Legendary Kentucky prep baseball coach to continue coaching with Stage 4 cancer

Bill Miller has nothing left to prove and certainly couldn't be blamed for deciding to step away from his position as baseball coach at Pleasure Ridge Park High School in Kentucky after receiving a devastating cancer diagnosis earlier this fall.

But the 66-year-old who is the winningest high school baseball coach in Kentucky history has decided to continue coaching as he fights for his life against Stage 4 lung cancer.

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“I hope to coach four or five more years,” Miller told the Louisville Courier-Journal. “That’s my plan, but when you’re my age you have to take it one step at a time.”

Miller told the paper he learned he had an advanced lung cancer earlier this fall when he went to the doctor for back pain after unloading two truckloads of sod. He is undergoing targeted therapy treatments.

Nearly 500 people attended an event honoring Miller on Dec. 5, including former major league pitcher Scott Downs, who won a state championship with Miller in 1994. It is one of five state titles the school has won in baseball in Miller's 36 seasons as coach. The school has finished as the state runner-up four times and appeared in the Final Four 15 times during his tenure.

Miller is only the second baseball coach in the history of the school, which opened its doors in the late-1950s. Miller attended the school in the 1960s. He has a career record of 1,068-284 and hopes to add to that tremendous resume this spring.

“He was hard on you and you had to have a thick skin, but he made me the player I was," Downs told the Courier-Journal.

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[Kyle Ringo is a contributing writer on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo