The 2021 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and former La Salle skipper David Miller will return to his previous helm as head baseball coach. Miller, who has served as head coach at Manhattan College over the past two years, will begin his tenure in June 2024 to prepare for the return of the baseball program to competition in 2025-26.

“We are excited for the return of La Salle baseball and over the last several months, we have discussed our program with alumni, former student-athletes and an amazing candidate pool,” Vice President for Athletics & Recreation Ashwin Puri said. “During the process, it became clear David was the right coach to lead our program.  He knows La Salle, the Atlantic 10 and the Philadelphia baseball community. We share his vision for La Salle Baseball and are excited to have him rebuild our program and take it to new heights.”

During his four previous years at La Salle, Miller turned a team that had only 10 wins and a .196 winning percentage before his arrival into a winner, with the squad finishing with a .604 winning percentage and a program record for wins in his fourth season as head coach.

The 2021 season was a memorable one, as Miller led the Explorers to a school-record 32 wins. La Salle also tied the program record for conference wins with 15. For his efforts, Miller was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year as the Explorers totaled nine year-end awards from the league.

Five were honored as all-conference performers, the most for the program since it joined the A-10 in 1996. Under Miller’s guidance, five different players worked their way into the top-10 in a number of program lists, while the pitching staff set a school record for strikeouts.

“I am excited to come home,” Miller said. “We have unfinished business at La Salle and I’m excited to get back to work and build what we started to do in 2021. I would like to thank the University, President Dr. Daniel Allen, Ash Puri, and all of the people responsible for reinstating the program. I look forward to being an Explorer again.”

The Explorers took a big step forward in Miller’s second year in 2019. La Salle won 11 more games than the year prior, finishing the season fourth in program history with 25 victories, including 17 wins at home and victories over two of the top ranked offenses in the nation in New Mexico State and Penn.

While at Manhattan, Miller guided the Jaspers to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship appearance in his first season. The team set a single-season record for walks in a season and the pitching staff racked up 416 strikeouts, second-most in the Manhattan single-season record book. Four student-athletes earned individual postseason accolades.

Miller spent one year at NCAA Division III member Penn State University Abington, leading the Nittany Lions to a program-best 33-11 record while coaching Ryan McCarty to DIII National Player of the Year honors. McCarthy signed with the Toronto Blue Jays organization, the first MLB signing in the program’s history.

Before his first stint at La Salle, Miller was the head coach at prep power Penn Charter. Over four years, Miller compiled an impressive .757 winning percentage and racked up 84 victories – an average of 21 per season. In 2014, the Quakers went 20-6 and won the Inter-Ac League championship, finishing third in the state of Pennsylvania in the final poll.

In his last year at Penn Charter, the Quakers compiled a .350 team batting average and a miniscule 1.03 team ERA en route to No. 1 rankings at both the state and regional levels and a No. 12 ranking nationally. Overall, 30 of his players have gone on to play collegiate baseball.

A high school standout at Chestnut Hill Academy who was a First Team All-City selection as a first baseman in 1991, Miller went on to star at Clemson where he helped lead the Tigers to national No. 1 rankings in both his sophomore and junior years. Clemson won three straight Atlantic Coast Conference championships during his time with the team.

As a junior, Miller was a finalist for National Player of the Year honors as the Tigers advanced to the 1995 College World Series. A consensus All-America and First Team All-ACC selection, Miller batted .380 with nine home runs, 78 RBI and 27 stolen bases while starting all 68 games. He finished his collegiate career with a .335 average, 143 runs scored and 149 RBIs.

Miller was the 23rd overall selection of the Cleveland Indians in the 1995 MLB Draft and played professionally from 1996-2003.  In his second full season of pro ball at Double-A Akron, Miller hit .301 with 27 doubles, nine triples and 61 RBIs while swiping 22 bases. He played two full seasons with Triple-A Buffalo, collecting 189 hits and 40 doubles from 1998-99.

Following his pro career, Miller returned to Clemson and received his bachelor’s degree in Communications with a minor in Social Sciences in 2004.