SAN ANTONIO – Basketball has been a part of Cameron Miles’ life since the moment he was born.
Miles, UTSA women’s basketball’s associate head coach, grew up in a family where it was the uniting theme. His parents had a great passion for the sport, his brother CJ played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association and his sisters also played, including Andrea who competed collegiately at Rogers State University.
It wasn’t that they were forced into playing basketball, Miles and his siblings developed their passion for the sport organically.
“As soon as I can remember, I was playing basketball,” Miles said. “We played every sport. We did piano. We were in the band. Me and my older sister were on the chess team. My parents put us in anything and everything we wanted to try. I think they just tried to cultivate whatever interest we showed as kids and it had a way of keeping us occupied. We were always busy.”
As central as it was to his life, Miles never saw himself coaching basketball.
So, when did he decide that coaching was his future career path?
“When I was coaching,” Miles said with a laugh. “I had a lot of people when I was growing up say, ‘You’re going to be a good coach one day.’ I always thought I was going to be playing, and it would be hard to be a coach when I’m playing. When I first got an opportunity, I said no. But I fell in love with it. It made me want to do it every day and I’ve been coaching ever since.”
Miles began his collegiate coaching career in 2016 and was a member of head coach Karen Aston’s first staff at UTSA in 2021-22. His responsibilities have grown over the years, as has the Roadrunners’ success. Miles was the assistant coach and coordinator of scouting on UTSA’s American Conference regular-season championship team last season.
“To be able to be successful in this profession, you really have to love it; it can’t just be a job,” Aston said. “I think Cam loves the game of basketball and loves the teaching side of the game. It really rings true to who he is.”
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Miles describes himself as a simple man.
The son of Calvin and Lanis Miles, he grew up in the greater Dallas area, where his father is the long-time minister at Coleman Street Church of Christ in Kaufman. Miles recalls attending church each Wednesday and Sunday growing up.
“My parents instilled a lot in us to kind of just be where we are now,” he said. “I attribute all of this to them and everything I do is for my parents. They sacrificed so much for four kids to play sports – sometimes in four different cities. My dad would always tell us, ‘I want your life to be better than my life and I want your kids’ lives to be better than yours.’ My parents gave us an amazing life.”
His father played football at what was then East Texas State University, now East Texas A&M University, but has always loved the sport of basketball.
“I remember growing up, him and my uncles were going to recs and YMCAs to play basketball and me and CJ tagged along,” Miles said. “The two of us would be on the other basket shooting around. I think that’s where my love of the game came from – watching him do it for fun on the weekends.”
Cameron’s brother CJ was three years his senior and, with both fully invested in playing basketball at a high level, it created a competitive household environment.
“Me and CJ would compete about everything,” Miles said. “Even if he didn’t know we were competing, I was. I think my sisters did that as well. Through that, it bred some really good basketball players and some really good athletes. It was positive. My parents didn’t put that on us, we chose to create that competition.”
Miles prepped at Dallas Skyline High School, where as a senior he averaged 15.5 points per game, 3.8 rebounds per game and 8.0 assists per game. He was an all-state selection and a McDonald’s All-America nominee. TexasHoop.com rated him No. 27 on their Top-100 Class of 2009.
Miles chose to attend the University of San Diego, where he played in 114 career games as a guard for the Toreros. He graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in ethnic studies.
He attempted to continue playing basketball overseas, but an extended professional career wasn’t in the cards for Miles. Robin Harmony, a prolific guard at the University of Miami in the early 1980s, was the head coach at Lamar University in Beaumont and sought out Miles to begin his collegiate coaching career, coordinating team operations and pursuing his master’s degree.
“I didn’t want to do that,” Miles said. “But I was 25 or 26 years old and I kind of realized that I didn’t have a job, and I had to figure something out. She brought me in to be her GA and I fell in love with it – just being in that gym, being around those kids and being able to share the knowledge of the game that I had learned. It was super cool to see them accept me and take the words I was giving them and put it into action, and I watched them get better.”
Since joining the coaching ranks, Miles understands and appreciates the impact that basketball has had on his life.
“I’ve seen so many things and I’ve been so many places,” Miles said. “I tell people all the time that I got two degrees completely free because of a basketball. I think the fact that I started coaching later, I was more mature and could look back and understand why I’m doing things.”
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Miles understands that his journey has been different than most. For his brother – one of his best friends – to have enjoyed a lengthy career in the NBA has exposed Miles to a unique set of experiences.
“That is probably one of the biggest things I use,” he said. “I know that I’ve lived a life that a lot of people don’t get to live. It’s only a very small percentage of people and it wasn’t even me that went to the NBA. I’m very observant and I paid attention to everything.”
Miles recalls accompanying his brother to training sessions with Smush Parker, Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams. It has inspired him to be the best coach he can be daily to help his players reach their dreams.
“When it was my turn to go pro and things didn’t work out exactly how I wanted them to, I knew that I never wanted to feel that way again,” Miles said. “I knew that I wanted to help kids reach their goals and not go through what I went through. I can look back on those experiences when I was in the gym with these pros and try to emulate how they were working.”
Miles has been able to translate that knowledge to his players at UTSA, where he has earned a reputation for building strong relationships and developing post players.
“There’s always somebody else working harder – I know for a fact because I’ve seen it,” Miles said. “I think that’s been able to help me and I think they trust me. The fact that my brother is around and they can see him and talk to him, it doesn’t seem like a fairytale. He really did this. I base everything off the experiences in my life – my brother going to the NBA, me playing in college and me playing overseas. I revert back to some of my memories of doing this. I remember, ‘This workout was hard, I’m going to make our players do it and let them see that this is what it takes.’”
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When the opportunity to move to San Antonio and coach for the Roadrunners under Aston’s direction was presented to Miles, he jumped at it.
He had transitioned into a full-time assistant coach at Lamar in the spring of 2018 and then followed Harmony to the College of Charleston. During the 2018-19 campaign at Lamar, the Cardinals posted a 24-7 record, won the Southland Conference regular-season title and made their second consecutive Women’s National Invitation Tournament appearance.
While in Beaumont, he had worked alongside Empress Davenport, one of Aston’s former Texas standouts who helped the Longhorns reach the NCAA Elite Eight in her senior season of 2015-16. Aston had hired Davenport, who recommended Miles, to her inaugural Roadrunners staff after being named head coach in March 2021.
“It was kind of a chance that I took on Cam,” Aston said. “I knew that Jamie [Carey] and Empress were both coming and both had expertise with guards. I was really looking for someone who could give a different perspective. Empress had worked with him at Lamar. He had coached AAU a little bit and worked with [Aston’s former Texas players] Jada Underwood and Joyner Holmes. All of that indicated this was going to be a good fit. I thought he was exactly what I was looking for.”
Miles was looking for a chance to return to his home state of Texas, particularly since his brother CJ and CJ’s wife Lauren had moved to San Antonio. The ambiguity that the COVID-19 pandemic created left Miles looking for greater stability in his life and he placed a greater importance on being near his family.
“Empress kind of dropped my name to Karen and the conversation we had was so perfect,” Miles said. “It was a no-brainer. It was a way to get closer to home in a time of uncertainty. I took the opportunity and I’m so happy I did. Karen has elevated me and made me so much better. I feel the growth every day.”
The first two years were a rebuilding project for Aston and her staff. They inherited a program that had won just two games the year prior and needed the infusion of new energy and talent.
With Aston, one of collegiate basketball’s most accomplished and respected coaches, it didn’t take long until the Roadrunners were making a steady ascent. In year three [2023-24], UTSA made the WNIT and earned the first postseason victory in program history.
Miles was greatly impacting not only the results on the court, but the lives of the student-athletes in the Roadrunners’ program.
“First and foremost, Cam is a relationship builder,” Aston said. “It was clear very, very quickly that he had a way of communicating with young people and getting them to respond to him and respond to what we needed to get done. Assistant coaches, in my opinion, their No. 1 jobs aside from recruiting are to make sure that our players are developing, and they feel like there is someone here all the time to help them go what they are going through as college athletes. Cam is way ahead of the curve in that area.”
In the summer of 2024, he added responsibility as the team’s coordinator of scouting. This spring, when associate head coach Jamie Carey left to become the head coach at Omaha, Aston elevated Miles to the role.
“It was just such a natural progression for him,” Aston said. “There was not a second thought from me about who needed to step into that role. Now when I’m not around, he’s in charge. He’s the one that leads the other assistants. He’s my sounding board. With real leaders, their biggest areas of growth is that they find their voice, get confidence and their leadership comes through. That’s what’s happened with him.”
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When University of Southern California star Jordyn Jenkins, the Pac-12 Conference’s Most Improved Player in 2021-22, made the decision to transfer to UTSA, it was perhaps the most impactful moment in accelerating the speed of the Roadrunners’ upward trajectory.
She made an immediate difference, being named the Conference USA Player of the Year in her first season in San Antonio. Jenkins capped her UTSA career as the 2024-25 American Conference Player of the Year and cutting down the nets at the Convocation Center as American Conference regular-season champions.
Miles worked directly with Jenkins as her position coach.
“She was a pro when she walked in the door,” Miles said. “For me, it was just about showing up for her. Jordyn would text me every night, ‘Coach, can we shoot at this time? Coach, can we work out?’ So, all I had to do was show up and bring energy. She wanted somebody to be there for her. If she felt it, you got to see the results of it. The work came naturally. We are both gym rats. We love being in the gym, we love shooting and talking and building in that atmosphere. Our relationship grew and, through that, her confidence grew through being in Karen’s program. It was really, really fun.”
To complement Jenkins in the post, Miles recruited highly touted Idara Udo – and later her sister Sema – from Plano East High School. Udo, who started for the Roadrunners from the beginning, was a second-team All-American Conference selection last season and enters this year as UTSA’s headliner.
Miles has found the development of the players he’s brought into the program to be relatively easy, he says, because of their character as individuals.
“Jordy and Iggy [Idara Udo] are some of the best people I’ve met,” he said. “I have really, really good relationships with both of them and the other kids here. We talk about everything and they realize Coach Cam really cares. We build with them and we learn them and they learn us. It’s more than basketball.”
In today’s age of collegiate basketball, retaining a roster has become increasingly difficult. Programs like UTSA, which succeed at the mid-major level and develop a reputation for elite player development, are often at risk of losing their stars to Power 4 institutions that can provide strong financial support through revenue sharing and Name, Image and Likeness.
Coupled with strong administrative support for women’s basketball revenue sharing, the Roadrunners have been largely immune to the roster turnover that exists at many peer programs. Players like Jenkins and Udo, who have made big impacts and put up impressive numbers, could have easily chosen to leave the Roadrunners. But the relationships they have built with their coaches, the university and their fan base have kept them in the blue and orange.
“The climate that we’re working in now, it can be really hard,” Miles said. “I feel like I’m a basketball purist – some of us do still exist. If you can focus on the right kids from the right families who want to get better in this game, get better off the floor and play for coaches who will teach them more than just basketball and help them mature in other ways, the money becomes secondary.
“Through Karen’s leadership, the way she makes us think about things and approach recruiting, we haven’t run into many of those recruiting situations where money is at the forefront. I’m transparent and say that I understand that money is involved. But we’re relationship oriented. It’s not transactional. If you can keep that at the forefront, I think that helps with the climate we’re living in now.”
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Miles has spent more than a decade helping young women grow as basketball players and as people. But his life changed significantly in the past year when he and his wife, Aliyah, welcomed their daughter Arlee.
For someone who has always been focused on family, the opportunity to be a parent is something Miles has thoroughly enjoyed. It has given him perspective and additional balance within his life.
“We had a really uncommon year last year and that might have been the hardest thing about last year,” he said. “My little girl doesn’t care if daddy has been gone for three days. She doesn’t care if we had hard workouts. She wants to play – ‘Daddy’s here, let’s go.’ I love watching her grow. I love watching her process things. I leave for four days and come back and she’s like a completely different person.”
Miles wife Aliyah, a talent acquisition partner at UT Health San Antonio, has been the stabilizing force for their family, balancing Arlee’s development amidst the hectic schedule of collegiate basketball coaching and her own demanding career.
“She knew she was marrying a basketball coach, so she knew what she was getting into,” Miles said. “She’s the MVP and I’m so thankful for her. It was hard figuring out how to manage that part, but we figured it out.”
Among Arlee’s interests is watching Ms. Rachel, a children’s content creator. Miles is constantly impressed with what his young daughter learns on a daily basis both in their home environment and through educational programming.
“She’s been teaching me things,” Miles says. “She’s been learning different things from Ms. Rachel and coming back and teaching me. She’s learning sign language. I can’t wait to watch her get older and continue to mature and learn. I’m just so in love with her.”
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Aston’s coaching tree is one that has many branches. Just as she’s known for her ability to develop players, she also is renowned for producing head coaches who are ready to take on their next challenge.
Being a collegiate head coach has many facets and extends far beyond Xs and Ox and recruiting. Aston views it as her responsibility to help prepare her assistants to be as ready as they can be for all aspects of the job.
“It’s very high level,” Miles said. “With Karen, I like to use the word elite. Everything she does has a purpose, even if you don’t notice it. You will catch on to it as time goes. She has grown me to unfathomable levels. I didn’t think I would be this detail-oriented about the game. A lot of things came natural to me as a player, so the coaching came natural. But through her, she has made me focus on certain things.
“The way she thinks off the floor, the things she focuses on, that’s the part that’s really elevated me as a coach,” he continued. “I’ve been around basketball my entire life, but it’s the business part, the head coaches meetings, the NIL/rev share meetings, the public speaking. Just letting me be a fly on the wall, I learn so much. I feel more confident talking to people because I have an understanding of all that is going on, it’s not just basketball.”
While Aston has continued to give Miles increasing responsibility, she’s found it to be something that he has constantly embraced. She has been impressed by his commitment to his own growth.
“He’s very open to it; he’s hungry,” Aston said. “A lot of young coaches want to jump ship and keep moving. Cam has really wanted to keep growing and maturing. His ability to grow has been because he’s been willing to do that. Each year I’ve given him more responsibilities and I’m putting him in situations where he can see what a head coach can be.”
Miles is challenged daily in his new role. He understands that becoming a head coach isn’t just a title to be chased. It’s a responsibility that requires a tremendous amount of preparation.
“Karen is putting me in situations where it’s like, ‘Do you want this or not?” Miles said. “And I still do. She’s helping me understand that if you want to be a head coach, a lot of the basketball goes away. Grasping that has been the biggest thing for me. A lot of people are turned off by it, but I still want it. I’m thankful that she’s putting me in these situations. I’m grateful for her because she is elevating us in more than one way here.”
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As the calendar turns to the 2025-26 season, Miles is excited to start the new year in his new role. Seated across from the bench, as always, will be his family. It’s a constant motivator for Miles and the entire team.
“The fact that we have that type of support system here with our families and our families being so engaged and entrenched into what we have going on means the world,” he said. “The girls see it and I think their families see it. The family atmosphere that everybody asks about, our players actually feel it.”
He knows the support for the Roadrunners will only continue to grow and he knows that he, Aston and their staff have created a program that is built to last.
“You have to put a product on the floor and if you do that, people will come,” Miles said. “A lot of that comes from Karen and her leadership and the product that we’re putting on the floor. With her continuing to lead the way she does, I see this program growing and growing and growing.”