Community and opportunity fuel Russell Millage’s reshaping of McDaniel football

Published 6:00 pm Sunday, July 30, 2023

Russell Millage has always been a Northeast Portland kid.

Sure, he went to Grant High School and has been an assistant on the Generals football team for the past 10 years, but Northeast doesn’t stop at Grant Park.

Millage knows all about the community around McDaniel High School with his mother living close to the school. The first-year coach lives a couple blocks away from the school along with his wife Kat and their four kids Junior, Kenji, MJ and Johnnie.

Community is at the heart of Millage, who took over the McDaniel (formerly named Madison) football program when he was hired back in the spring, his first varsity head coaching job.

“I mean, I’m a Northeast Portland kid,” Millage said. “One of the things that I go back to with (McDaniel) is it’s been a community that’s been hungry, just like myself, and it’s been a community where there’s been struggles. One of the things I do like about McDaniel is that it’s diverse, it’s one of the most diverse schools, if not the most diverse school, in Oregon. So that’s where I come from and that’s the people I want to help.”

Millage grew up playing football, basketball, baseball and track at Grant and went on to play football at Western Oregon.

Thanks to the help of Tracy (current Barlow head coach) and Andy Jackson, Millage found a passion for coaching after his playing days were done, and he’s spent the past 10 years helping his Generals as an assistant coach for almost every position out there, but mostly focused on offense.

With all that time put in and plenty of mentors ahead of him, the General has turned into a Mountain Lion and is ready to transform the McDaniel program.

“With this platform, it’s not just gonna be winning football games with me, but we do expect to win,” Millage said. “We do expect to build the program to where when we go to games, we’re confident enough to believe we have a chance just because of the way we prepare. And I’m a firm believer in preparation and preparing and earning what you got.”

McDaniel hasn’t earned many wins over the past five seasons after making the postseason in 2016 and 2017.

Overall, the Mountain Lions are 4-36 the past five seasons and were outscored 418-47 last season en route to a 0-9 record.

Despite the record and point differential, Millage is excited about the talent he’s seen from workouts throughout the spring and summer. But the offensive-minded coach is most excited about having a strong group of linemen that he’s ready to roll out.

Millage said that while at Grant, he saw success with schemes in the run game and plans to implement those behind an offensive line that he believes might be the biggest in the Portland Interscholastic League.

“We will run the ball for sure. We’re definitely gonna run the ball, a lot, and in different types of ways,” Millage said. “We are going to run the ball, but we will take what the defense gives us every game. And it will be something that’s practiced, something that’s scouted, something that we’re preparing for.”

Preparation seems like the best way to describe what Millage, who works with minority and probation youth for the Community Health Initiative, has been doing already at McDaniel.

Building a successful program is about much more than the Xs and Os on the fields, and Millage’s community beliefs are already taking effect.

Millage’s brother began a McDaniel youth program this year and played in the Vancouver league.

For each home game, food trucks are set to park by the Mountain Lions’ home turf to provide more options for the fans coming out to support.

There are fundraisers in place, like a golf and kickball tournament, to drum up financial support for the program.

And what might be most important of all, Millage plans on the final home game of the season to be a gun violence awareness night.

“The way we prepare, the way we fundraise, the way we work, it’s all behind that model of: ‘We ain’t never getting nothing we want, we get what we earn,’” Millage said. “Understanding and knowing our mission statement, it’s not only to win the games, but it’s to use the game of football to build the lives and characters of all the student athletes that we’re touching.”

The road ahead is a difficult one. Millage acknowledged many of his assistant coaches are new to coaching, but Millage wants to build a program that’s about opportunity, and he’s high on many of the coaches because of his close connection and belief in them.

Millage was once that kid in Northeast Portland looking for a shot, or that coach looking for an opportunity to grow in the game from the sidelines. He understands where many Mountain Lions in the community are coming from as they engage with the football program.

Above all, Millage thinks he has a group that is willing to believe in the system every day by working with his coaches and showing up to early morning workouts in the offseason, which about 30 players have done.

A playoff run is the goal for Millage, and it all starts Sept. 1 at South Eugene.

“It’s been good, I cannot complain so far,” Millage said. “I’m not hearing noise. I’m a big person and I’ll go read all the articles and read what people are saying, but right now I’m just preparing for South Eugene. When we practice, we’re preparing for South Eugene and then we go from there.”