CLARION — For Bill Miller, induction into the Pennsylvania Aquatic Hall of Fame last weekend is a double bonus.

The 1959 Butler graduate, former Seneca Valley High School and longtime Clarion University swim coach entered the Hall during a ceremony at Bucknell University during the PIAA Swimming Championships.

Former Butler swimmer and two-time Olympic silver medalist Eric Namesnik — who was killed in an automobile accident in January of 2006 at age 35 — was inducted posthumously during the same ceremony.

“When I learned that, I got pretty emotional,” Miller, 74, said. “I coached Eric at a swimming camp when he was a young man.

“Undoubtedly, he was the greatest swimmer I ever had the privilege of being around.”

That’s saying something.

Miller was Seneca Valley’s first-ever varsity swimming coach, spent 12 years there and guided the Raiders to the WPIAL title in 1976.

After three years at Norwin, Miller moved on to Clarion University, where he coached for 22 seasons, won 80 percent of his meets (244-58), 16 PSAC men’s titles, 12 conference women’s crowns and garnered 12 top-five national finishes.

“Besides being a great, great swimmer, Eric Namnesnik’s smile just made everybody happy,” Miller said. “It was infectious. He loved the sport and he loved working with kids.

“We definitely had that in common.”

Namesnik was head coach of Wolverine Aquatics, a youth swim club in Michigan, at the time of his death.

“He had wonderful natural talent and received great coaching in Butler from Pump McLaughlin and Gary Mato,” Miller said. “He went to Florida and got better, went to the University of Michigan and got better ... Eric improved at every stop and that’s what made him great.”

Namesnik won silver medals in the 400-meter individual medley at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Unlike Namesnik, Miller said he was “no more than an average swimmer myself.”

But the yearning to coach was always there.

“I’ve always enjoyed working with young people,” he said. “Once you get involved ... The first time that little kid looks up at you and you know you helped him get better ... You’re hooked.

“You don’t get a lot of money out of coaching, but you get a lot of satisfaction. When I look back on my life, I can say I did exactly what I wanted to do. I don’t know how many people can say that.”

Miller said he wanted to get into collegiate coaching because “I learned what recruiting techniques worked and didn’t work through my years of coaching high school kids.”

One technique that worked for him at Clarion was going on the road and visiting potential recruits in their living rooms.

“Football and basketball coaches do that. Swimming coaches never do that,” Miller said. “They don’t want to leave their teams.

“I could do it because my assistant, Mark VanDyke, was one of the hardest working coaches I’ve been around. I coached him at Seneca Valley and I knew he could handle things if I left for a recruiting trip.”

VanDyke is Clarion’s current head swimming coach.

Don Leas, Clarion’s diving coach while Miller was there, is also being inducted into the Pennsylvania Aquatic Hall of Fame this weekend.

“He’s been a judge at the Olympics, done all kinds of things in diving,” Miller said. “Between him, Eric and myself being recognized, it’s going to be special.”

This marks the sixth Hall of Fame induction for Miller, who is already in the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame, Western Pa. Sports Hall of Fame, Slippery Rock University’s, Clarion University’s and the Seneca Valley Hall of Fame.