MEET THE COACH
Ray Miller, C License Coach - International Fishing Guide Ray Miller grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, a hockey player who made the most of the outdoors areas his neighborhood offered. He’s now an international fishing guide whose ventures to South America made him fall in love with soccer. Ray, who has a U.S. Soccer National C License, stopped by the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer office to chat before heading to Argentina to check out two new lodges for his trips. You can find more information about his fishing tours at RiverSageOutfitters.com How did you get involved in coaching? Ray Miller: It’s funny. It was because I was going to South America so much as a fishing guide. I started falling in love with the game, because my friends, one guy, would watch Boca Juniors, and the guides would like River Plate. The passion that they had was just amazing. I had to get into this game. I grew up playing ice hockey. Then I fell in love with the game and went crazy with the coaching education. I’ve been overseas with Barcelona and Real Madrid’s coaching programs. Over to Germany. I just went nuts with it. Coming from the outside—you said you didn’t have much of a soccer background—what did you take from the (U.S. Soccer coaching) courses that maybe you didn’t get from just being a fan? RM: I became more in love with the game. I got more detailed oriented. Especially this last course, the C License course,
really got me more detail oriented. It taught me a lot about how to develop kids. Networking. That was also a great thing with the courses. How did you get from Northeast Philadelphia to South America as a fishing guide? RM: I started as a Philly kid. At the end of my field, I had pheasants. And I had carp in a creek, catfish, bass. Then my uncle got me into (outdoors) even further by taking me to the Poconos and deer hunting and bird hunting and bass fishing. I started guiding on the Delaware. Next I started in Montana; I was a guide. Then I started working for the fly fishing shows. My boss would take me on one trip every year as a bonus. I made all these connections. Now I’ve been to South America, Alaska, Quebec, Belize, the Bahamas—pretty much all over the world. I have an outfitting business now, called Riversage Outfitters, I set people up to go on trips, hunting and fishing. That’s why I’m going to
Argentina. I’m going to check out two lodges in the southern tip of Argentina, then back up to pretty much the Amazon. The northern part. In between, I’m going to a Boca Juniors game. Pretty cool. Do you have a favorite trip or a favorite spot to go? RM; I’d have to say Argentina. Argentina is just awesome, the people, the culture, the food, the wine, the soccer, the fishing. It’s a special place. It really is. Is there anything culturally, soccer-wise, you’ve seen there that you wish you’d see more of here? RM; The passion. The passion that these people have for the game is beyond anything that I’ve ever seen in any sport. You think of football here, but it’s not the same. These people know every player on the team. They’re into the game. They live and die by the game. That’s what got me really excited about soccer.
