Miles Lester makes impact on Houston’s staff
Former Deacon has been with the Cougars for two seasons
DALLAS – In a college career that saw one season at Rice and four at Wake Forest, Miles Lester never had a concussion.
In his first year on Houston’s staff, working with the Cougars’ big men, he took a shot to the jaw and left a little woozy.
“Thought he was going middle. He went middle, then the other direction,” Lester told Deacons Illustrated on Thursday, “and just boom, got me right here.”
Lester is in his second season on Houston’s support staff. His official title is as a nebulous “internal operations” staff; the breakdown from the former Deacon walk-on who was put on scholarship for his final season is that he does, “a little video, a little player development.”
Breaking into the coaching ranks means little sleep, too.
“When you’re in a lower position, you’ve just gotta help out anywhere you can,” Lester said. “A lot of video, working with our video coordinator (Matthew McDonald), working on scouts, working on player development, edits for coach.
“Player development, I work with Coach Kellen (Sampson), coach (Kelvin Sampson)’s son, with our 4s and guard our guys in workouts with a pad.”
Hence, the concussion. Lester had a pad when he took that shot to the jaw, for the record.
The Wichita, Kan., native didn’t leave Wake Forest in 2022 set on entering the coaching ranks. The decision to do so was based on knowing himself, and anticipating what he’d like to be doing in a few decades.
“I worked in venture capital for a little bit, worked for the endowment fund,” Lester said. “I mean, I really enjoyed that part of it, I was a business major, so I enjoyed that side.
“But when I thought about hey, 30, 40 years down the road, what am I going to want to be doing? I loved basketball.”
Lester’s first two seasons at Wake Forest were spent redshirting and then playing in seven games off the bench for Wake’s 2019-20 team — the last of Danny Manning’s tenure.
He credits Steve Forbes with helping him rediscover his love for basketball.
“Playing for him and that whole staff kind of made me love basketball again,” Lester said. “Just how impactful coaching is, because they impacted me a lot. So, that kind of helped lead to that decision, seeing the way they impacted me, ‘Hey, if I go into coaching, in 30 or 40 years, all the kids I’ll be able to impact.’”
Houston’s loss to Duke on Friday night caps Lester’s second season with the Cougars and he’s not sure what comes next — other than picking up another degree.
He has been taking master’s classes at Houston.
“I’m taking six classes on top of everything we’ve got going on,” Lester said, “so I haven’t had a lot of time to think about it. … After I finish up classes, I’ll probably have a chance to think about (the future) a little more.
“I’ve loved it here, it’s been the best two years of my life, being around Coach and our entire program.”