STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Interim athletic director Rory Suomi has announced the hiring of Jill Millis as the next head softball coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Millis will also serve as the assistant media relations director for UWSP athletics, assisting with all aspects of the athletics media relations department. 

“Jill brings a tremendous amount of experience to both our softball program and our media relations team,” said Suomi. “Having played and coached softball in the WIAC, along with her recruiting and player development expertise, should help take UWSP softball to the next level.”

“I am extremely excited to become a part of such an exceptional athletic department and community,” said Millis. “I look forward to the opportunity to coach in one of the nation's toughest conferences, a conference that I am so familiar with.”

Millis is no stranger to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Millis, formerly Jill Janke, was a four-time letterwinner and all-conference performer at the UW-Eau Claire where she won a national title her senior season. Millis hit the game-winning, walk-off home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning in the championship game against UW-Whitewater to give the Blugolds their first national title.

Millis was a three-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Great Lakes First Team honoree and once a second team selection. In her career, she set school marks for putouts (1519), fielding percentage (.991), and times hit by pitch (12). She finished her career with a .370 batting average and 23 home runs, which was second all-time at Eau Claire. She boasted a career .564 slugging percentage, .443 on base percentage, and 141 RBIs in 185 career games.

Following her playing career, Millis was selected to participate on the ASA Regional All-Star team and played against Team USA in Stevens Point.  

Millis served one year as an assistant coach with her alma mater under Blugolds coach Leslie Huntington before taking the graduate assistant coaching position at Ithaca College where she coached with Deb Pallozzi, one of the all-time winningest coaches in NCAA Division III history. There she earned a master's degree in sports management.

After earning her master's degree, Millis spent the fall of 2010 as the media relations intern at the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) writing media releases, feature stories, managing the MIAC website, and creating logos and graphics. 

Late in 2010, Millis was hired as the head softball coach at Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) in Rosemount, Minn. At DCTC, Millis worked to grow a roster of four eligible student-athletes into a program that expects to bring in 14 new recruits next season.

Millis, a native of Black River Falls, will begin her duties mid-August.