Mother-daughter duo Lynn and Ashley Miller coaching, bonding at Capital

Posted May 13, 2017 at 406mtsports.com.

The competition on the Capital softball team this season isn’t limited to just the players. Assistants Lynn and Ashley Miller also have a running contest when they’re out coaching first base.

“You only get to coach if you score runs. If you don’t score runs, you have to come off,” Ashley explained.

She and her mom, Lynn, are both assistant coaches on dad Mike Miller’s staff -- where both the familial and competitive ties run deep.

“My mom and I have coached together for the last few years. Last year, we were actually the JV coaches and that was a lot of fun because we’re both pretty intense people,” Ashley said. “This year, we actually moved up to help my dad coach the varsity side.”

But it was also just a year and a half ago that Ashley was facing a much larger foe than any opponent on the field.

In August of 2015, she was experiencing spells where she would get a weird taste in her mouth and her right side would go numb for 30 seconds. The doctors originally diagnosed them as atypical migraines, but two months passed without knowing for sure what was wrong.

“It’s definitely a scary situation that really puts everything out there and you find out who you’re close to,” Ashley said.

She entered the doctor’s office after school one day and could immediately see in the scan that there was something there. It was a brain tumor that had been developing for decades, unknown.

In November, she and her family flew to San Francisco and within hours had a diagnosis of Stage 2 cancer. Surgery was scheduled, and what followed were two months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Lynn stayed with her through everything.

“I was with her every step of the way with that, and I think that’s really brought us closer,” she said.

“What a comfort to have that, because that was a point I couldn’t do a bunch. And to have her support, to have her be there to check on me, to check on my kid, those little things, you know,” Ashley added.

She completed her treatments and returned to teaching in January 2016 with a new message for her students.

“I want you guys to understand that science can save your life."

Since her return, Ashley has been cancer-free.

“When she got sick it really brought back what’s really important in life -- and it’s not always the sports. It’s more about family and things like that,” Lynn said.

Still, neither of them missed a softball season in spite of that experience.

“It’s something I love and I think it just brought to me a new appreciation for it. Do the things you love; and softball is something that I love,” Ashley said. “I love to be around the kids and I like to see them get enjoyment out of something that is pretty near and dear to me. I decided to stick around, and I wouldn’t change it.”

Part of that love for softball comes from the connection she has to the sport and what in means to the entire family.

“We’ve always been such a close family as it is. My mom is my best friend, for sure, and it just gives us something different to talk about,” Ashley said.

Both she and Lynn grew up playing softball, and Ashley played for her uncle, Al Hartman, at Helena High for two years and Lynn for the other two. They faced Mike at crosstown games.

Even during Ashley’s playing career, she and Lynn maintained a close relationship.

“A good friend of ours gave probably the best advice ever: The 24 hour rule,” Lynn said.

“That was always kind of our deal. It was always 24 hours,” Ashley said. “After that point, then we were able to discuss what was going on and work.”

And softball wasn’t usually far from the family conversation. Lynn and Mike met playing softball, and both their children, Ashley and Nathan, got into softball and baseball at young ages. Sundays were softball days where they’d go down to the fields and Mike would pitch to Ashley and they’d all talk.

After Ashley graduated, Lynn stopped coaching for a few years, but Mike talked her into coming back, this time for the Bruins. Ashley joined the staff 10 years ago, this time as an assistant coach.

“As much as I wanted to coach and all of that, I didn’t think I’d be doing it with my parents,” Ashley said laughing.

But it’s working for both the Bruins and the Millers.

“We think a lot alike,” Lynn said. “Our whole family is very competitive and that’s how we coach, as well.”

Ashley realizes she has a pretty good role model to observe for coaching strategies.

“That love that she has for kids and the things she does. It’s always just impressed me,” Ashley said.

It’s a connection she has experienced first-hand, and tries to bring to her own coaching. And they’ll continue to be a team even in the coaching ranks.

“The thing we always say is, ‘Work hard. You’re here, you may as well work hard,'’’ Ashley said.

Whether they’re on the softball diamond, running road races together, or spending time with the rest of the family, Lynn and Ashley Miller have grown closer through their shared passions.

“My mom and I have always been really close anyhow. And I think we always have both had a love of softball,” Ashley said.

“I’m pretty blessed, that’s for sure.”