University of Birmingham Athletics Club Endurance Manager Dean Miller is a former British international athlete who finished seventh in the T37 1500m at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
The Barrow and Furness Strider moved to Birmingham as a student in 2007 after being “sold the dream” by former university endurance lead Bud Baldaro. He won a bronze medal at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships but was forced to retire from competitive sport after rupturing his patella tendon in 2015.
Now part of a thriving team led by Director of Athletics Luke Gunn, Miller oversees the coaching programme for around 50 athletes (from a total of around 200 distance runners at the club) including GB representatives and 2025 British Universities cross country champions Jess Bailey and Tomer Tarragano.
Jess Bailey (Toby Gosnall)
How did you get into coaching?
I had to take a step back from athletics when I ruptured my patella tendon in 2015. I think I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder after that because I missed out on going to the Paralympic Games in Rio and that was the one where I thought I’d have my best shot of getting close to the podium – or even making the podium.
At the same time, Bud’s health was starting to deteriorate [he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2009] so he dragged me back in a bit, getting me involved with the stopwatch at sessions. I was working part-time in the PE department of a local school, leading a lot on inclusion, and I started coaching a few of the university guys to help Luke and Bud, as well as doing some consultancy with British Athletics on the Paralympic Futures Programme.
I knew I probably didn’t want to teach long-term, but I did want to upskill myself, so I went back to Birmingham to do a master’s degree in inclusion and special educational needs, graduating in 2019. I made the call that summer [just as the Talent Hub funding was coming into play] that I was going to coach full-time. Coaching isn’t necessarily valued massively as an occupation so it was a bit of “beg, borrow, steal” to get stuff going at first, but it soon snowballed.
Dean Miller (Getty)
Who has been your greatest influence?
[My university coach] Bud has always been my biggest mentor and he still is, along with my dad [who coached me before university]. My dad was a steeplechaser, so some of my earliest family holidays were coming to Birmingham to watch him get knocked out of the AAAs heats on the Friday night, so it’s quite ironic that I’ve ended up living here. It’s awesome that we get to work together with Jess [who he also coached before university]. I feel like I’m living the dream a little bit there.
It was Bud that persuaded me to come to Birmingham in the first place. He’s so charismatic and such a people person; he has time for everyone and really wants to help. He has always focused on being elite, not being elitist, and the way he ran the club and the culture he fostered here was incredible.
Bud also encouraged me to coach. I’ve learned so much from him and he’s still that person that, when it’s been a tough week or whatever, I’ll drop him a message or go round for a cuppa. Sometimes we get imposter syndrome as coaches and we think we need to have all the answers, but he’s taught me not to be afraid to say: “I don’t know that”.
I’m sure Luke will say the same, but I think it’s due to Bud that we’ve been able to evolve as a university club and to build our endurance programme. Imagine if Bud hadn’t allowed Luke and me to coach? He encouraged us, and that’s what we’re trying to do with others in the club now.
Dean Miller (Getty)
How have your own experiences as an athlete influenced the way you coach?
I’m very all or nothing in what I do and I think that allows me to see those traits in other athletes. I think I can read those athletes who have real intensity and might need to be held back a little bit.
While having an all or nothing approach can be a brilliant strength, it can also be quite destructive – as I experienced when my career ended early due to injury. The good thing is that I’m well aware of that and I can use my experience to help others get the best out of themselves. It’s been super useful as a coach.
I think I’m probably a little firmer as a coach than Bud was with me. He was quite different in his coaching style; he’d give you his thoughts and he’d allude to things, but he’d let you learn your own lessons.
Can you describe the athletics club’s ethos and why you think it works so well?
We went through a tough period with Bud’s health, and then we lost the track while the campus got re-developed, but we’re at a point now where we’ve got around 200 distance runners at all different levels very much combining community with performance, which was always Bud’s way. It doesn’t matter if you’re Issy Boffey, Will Barnicoat or Jess Bailey, or if you’re turning up to run at the university for the first time, everyone grafts and everyone is on the same page.
I remember turning up to training in the lead-up to London 2012 and Bud was like: “This is Ian, he’s training with you tonight,” and he’d have just met Ian at a local parkrun. It might not be quite as extreme now, but the club has always had community at the forefront and Luke and I remain committed to that. Performances are going a bit crazy now, too, so we’ve had to reflect and ask ourselves: “Now that we’ve got this talented group of athletes, how do we ensure that we’re doing right by them while still keeping that community aspect?”
It’s great that you can turn up at different points in the week and train with Issy one day, Will on another day, or someone you’ve never even met. It’s a lot of work, but it’s been worth it this year because I feel like people are getting the community vibe while, at the same time, we’re showing that the elite side can thrive.
Will Barnicoat (Getty)
You’ve previously talked about the importance of developing a person as well as an athlete. How significant is that within your role as university endurance manager?
It’s probably my biggest challenge. At the moment I coach a programme for about 50 athletes. It’s great at the performance end to see Tomer Tarragano winning the Liverpool Cross Challenge or Jess doing what she does, but a coach is sometimes wrongly judged by what their best athlete is doing. In a university setting I straddle a world where I can occasionally come across an athlete who will make international teams and maybe even make an Olympic Games one day, but actually I’ve got a duty to provide a university athletics experience.
I love what I do – I love people and I love conversation – but there are 18-year-old kids who are extremely driven, have just moved away from home, and sometimes have tendencies to be extreme in how they do things, so it’s not all about performance. A lot of my week is very much pastoral stuff and looking out for people, and it can be pretty heavy at times.
Granted, we have five or six athletes who are doing really super things on the performance side and that’s awesome, but two days after Liverpool I spent the day with the five to ten athletes who were having a tougher time, so I guess there will be people who I’ve coached who will say, “He’s brilliant”, and others who probably didn’t have as good a time, but as long as they all say, “He definitely cared”, that’s what really matters. I won’t get everything right, but I want our athletes to know they can talk to me.
Tomer Tarragano and Tom Keen (Graham Smith)
What’s your experience of working with athletes’ personal coaches?
When we started to rebuild the programme, Luke and I were keen that we wanted people to come and run for Birmingham, but to understand that they didn’t have to be coached by Bud, Luke or me, and as young coaches that approach has really helped us.
I spend a lot of time on the phone to personal coaches. It’s helped with our recruitment to be honest, because we’ve always stayed true to the fact that there’s no expectation to be coached by us. We’ll work with home coaches, we’ll try and learn from them, and we’ll try and mentor where possible. There are times when it’s right for an athlete to transition over to one of us, but we never put that on them.
As an example, Will Barnicoat is coached by Tim Eglan and I speak to Tim regularly. He sends through the programme each week – he tries to align it with our programme – and we have the athlete numbers here that if Will needs to do something specific, I can go out to the group and find a few other guys to help him out. We want to work collaboratively and we’ve proved we can do it successfully.
What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to a new or aspiring coach?
It’s okay not to know everything. It can really settle you when you’re able to say confidently to an athlete: “I’m not sure, but we’ll find out”. I think too many coaches, particularly young coaches, feel like they need to have all the answers, but it’s more about having the right people around you to ask and learn from.
