(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (crack of hitting ball) Better.

When you're here your elbow went this way right away, remember it's this way, so you stay in path, remember?

Okay [Narrator] Young, strong, disciplined, and female.

It's commonplace to see women out in the field or on the court today, (crowd cheering) but 50 years ago it was a different story for women like Connie Miner.

(bat cracking) There you go.

(metal clink) [Connie] I was pretty good at sports and I loved it, and so I knew I wanted us to have a girls' basketball team and at the time we didn't.

My mom went into the school board and and said, you know, if the boys have it, the girls should have it.

And so I had basketball one year in high school and I think track two years.

(inspirational music) [Narrator] In 1972, Connie Miner was coming of age when Title IX became law.

The federal civil rights legislation prohibited sexual discrimination and educational programs, it opened the doors to sanctioned athletic activities for girls and women.

(inspirational music) Connie was a gifted athlete, but organized sports were limited during her high school years in Red Cloud.

She spent her summers playing in a fast-pitch softball league.

[Connie] When we were at practice, we learned, you know, we didn't mess around, I mean we learned different skills and things like that.

[Barb] When she first was starting to play softball and wanting to pitch, if all of us were kind of burnt out with catching, she would just go to the north side of the house and just hit against the house.

I mean just pitch and bang against the house and bang against the house.

She went out north the house and pitched against my house and then I gotta pitch back, so I pitched the ball back to her instead of hitting the house all the time, I didn't like the sound of it.

(Connie and dad laughing) [Narrator] The league's head coach was a local woman named Kay Cover, she too was a gifted athlete in her youth, became of age long before Title IX.

And she was, you know, for me, encouraging, supportive, "It's okay keep, you know, going after it," so it was never, I never heard anything from her that was negative in any way, you know, she just, you know, pushed me.

[Barb] We went to a tournament and when we got there, I needed to go to the restroom, so I went to the restroom and the stall and another group of girls coming in there going, "Connie Miner is here and she's gonna be pitching over on field, you know, A you know, we'll have time to go and watch her."

And I'm kind of going, "Is there another Connie Miner?

And I mean, that's just my sister."

(inspirational music) [Narrator] Connie enrolled at the University of Nebraska at Kearney where she played on the the women's softball team.

She was a four-time all conference player and was twice named Conference Pitcher Of The Year.

(inspirational music) On her graduation, the head coach offered her a job.

[Connie] He asked me to stay on and coach with him.

I didn't get paid to coach, but I was, you know I was there for practices and travel and games.

[Narrator] From player to unpaid part-time assistant coach.

To support herself, Connie worked nights at a local manufacturing plant.

She coached at UNK for two years before leaving to play for Nebraska's Summer League team.

When I went to Lincoln, you know, I played for the Nebraska team in the summer and I worked for Lincoln Office Supply Company.

[Narrator] She sold office supplies by day and played ball in the evenings and on weekends.

When head coach Nancy Plantz left Nebraska for Eastern Michigan in 1983, Plants asked Miner to come along.

I was disappointed she was leaving Nebraska, but at the same time, you know, she wanted me to go with her and I did talk to the new people that came in to Nebraska but he just, he wanted me to be a grad assistant and I was like, "Nah, I'm gonna go be an assistant at a Division One program."

[Narrator] The job was, again, part-time, but it came with pay, $10,000.

When Plantz left Eastern Michigan in 1987, Miner applied for the top job.

(piano music) [Connie] And I got paid 18 to be the head coach, which was not as much as the both of the assistant coaches for baseball and part of it was because I was, I was just turned 30, I was young and I had no head coaching experience, is what they said.

The AD said he would move me up as fast as he could and he did, you know, cause we did pretty well, but I wasn't gonna walk away from it.

[Narrator] As head coach, Miner not only advocated for herself but also for her softball program.

[Connie] I remember at meetings where they'd say, "Well we don't have this because of women."

Some of the coaches had been there for a while, they didn't like it, I mean I didn't hold back, I was like, "Well, if you have a daughter, do you want this to happen to her?"

You know, it should be fair, I said, "It's not even close to equal, we're just trying to ask it to be fair."

[Narrator] Even with the support gap, Miner developed EMU softball into one of the most competitive in the Mid-American conference while also earning Mid East Regional Coach Of The Year in 1988.

But after 13 years with the Eagles, the Division I coach left for San Jose.

[Connie] We had an AD change and I didn't like some of the direction and so I kind of started looking, I thought, well maybe I'm ready for, you know, a change.

[Narrator] As she did for Eastern Michigan, Coach Miner began rebuilding San Jose's program.

[Barb] She likes that challenge of, you know, building the team up, improving the facilities, building a name for it, versus like somebody else has created a program and now I'm just taking it over.

[Connie] They were struggling and I scheduled tough because if you schedule preseason tough I think you're just better prepared for conference.

I was kind of fiery, I mean I'm pretty intense as a coach, Division One coach and I think I got some of that from Kay and she didn't care either, you know what I mean?

I just say, they put their uniform on the same way we do, let's go play, you know, don't get into, you know, intimidated by that.

So I think I have a little bit of that, you know, that fieriness about the competition part, probably I got from her.

[Narrator] She spent three years at San Jose State, then two years as assistant coach at University of California, Riverside.

Then in 2003, UNC Chapel Hill called.

Donna Papa's the head coach, still is and been there forever.

I got to know her when I was at Eastern Michigan and I was excited about the opportunity, I found out how the other world lives, it was crazy.

We were Nike sponsored, right?

And I would, I'd go in with the equipment, I'd go, "Donna, I got 'em all this."

I said, "I still have this much money, what do you want me to get?"

I mean it was crazy, I, for the first time I saw how the other side of the world lived, it was crazy.

And, but you know, that opportunity came back to be the head coach at Riverside and I liked it there and Donna agreed that if the Riverside job opened up she'd let me outta the contract, 'cause I would obligate a contract, I wouldn't try to get out of it.

[Narrator] She was head coach of the Highlanders for nine years before being released in 2012.

With an offer from the University of Oakland, Miner headed back to Michigan but not without a stipulation.

But I didn't accept it for two weeks, because I had met with him when I said, "Until you put money into the, you know, the program and the field and things like that, why would I come there?"

I said, "But I know I can build a program."

[Narrator] They found the money and as she had done at other schools, Miner began rebuilding Oakland Softball Program.

[Connie] I was there at, again, seven in the morning, I didn't leave till nine or 10 at night.

I had the AD come in three months after and so he goes, "We're all, Connie, we get here, you're already here and you're still here when we leave."

And they go, "You're not gonna leave are you?"

And I said, "Oh no, I'm committed to the I said, "I would never do that."

[Narrator] Oakland picked up steam, by the second year they were competitive.

[Connie] Some of my kids came in the office and I'll never forget it, they were hot, they came in, they go, "Coach Miner, have you seen the rankings?"

And I said, "Yeah, I have, (inspirational music) they send it to me right away."

And they go, and they looked at me 'cause I was just calm as could be and they're like, "Aren't you mad?"

I said, "No, I'm not mad," they go, "You're not mad, they ranked us seventh?"

Then I said, "Ask me the right question," so they're going back and forth and then they go, "We think we got it, (inspirational music) what do you think about the rankings?"

And I said, "That's the question," and I said, "They're so wrong, (inspirational music) they're so wrong."

I said, we're, I said, "I feel like we'll be in the running for the championship."

(inspirational music) [Narrator] The next year, The Golden Grizzlies won the 2015 Horizon League Softball Championship [Connie] Going from not making the tournament last year, fighting game and then, you know, getting picked seventh this year and then standing here as champions, regular season, and now the tournament, going post season is a storybook, these girls wrote every chapter of it.

(inspirational music) [Narrator] By the season's end, Miner decided to write a new chapter in her life.

You know, I felt like I did, you know, I did everything I was supposed to do at Oakland, I was brought in to rebuild the program, we won it and I had the next coach set up to win so then I was like, "You know, I did everything I was supposed to do and you know, it's time."

[Narrator] After 40 years as a Division One coach, Miner eyed retirement but softball wasn't done with her just yet.

In 2016, coach Miner was inducted into Eastern Michigan's Hall of Fame.

[Connie] I've had time to reflect about it and you just think about, you know, all the amazing student athletes and families and staff and you know, that you had around you that put you in that position.

And you know, I believe that the people you surround yourself are the ones that get these awards for the head coaches.

(inspirational music) That was a little bit shorter, the last one, there you go.

-So separate right?

-[Lexi] Yeah.

(inspirational music) When you get done, try to hold center to me on that, okay?

[Narrator] Now living in Colorado, Miner spends her retirement coaching girls.

[Connie] Well, when I started with Lexi, she was eight, so eight through high school and I have a couple kids that in the summers that I coached since I've been here that are in college and the summer, sometimes they'll, "Hey coach can you get me in for a lesson?"

So even sometimes when they're back in the summer from college, and say "can you fit me in?"

and say sure, I just love it.

So, if I can help them get to where they wanna be in softball, that's, you know, that's a fun, yeah.

(inspirational music) [Narrator] Free from the pressure of collegiate sports, it's a much more relaxed coach Miner who's working with these young athletes, helping improve their skills in a sport she not only loves, but spent her lifetime breaking a path for others she hopes will follow.

(inspirational music) (inspirational music)