Miller Place Football began its first varsity season in 1974. Here is a quick background on how the program came about..
1970/1971 - Miller Place breaks from the Port Jefferson School System due to political oppression and demographic change. The school district does not open the high school until the 1972-1973 school year. Before then the Roadrunners (the school's original nickname before patent infractions were threatened) were housed and practiced as a junior high school program down at the old North Country Road School. Social Studies Teacher Roy Reese brought the program through its difficult growing pains from the onset. Reese was charged with the nearly impossible task of teaching organized football to a group of eager young men who had never been exposed to any level of organized football.
1972 - Miller Place now has students through the 10th grade. The high school is now opened on the south side of 25A housing grades 7-10. The move to JV football was logical but not easy. Led by James Clancy, Frank Faivre, Jamie Ryan, Andrew Malecki, and some very hard nosed blue collar players, the program was operated in a first class manner from the get-go. Clancy, it should be noted, is THE ONLY player in Miller Place history to have been involved in the program from day 1 until the present (now as a coach). Clancy not only has been involved as a player, but as a coach and as a teacher. Jim Clancy was also the first player in Miller Place history to play college football (which he did at now defunct Tarkio College in Missouri).
1973 - By now the school is playing 2 levels of football (Junior High School and JV). Mr. Reese makes the decision to continue to play JV football with Juniors on the team preparing the team for the big move to Varsity football in 1974. It is certainly the correct move. The new high school is really a Jr.-Sr. high school filled with kids from the end of the Baby Boom era. Believe it or not, the baseball, basketball and track programs are in their second seasons of competing on the varsity level in sports where safety is certainly not the concern it is in football.
