VALDOSTA — John Miller has hung up the whistle.

Miller, Valdosta High’s longtime boys basketball coach, announced his resignation Monday night at the team banquet.

“I have retired from basketball,” Miller said.

It’s hard to say good-bye to anything you’ve been a part of for 20 years. But Miller says the time is right to walk away.

“It was hard. Twenty years is a long time, and I love the Wildcats,” Miller admitted. “I really enjoyed my time coaching here. I have nothing but good things to say about Valdosta High School and the basketball program. This isn’t a situation where I’m leaving because there are problems. I’m just moving on to other things.”

Miller led many winning Valdosta teams, including two state runners-up and a team that went undefeated in the regular season. In his 20-year career as Valdosta’s basketball coach, Miller won 282 games, losing 217.

Miller never coached a future All-American or NBA player (though he coached against several), but his teams were usually competitive with anyone they played, and often among the state’s best.

In 1994, the Wildcats went to the state championship game, but lost to Wheeler and future NBA star Shareef Abdur-Raheem. Valdosta made it back to the title game in 1999, but this time, Marietta High and future Georgia player Ezra Williams beat them for the title (one round after Valdosta upset Douglass and two more future Bulldogs, twins Jarvis and Jonas Hayes).

The 1997-98 Wildcats may have been Miller’s best team, going a perfect 25-0 in the regular season — the only undefeated team in VHS basketball history. They were ranked No. 1 in the state for several weeks, and were honored by the Georgia State Legislature after the season.

From 1994-99, Miller’s Valdosta teams were truly among the state’s best. The Wildcats finished No. 2 in Class AAAA in 1994, No. 3 in 1997, No. 4 in 1998 and No. 2 again in 1999.

“Those teams were special to me,” Miller said. “We never had any superstars, but we worked real hard and played as a team. We had a lot of good young men coming through the program at that time, and good support from the community, and we won a lot of games.”

Valdosta won region championships in 1997, 1998 and 2001, and region tournament championships in 1997 and 1998. They went to the state semifinals in 1994, 1997 and 1998.

In the decade between 1993-2003, Miller’s Valdosta teams averaged 20 wins a season. At one point, Valdosta posted a 59-game regular season winning streak, and around the same time, the Wildcats had a 34-game region winning streak.

“One of the things I remember most are those three trips to the final four,” Miller said. “It was quite a thrill going the first time (1994), when it was at Georgia Tech. Then in 1999, I remember beating Ware County (in the quarterfinals), back when they had Fred Gibson. It was our fifth time playing them that year; we’d won twice, they’d won twice, and we won that fifth one to go to the final four. I remember beating Coffee in the final game of the 1998 regular season without two starters to finish 25-0. I’m real proud of the 20 wins a season we averaged for 10 years. That’s not an easy thing to do.

“But I’m most proud of the kids. We’ve had some great kids come through the program here. The relationships I have with the kids and others at the school are going to last a lifetime. That’s what I’ve enjoyed the most.”

And probably no coach has ever won more games on carpet.

For most of Miller’s tenure at Valdosta, the Wildcats’ basketball court was not a wood surface, but rather a carpeted one. Water leaks through the floor had forced the school to put in a carpeted floor. Many coaches would have reservations about coaching on carpet, but Miller embraced his “Magic Carpet” — and it was good to him.

“I can truly say I was a unique coach, in that I coached most of my career on carpet,” Miller said. “Not many coaches can say that. We won a lot of games on that carpet. If it gave us an advantage, I think it was more psychological than anything. But it got me on the front page of the (Atlanta Journal-Constitution), when they wrote about how we played on carpet.”

Even in the past two years, when a diluted talent pool made wins harder to come by, Miller’s teams rarely got blown out. They hung tough with many more-talented teams.

Miller will continue to teach math at the school. He will also continue coaching cross country.

In a prepared statement, Miller expressed his gratitude to the many people involved with the school and the Wildcats.

“I first would like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for enabling me to have 20 wonderful years of being the head boy’s basketball coach at VHS,” he said. “I am grateful for the support of my family, friends, the community, the VHS faculty and administration, and the Valdosta City Schools Family.

“I would also like to thank all of the great people I have coached with, including Al Akins, who has coached with me all 20 years. Last, I owe a big thank you to all the outstanding young men I have had the distinct honor and pleasure to coach over the past two decades. I am most proud of the way they conduct themselves on and off the court. I was always more concerned about my players as young men than as basketball players.

“I owe a special thank you to the late Coach Nick Hyder and former principal Bill Aldrich for giving me this job. I truly love Valdosta High, the faculty, and the students, who I plan on continuing to serve to the best of my ability for many more years.”