A little less than five years ago, a former Division II coach and Princeton assistant named Peter Milliman joined the Cornell coaching staff. A star player at Gettysburg College and later the Rochester Rattlers, Milliman entered a Big Red program that boasted Tewaaraton winner Rob Pannell, but had transitioned between head coaches Ben DeLuca and Matt Kerwick.

In Ithaca, Milliman helped lead Cornell to back-to-back Ivy League titles in 2014-2015 — a sign that the program that had three NCAA championships was continuing its proud tradition. But Cornell followed with a combined 11-18 record in 2016 and 2017 in one of the worst stretches in the program’s recent history. 

Milliman stayed on with the Big Red through it all.

“He’s been through the whole cycle of Cornell lacrosse,” said Connor Buczek, a Cornell star from 2012-15 and now an assistant. “He was there when we were ultra-successful. He was there when we weren’t as successful. He took everything that he believes in. He’s a down-to-earth hardworking guy and he understood how we did things.”

Milliman had no expectations for his coaching future, but he knew one thing. His dream was to lead a Division I program. He got his chance in 2018, when he was named interim head coach after Kerwick had left the program. 

He didn’t take it for granted.

Milliman, battling the uncertainty that accompanies an interim status, led the Big Red to a 13-5 record, an Ivy League tournament title and a berth in the NCAA quarterfinals for the first time since 2015.

Just four days after Cornell’s quarterfinal loss to Maryland, Milliman met with members of the athletic department. They delivered the good news — he would shed his interim tag and become the Richard M. Moran head men’s lacrosse coach. 

He’s been through the ups and downs of his Cornell program, but he’s finally at home. Milliman, his wife, Megan, and baby girl, Reese, moved into a new home and welcomed the newfound consistency.

“If anything, the relief was knowing I’m going to be there for a duration of time,” Milliman said. “For the first time in a while, coming out of the summer, I knew I was going to be there for a long time. I’ve been there through two head coaching changes in my time, and it can kind of wear on you a little bit, just that you’re up in the air as a coach. I was lucky enough to land at Cornell. I was lucky enough to stay at Cornell. Now, I’m lucky enough to lead the program there.”

Milliman has seen Cornell as a national power, but he’s also endured the struggles of two straight losing seasons. Now at the helm, he’s hoping to bring the Big Red back to national prominence, and eventually dominance.

It always helps to have the support of the man whose name is forever attached to the position. Richie Moran, the architect of three Cornell championships (1971, 1976-77), sees a lot of himself in Milliman.

“All the former players and coaches are absolutely delighted that Peter was accepted as head coach,” said Moran, who regularly visits practices in Ithaca. “Peter worked at Cornell for four years before he got the job. No matter what position he coached, he did a great job. At Cornell, I always liked to come up and surprise people. I think Peter has the same attitude. He’s laying the foundation for this program and he wants to see success.”

This Cornell program is no stranger to a winning tradition. Milliman said he has made an effort to connect with Cornell greats like Mitch Belisle, Max Seibald, Timmy Goldstein, Mike French and Rob Pannell to continue to learn about the program's tradition. These Ivy League legends represent a level of success that Milliman would like his growing program to reach.

He’s experienced the excitement in Ithaca when Cornell has a shot at a national championship. As an assistant, and later the defensive coordinator, the Big Red won Ivy League regular season crowns in 2014-15. Names like Matt Donovan and Buczek, a current Cornell assistant, led the way for those teams.

But the program slipped into a two-year period that produced a combined 11-18 record. It was the worst such stretch since 1997-98. The new coaching staff and players struggled with the inconsistency that struck the Big Red.

“It was tough. Top to bottom, coaching staff to freshmen, it wasn’t the program that we were accustomed to being part of,” Buczek said. “It wasn’t where we wanted to be. Everyone shared responsibility for that.”

All the while, Milliman served as the recruiting coordinator, hoping to bring a crop of Cornell recruits that could help reverse the program’s fortunes. In the midst of his first few seasons at Cornell, Milliman found talented Canadians like Jeff Teat and Clarke Peterson. 

Teat, the program’s first No.1 recruit, and Peterson, a Junior A star and nephew of the late Dave Huntley, were teammates on The Hill Academy (Ontario). Peterson debuted during a losing season in 2016 and Teat followed with a record-breaking freshman season, scoring 72 points in 2017.

Along with them, names like Jake McCulloch, Christian Knight and Jordan Dowiak began to mature during the program’s losing stretch. Despite the tough results, the mood in the locker room was positive.

“It was frustrating at the time, but looking at the rosters, we had a young core on both teams,” McCulloch said. “It was still an optimistic feel because we knew we were going to get these younger guys experience. Although we were struggling at the time, we figured it was going to pay off in the future.”

The potential was there, but after Kerwick resigned his position following the 2017 season, there was again uncertainty at the helm of the program. Cornell handed Milliman the interim tag last summer, and the rebuilding process began.

Despite the tag, Milliman’s players had faith in him to lead the Big Red out of one of the lowest points in recent memory.

“We saw it as an opportunity to rewrite the story of our four-year career,” McCulloch, a senior, said. “Coach Milliman did a great job of stressing some of the pillars of our program, like a tireless work ethic, selflessness and confidence in our preparation. The opportunity of Coach Milliman taking over the program provided us with a new perspective from all different aspects.”

Milliman and his team entered 2018 hoping to compete, but an early loss to Colgate came with concern. However, less than a month later, Cornell found a spark at US Lacrosse headquarters against Penn State — a win that gave Moran, whose name accompanies the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Museum, confidence in his fellow coach.

In the 9-7 victory, Milliman proved he could lead the Cornell program — one that seemed to be on its way up.

“He made some terrific moves with personnel,” Moran said. “He gave the team the opportunity to realize that we have an innovator and a coach that is behind us. That game brought out the very best in the team.”

Save for losses to Yale and Princeton, Cornell rallied off 10 more victories and clinched the Ivy League tournament title, downing the eventual national champions in doing so. Teat dropped 99 points and narrowly missed out on being a Tewaaraton finalist.

Cornell, a team ranked at the bottom of the Top 25, or on the outside looking in, had put together its strongest season since 2015. But Milliman, uncertain of his future, wasn’t ready to congratulate his team on a job well done.

“In a practice before our first-round game, we were going through a warm-up fast break drill and we were kind of not taking it seriously and throwing the ball around, not as dialed in as we should have been,” McCulloch said. “He stopped practice and brought us in and humbled us a little bit. He told us just because we won a couple big games in a row, it doesn’t mean we can take off at practice. He stressed the importance of every minute counts when you’re at practice. No matter how high or low you get, you have to make sure you get the same work ethic all the time.”

Cornell made a run to the NCAA quarterfinals, downing Syracuse at the Carrier Dome for the second time in 2018 and eventually falling to Maryland in Annapolis. What was a season of lower expectations became one from which to build.

Milliman, who spent 2018 trying to focus on the task at hand, delivered a successful season to the Big Red fans in Ithaca.

“We’re excited about where we are, but more so where we can be,” Milliman said. “Our guys got a taste of how close we were. The entirety of last season, we talked about just playing good lacrosse and seeing how things worked out in the end. But we never knew how good we were. I don’t think we knew until we got to the stretch at the end, how good we could be. You get a taste of it.”

The successful season was enough to warrant bringing back Milliman — the man who helped build the program we see today — for the foreseeable future. It seemed like one season changed the trajectory of the program, but players and coaches will say it was years in the making.

Either way, 2018 was a pivotal point in Cornell men’s lacrosse history.

“We definitely feel we are heading in the right direction,” McCulloch said. “We saw the impact that all of us coming together. The success we could gain in one year by sticking together and trusting in Coach Milliman’s leadership and preparation.”

Milliman has been hard at work over the past year trying to instill a culture of selflessness, determination and camaraderie. It’s the same principles that Buczek, Pannell, Belisle, Seibald, French, Moran and others have lived by for decades.

In one season, he’s helped bring the Big Red out of a lull. With a strong core of returners and a 13-player recruiting class, they’ll be in a short list of national title contenders for 2019.

To many, Milliman reinforced the foundation on which Cornell lacrosse was built.

“Our guys understand that there’s an incredible tradition to uphold here,” Buczek said. “It’s a burden sometimes, but it’s a burden that’s worth carrying. Once you make it to the other side, it was worth it, no doubt about it.”

And as expected, Milliman has no plans to rest on his laurels now that Cornell is back in the limelight. There’s still plenty of room to continue growing.

“Regardless of how I got where I’m at, this year was a big one for our program,” he said. “We got back to the NCAA quarterfinals and won the Ivy League championship. We were a Top 10 team. That’s something that our guys don’t want to rest on. These guys want to get back to the final four and win another national championship for the first time in a long time. For the first time in a while, we feel like it’s on its way to Ithaca. We just have to figure out how to get over that hill.”