Just like that, he was gone.
Russ Milligan didn’t drop many clues prior to stepping down after 27 seasons as Center Grove’s softball coach, and there wasn’t a big press conference announcing his departure.
Instead, he just quietly backed into it during a year-end meeting with athletic director Jon Zwitt.
At one point in the meeting, Zwitt was discussing the 2019 schedule with Milligan and asking what opponents he might want to add to it.
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“He pushes the schedule back to me and said, ‘I’m going to let the next person make that decision,'” Zwitt recalled. “When he said that, I just had to stop and think and — ‘What did he say?’ — it was one of those.”
Recent graduate Jordyn Rudd, who was named a first-team All-American by MaxPreps this past season, says that she was slightly suspicious after she played for Milligan one last time at the state all-star games in Bloomington, but she still didn’t see it coming.
“I could tell he was a little more emotional in that game,” Rudd said. “Afterward, he gave me a big hug and all that. That made me a little suspicious of it, but I didn’t think much about it.”
For Milligan, the decision to walk away wasn’t an easy one. He very much enjoyed coaching the Trojans — and had great success doing so, winning nearly 89 percent of his games and five state championships. But in the end, he had other passions he wanted to devote his time to, and he was out to ensure that he was still physically capable of doing so.
Milligan is currently out in Wyoming with his wife on a two-week hiking excursion, and he’d like to make such trips longer and more frequent in the coming summers.
“My greatest passion is backpacking and hiking,” he said, “and as I get older — I’m 54 now — it gets harder and harder to get my fat butt in shape for what I really, really want to do.”
Some might question the timing, given how loaded the Trojans figure to be again next season. With one of the nation’s top players returning in pitcher Abby Herbst and another potential All-State player, Piper Belden, at second base, Center Grove should again be in contention for a state title after going 111-10 with three regional titles over the last four years.
But while the temptation to coach the incoming seniors one last year and chase a sixth state crown was certainly there, Milligan decided to hang it up.
“There’s never going to be a good year,” Milligan said. “I will never feel good about leaving no matter what the year was. There’s always going to be a kid or two or three or 12 that you’d love to coach one more year, and this year’s no exception to that.
“Abby and Piper in particular are wonderful kids that I think I’m pretty close to, at least on my end, and I really like them as people as well as players. So that makes it very difficult. But then the year after that, there’s going to be somebody else, and then somebody else.”
Additionally, Milligan didn’t want to be seen as someone who selfishly chased victories and then left the cupboard bare for the next coach that comes in.Â
Many a legendary coach has bolted just before the bottom fell out on a program, but it was important to Milligan to let his successor get off on a good foot and generate some positive momentum.
“Following someone like Russ Milligan is going to be tough enough as it is,” Zwitt said.
Center Grove softball figures to be fine. The youth program was producing top talent long before Milligan arrived, and it will likely continue to. Milligan is quick to point out that he didn’t teach his players how to play softball.
But he made his impact on the program in other ways.
“He taught me a lot of things, not all softball, but lots of the mental things,” said Rudd, who will continue playing at Northwestern. “He taught me a lot about how to still have fun with it and enjoy it, basically how to stay positive to be a leader. There’s a lot of mental stuff that he taught me.
“He was all about team business. Trying to get twenty-some girls to all get along, all different personalities, can be a struggle, that’s for sure. And he helped a lot with that.”
Zwitt believes that Milligan’s background as a chemistry teacher, a role he will continue to fill at Center Grove High School, paid dividends out on the softball field.
“He does so much with blending and combining talents and personalities; it’s like a chemistry set,” Zwitt said. “It’s so important to make sure that the team is the driving force, because it only takes one thing … all of a sudden you’ve got chaos. He was able to really bring the girls together, and I think that was probably his strength as a coach.”
Part of being able to maintain that positive balance was helping to instill greater confidence in his players. The growth in that regard was especially noticeable in Herbst, whose increased comfort level on the mound has become more visible right along with her abilities.
The Wisconsin recruit says that Milligan has made a great impact on her in that regard.
“He supported me in everything that I did and he believed in me,” Herbst said, “and I think that was one of the biggest things that contributed to a lot of my success. He just believed in me, and he believed in everyone, and he had so much faith in us to do well, and I think that was how and why we were so successful.”
The incredible run of sustained success certainly helped to keep Milligan, who possesses a pretty healthy competitive streak, around for so long. But the job was about more than just winning.
“The thing that kept me in it this long, and one constant throughout the years, is that coaching girls is a unique thing,” Milligan said. “Girls are more appreciative of efforts. …
“I think girls work harder. I think girls play more for the right reasons than boys. And people can slam me for this all they want, but I’ve done both. I’ve played a lot of sports. The fact of the matter is, no girl becomes an athlete and works exceptionally hard at being good because they think they’re going to get more dates because of it. In fact, the opposite is true; it becomes a stigma. And so you’re talking about kids that are playing the game for the right reasons most of the time.”
Milligan was long one of the area’s most colorful athletic figures, someone who seldom pulled punches on any subject. He routinely provided members of the press with two sets of quotes — one fit for print, the other not even close.
As a result, he could come off as abrasive to some. But most were able to look through that unvarnished exterior and see Milligan’s love of the game and his genuine concern for the girls that he coached.
“He speaks from the heart, no doubt about it,” Zwitt said with a laugh. “But he’s got a big heart. He’s not nearly as gruff as people think he is.”
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Russ Milligan enjoyed a great deal of success in his 27 years as the Center Grove softball coach:
741 wins
95 lossesÂ
.886 winning percentage
State championships
1995, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2015
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