Sernoffsky talks about Tom Miller

If you might remember, a month or so ago I did a special insert in our print edition commemorating the 2008 inductees of the EASD Athletic Wall of Honor. One of those inductees was Tommy Miller, E-town's only state wrestling champion. I interviewed E-town wrestling coach Mike Sernoffsky about Miller, but unfortunately, we didn't catch up until after deadline and I couldn't get Mike's quotes into the story in time. But he had some very nice things to say about Tommy, and I wanted to pass them along. Here's what Sernoffsky had to say about his state champ:

Tom Miller is definitely a special person. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to coach him as an outstanding high school athlete.

Tom qualified for districts in three sports his senior year – football, wrestling and track. He also ran cross country one year. Tom was also a top student. Tom did all the extras, running on his own, putting in extra practice, staying late for more repetitions.

It was great to coach someone who believed in his coaches and himself. He never put himself above the team. I started at E-town Tom's freshman year. It was easy to recognize he was a special kind of kid. I never saw Tom lose twice to the same wrestler in high school. His sophomore year was the only time he did not win the sectional tournament (he finished second). The following week at districts, he pinned the lad who had beaten him. His last two years in high school, he was 61-1, losing only in the state finals as a junior.

I was very fortunate to have a wrestler in the state finals three times in my first four years at E-town. (Dennis Rosenberry in 1984, Tom Miller in 1986 and 1987.) Tom's senior year at the state meet, a reporter asked me if something was wrong with Tom after his first match because he "only" majored his first round opponent in the state meet (his opponent's record was 35-2). After Tom's semifinal victory in overtime (I think he was watching the other semi match most of the time he was wrestling), we went to eat and I knew no one would touch him in the finals because he was so relaxed.

He told me, 'well at least no I can't do any worse than last year.' He never showed it, but he put a lot of pressure on himself to excel. My only concern during dinner before the finals was that he might receive a forfeit in the finals and be robbed of the opportunity to wrestle for the medal. His finals opponent won in the semis by injury default via a slam. He did wrestle and Tom pinned him in the second period.

Tom is definitely a special person. My wife still refers to him as our 'first' son.