years at Hononegah before retiring in 2022. “It was a natural fit for him to get started.”
More: Rockford’s greatest games No. 4: Great escape starts Guilford run to state title game
In college, Voigt worked as an assistant for two years in the Wisconsin Dells. When he graduated and was hired as a teacher two years ago at the Dolan Educational Center he became an assistant under Matt Stucky at South Beloit, which won 27 games that year.
“He was eager to learn and he came in knowledgeable and ready,” Stucky said. “He was good with the players. Good on the bench. Good to have in the coaches’ office. He was always prepared.
“He does a good job of relating to his players. That’s a big thing, especially nowadays. His players like playing for him. They play hard, and you won’t find a team that plays hard that doesn’t like their coach.”
Voigt stepped into a mess at Durand. The Bulldogs not only had not had a winning record since 1980, they also were going on their fourth head coach in four years. And now they had Voigt, who at first glance seemed less qualified than any of the previous coaches.
More: 'I always knew we could win': Durand headed toward 20 wins after 40 years of losing
“It was a little weird, but we got used to it quick,” senior center Max Milbrath said. “There was skepticism going through all those coaches, but that skepticism went away quickly with him. We learned he has a lot to offer. We just went with it.
“It’s the way he coaches. He likes to keep everything about hot takes. That’s his thing. He’s high intensity, but he’s cool. He gets on us when we need to get yelled at or do something wrong. He’s a good coach. He knows what he’s doing.”
Durand was 53-152 in the eight years before Voigt arrived, winning more than six games just twice. But they did go 14-18 in Randy Hunt’s second stint at the school in 2022. That led to the breakthrough 17-15 mark in 2023 — their first winning season in four decades.
And now they are 14-6. But they have lost three games in a row with state-ranked Pecatonica and Scales Mound up next. It won’t be easy to keep Durand winning, but Voigt is used to things not being easy. His day job is a therapeutic day school for abused and neglected kids. Dolan Educational Center serves 30 to 40 kids from all over northern Illinois.
“We have kids from Hononegah, Freeport, Harlem, Dixon, all over the place,” Voigt said. “We’re the step before going to residential, which is for kids who are placed outside of their home in a facility they live in. Our goal is to get the students back to their home district. We work with a lot of behavioral issues.”
Voigt teaches math there, to everywhere from fourth-graders to seniors. His dad, Jeff, has been the dean of students there for 35 years. His sister, Noelle, will replace their dad in that role next year.
And Micah will keep coaching Durand and getting the Bulldogs to believe they can be winners.
“The biggest struggle for me was gaining their confidence that I know what I am talking about and earning their respect that I have knowledge and can get that knowledge through to the players,” Voigt said.
That’s not a struggle anymore.
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: How Rockford area's youngest basketball coach got his start
