On Friday Oct. 4, Green Hope welcomed three new athletes and a beloved coach into its ever-growing hall of fame. The athletes and coach spotlighted during halftime were recognized for their accomplishments during and after their time at Green Hope, emphasizing the mark they left on the school and its community.
The first and only coach of the night to be recognized was Coach Michael Miragliuolo. Going into his 24th year at Green Hope, Coach M has spent 24 seasons as the head cross country coach and spent his first 22 years as the head baseball coach. With this plentiful experience, Miragliuolo had plenty to look back on in his interview with the Green Hope Falcon.
Considering his six conference Coach of the Year awards, two North Carolina Region Three Coach of the Year Awards and 2012 ABCA USA Region 2 Coach of the Year award, Miragliuolo has experienced immense individual success in addition to the accomplishments of many talented athletes he has coached. Miragliuolo attributes much of his success to his athletes and emphasizes how grateful he is to see his athletes reap the benefits of their hard work. “I think as coaches in high school we’re here to facilitate them with their high school experience, hopefully having a good time, but then providing the opportunity so they can, in many cases, fulfill their dreams of playing at the next level.”
Miragliuolo has done just that, leading countless athletes to achieve their dreams. From 59 collegiate runners to 62 college baseball players and 11 MLB draft picks, Miragliuolo claims that seeing his athletes move on to play at the next level is one of his favorite parts of the job. This year, Coach M had two players play in the major leagues. Mitch Spence (‘16) threw 151.1 innings – third-most among rookies in the MLB – for the Oakland Athletics and Jordyn Adams (‘18) played in 11 games and hit a home run for the Los Angeles Angels.
With the amount of time he has spent associated with Green Hope athletics, Miragliuolo recognizes the impact coaching has had on his life. While not all of his time was spent with cross country and baseball, Miragiuolo says “I get to see everybody in different lights and I have probably seen almost every athlete ever play at Green Hope, one way or the other.” But this doesn’t come easily, Miragiuolo acknowledges that “[The] time commitment is huge, but it’s been cool because it’s a great way to connect with students outside the classroom.”
Given this experience, Miragliuolo has witnessed many Green Hope athletes leave everything on the field for their school. “I could literally go through dozens, hundreds of individual performances from athletes that have surprising, shocking or, made you feel really good or one a big game for us or something and those moments, you know, kind of stick with you.” Although he thinks it may be cliche, Miragliuolo emphasizes that winning isn’t the only thing he values as a coach. “I just think overall having knowing kids have had a good time, had a good experience in high school and had opportunities because I don’t think there’s anything like high school athletics and the opportunity to play for your school.”
Outside of his time spent on the field, Miragliuolo takes great pride in his career as an author. Miragliuolo has published three books, his most impactful being The Real Story of a High School Coach. This book helped provide insight into life as a high school coach and paved the way for pay increases for coaches and people who lead clubs throughout Wake County. Miragliuolo also accredits this success to greater-scale news publications. “The person who published it for the News & Observer really kind of helped all us coaches out because they published a section on how little coaches get paid. It had a big impact – it kind of put some pressure on the county to increase those stipends. I’m very proud of that because that’s impacted hundreds and hundreds of coaches”.
In regards to the Hall of Fame, Miragliuolo wants people to know that this isn’t the end-all for his career as a coach. “I’ve been here a whole long time and I still have years to go, but hopefully people don’t see it as like you’re going out the door. But I think I’m proud of it. It’s a cool accomplishment but I don’t want it to seem like the end.” Going back to coaching the following Saturday, Miragliuolo is excited to continue his journey as a coach and shares no plans on leaving any time soon.
Will Hoffmann (’17) was the first athlete of the night to be recognized for his achievements. Hoffmann’s decorated career is highlighted by a whopping nine school indoor track records in the 55m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 500m, 4×400, 4×200, sprint medley and the distance medley and four additional records in the 100m, 200m, 4×200 and 4×400 running outdoors. With all these personal achievements in mind, Hoffmann still recalls the 2016 state championship as his proudest achievement because of the team effort that was required to win.
Back at Green Hope this week, Hoffmann looked back upon the wall of state champions saying “Looking at the photos I didn’t realize how many different team members we had on the team. Not only were there sprinters, but we also had cross-country guys and distance guys. We also even had a thrower and some jumpers. So I really appreciated that state championship because it took all of us. It wasn’t just a me effort or someone else effort. It really took all of us to score all the points needed to take it home.”
Being an athlete at the highest level teaches valuable skills with applications far beyond just athletics. For Hoffman, his time as an athlete at Green Hope taught him the value of time management and teamwork. As a captain of a track team consisting of roughly 70 people, Hoffmann led all of those people and helped them work together towards the collective goals of the team. On a broader scale, Hoffman also reminds athletes that challenges are inevitable and working through them is crucial. As a track athlete, Hoffmann stated “Track field is known for being every other sports punishment. So practices sucked, and I think one thing that I’ve embraced here at Green Hope and in college was that practices are going to suck, you’re basically building yourself up with these every day.”
However, Hoffman claims that working through these challenges is what makes it worth it. He stresses the importance of embracing these challenges saying that “I think one of the biggest things I took away from running was that you’re working to do well in the competitions and better yourself and if you translate that to your experiences in life, you’re gonna have moments that suck, you know, you’re gonna have moments that are super hard, but hopefully it pays out in the end.”
Although his time at Green Hope is now over, Hoffman hopes that others see his records as a challenge, causing other track athletes to work hard to break them. Hoffman encourages other Green Hope athletes through his lasting legacy pushing them to “Break down barriers, beat the records that I have up there. I always like seeing the people behind me who are just working to better themselves and outperform the person in front of them.”
As per the Hall of Fame honor, Hoffmann expressed his surprise and appreciation towards the school. “When I got the call from Coach Miragliuolo, I was actually really surprised, and I was like, ‘this has gotta be a joke, right?’ It’s cool to see that the faculty and people I used to represent still appreciate the achievements I brought to the school.” Hoffman also expressed his excitement regarding the rest of the night and was seen with a smile on his face from then on.
The second athlete to be recognized, Kate Moore (‘17) was a crucial aspect of Green Hope swim and dive from 2013 to 2017. While at Green Hope, Moore excelled. She placed third in the state in the 100 backstroke in 2015 and 2017, third in the state in the 400 freestyle relay in 2017, and finished runner-up three times in 2016. Despite her many accomplishments, Moore reveals that the highlights of her high school career weren’t medaling, but instead were the experiences that came with the sport. “When I think back to high school swimming, I remember more about my memories and the time with people rather than the places I got.”
After her graduation, Moore went on to NC State. While a member of the Wolfpack, she won back-to-back ACC championships, broke many school records, such as in the 400IM, and earned many titles, such as team captain and CSCAA Scholar All-American. “In college, I was an eight-time NCAA all-American, and NC State was runner-up NCAA champions one year,” shares Moore. “That was kind of the peak of our program entirely, so it was really cool to be on the team and work towards that really big goal.”
Her exceptional swimming performances as a falcon allowed Moore to compete in the 2016 Olympic trials, specifically in the 200 backstroke, 400 freestyle, and 400 IM. “Olympic trials were an awesome experience,” shares Moore. “It’s just a testament to all your hard work and being at this really high-level stage and doing the sport you love around the best of the best.” Kate competed in the trials while in high school, the summer before her senior year. “It is a very hard meet to make and when you go there, you’re just star-struck because you’re surrounded by all these really incredible athletes, but it’s also really rewarding to just even compete at the meet.”
Although she no longer swims, her experience in swimming continues to impact her life today. “My experience in sports built me entirely. I owe a lot of my personality and my character to competing in sports,” shares Moore. “You learn a lot about yourself, you learn how to be very disciplined and dedicated to long-term goals and working towards them. You also learn a lot about community and utilizing people around you to make yourself a better person.”
Her experience swimming as a falcon taught her invaluable lessons that continue to play into her life daily, and her induction into the Green Hope Hall of Fame is a memorable experience for her that signifies just how far she has come. “[Green Hope] contributed to who I am today, and I have a lot of fond memories and a lot of friendships that came out of this place. It feels really good to be back and to remember a lot of the great things that have happened in my life. It’s awesome.”
The third athlete to be recognized, Bryan Spreitzer (‘10) was a star athlete for Green Hope Cross Country from 2006 to 2009. While at Green Hope, Spreitzer was often known for his exceptional athletic performance. His accolades include earning All-Conference honors three times and All-Region honors two times. He was also the team MVP and conference MVP in 2009.
Additionally, Spreitzer holds many of the schools records, including the 3rd fastest indoor 3200 in Green Hope History (9 minutes 30 seconds) and the first person to break 16 minutes in the 5k. “Once I broke that, a bunch of people started breaking it, so it was a cool thing to be the first one to break that time barrier,” shares Spreitzer. During his successful four-year career, Spreitzer details his last year as his best. “I finished second at States my senior year, which was really, really good. I was very happy with that performance.” He also won the conference in the same year. After his high school graduation in 2010, Bryan ran for NC State, where he finished 14th in the 5k ACC Championships in 2012.
One of the most physically exerting sports, cross country takes a blend of physical skill and mental toughness. Having competed in it for many years, Spreitzer is well-versed in the keys to its success. “I would say that I was very persistent. Even when I had setbacks, I never let them bring me down,” he shares. “I was always cross-training if I had stress fractures or injuries or broken bones. I was always doing something to keep myself in shape. When it came time to race, I felt like I had a good ability to shut out the negative voices in my head. You have to deal with a lot of pain in cross country.”
Although he graduated 14 years ago, Spreitzer’s experience running cross country taught him many valuable life lessons that continue to impact his life today. “I would say that my experience as a runner showed me a lot about resilience. I had a lot of injuries, I had a lot of setbacks, I had a lot of failures, but none of that deterred me from trying to reach my goals, and I didn’t make excuses for myself when I was injured,” shares Bryan. “I continued to work in any way that I could, and that’s kind of how life is, you get set back, but there’s always a solution. So, it kind of taught me to be solution-oriented rather than just feeling like a victim.”
Despite his career at Green Hope concluding over a decade ago, the school and his induction into its hall of fame are still incredibly meaningful to him. “I think being inducted in the Hall of Fame just kind of solidifies that the hard work that I did wasn’t forgotten. It reminds me that you leave a legacy behind, even when you’re through with your sport,” explains Bryan. “People will always remember what you’ve accomplished, even though you think that it may not have been a big deal, you could have impacted some other kids life in some sort of way.”
These four members of Green Hope Athletics join a long list of accomplished coaches and athletes in the Green Hope Hall of Fame, an honor that will be extended to some members of the 2018 Green Hope graduating class next year.
