Gazette Athlete of the Year: Highland's Maddie Miller manages time as three-sport star

Maddie Miller could use days longer than 24 hours, weeks with more than seven days and years with more than 12 months. For as long as she can remember, the Highland three-sport athlete has been going 24/7/365, which helped her earn 11 varsity letters and cap her outstanding career by being named The Gazette's Senior Female Athlete of the Year. "I don't know if being a three-sport athlete is something I'd recommend, but I'm so glad I played three," Miller said. "It takes a certain amount of passion and grit, but it helped make me more athletic in a way. "It also didn't burn me out from any one sport. When I was playing AAU and high school basketball, I almost burned out. That's when I decided to do the three and limit some other stuff. I was always excited for the next sport and I made so many different friends. I'm grateful I had all those experiences from three different sports." In the fall, soccer was originally Miller's sport of choice, but she gave up playing goalie upon entering high school to concentrate on volleyball, where she earned three letters, was named honorable mention All-Gazette as a junior and was part of three Suburban League American Conference championship teams. In the winter, the 5-foot-8 Miller concentrated on her best sport, basketball, where she won four letters, was a two-time All-Gazette choice and earned Gazette MVP honors as a senior, when the Hornets won their first 19 games, set a school record with 24 wins in 26 games, captured their first league crown in 42 years and made their first regional appearance in 30 seasons. In the spring, the 18-year-old turned her attention to track and field, where she earned four letters — COVID-19 canceled her sophomore season but letters were still awarded — and qualified for the Division I state meet in the 300-meter hurdles as a junior while earning All-Gazette honorable mention accolades her final two seasons. "I don't know how she does it," veteran Highland track coach Paul Lushes said. "Part of it obviously is the support of her parents (Rochele and Brian) and the way they brought her up. She's very organized and has her priorities set up. She has goals and she understands what she has to do to achieve them." Miller not only played three sports at Highland, she compiled a 4.5 grade-point average, scored a 29 on the ACT, was part of National Honor Society, Peer Leading and student council and plans on majoring in chemical or mechanical engineering at Ohio State, where she likely will play club basketball to satisfy her extremely competitive spirit. On top of that, Miller found time to be a student section leader at football games, where she organized wardrobes and led cheers with fellow senior James Scavuzzo. Lest we forget, she also took advanced placement classes, worked summer jobs at The Greensmith Garden Center, Dunkin' Donuts and Culver's, played in a sand volleyball league and found time to work on her other sports a bit while she was in-season with another. "She did a really good job of managing her time," Highland basketball coach James Madison said. "It's difficult to do three sports, but she was able to work in other sports even when she was in-season. "She had a very demanding schedule, but it's how she's wired. She's always been an athlete. She goes 12 months out of the year. She's been programmed for that since she was very young." AT THE NET A right outside hitter for Highland's volleyball team, the left-handed Miller wasn't the Hornets' best player — senior-to-be, two-time Gazette MVP and Northern Colorado recruit Alayna Tessena still holds that distinction — but she was dangerous when she was on the court and a leader even when she was off it. "She was very positive and supportive," Tessena said. "She was the one cheering and going for big plays. She's super athletic in all the sports she does. She strives to meet her goals and do better each game. "She made some huge plays for us in volleyball. She's a big leader in every sport, but basketball was where she really stood out. That's her most dominant sport, but a lot of people learned a lot from her in volleyball, too. She's a great leader." Miller switched to volleyball as a freshman for practical and friendship reasons. Playing varsity soccer at a high level likely would have meant also playing on a club team, and since she was already playing AAU basketball, doing that would have made playing three sports in high school extremely difficult. It didn't hurt, of course, that friends Grace Smith, Megan Scavuzzo, Sydney Smith and future Ohio State roommate Kathryn Siliko also played volleyball. In addition to playing together in high school, they've played in an 18-and-under outdoor sand league at Sandbox Volleyball Club in Brecksville for the last four years, finishing second twice and winning the championship last summer. "That was great for me," Miller said. "I don't play J.O. (Junior Olympics), so it helped me get ready for high school volleyball." While playing high school volleyball, Miller didn't attend open gyms for basketball, but she did meet with former Medina boys varsity coach Keith Sooy every Sunday to work on her shooting. She also was organizing football cheering section themes and helping with fundraisers to purchase black, white, pink and camouflage T-shirts for students to wear to games. Once there, Miller and James Scavuzzo used megaphones to lead cheers. "I'm very passionate about Highland and Highland events," Miller said. "If I was going to do it, I wanted to make it the best experience possible for everyone at our school, because the season before no one could go (due to COVID-19). I tried to do it the best I could." That's a common theme with the outgoing and confident Miller: If she's going to do something, she's going to do it to the best of her ability and she's probably going to end up taking charge. "She's naturally a take-charge person," Madison said. "She likes to be in the middle of everything." Miller also likes to win, and the Hornets did a lot of that on the volleyball court. In addition to three straight SL American titles, Highland compiled a 62-12 record in her three seasons, including 22-2 her senior year, when the Hornets' 21 regular-season victories tied a Medina County record. If Miller was ever tired from her year-round schedule, it didn't show. "I can't imagine it," said Tessena, who also plays basketball. "That's non-stop sports, but she stuck with it. She's great in literally every sport. She's always been a busy person, but she's really smart, so she balanced it out well." STRAIGHT TO HOOPS On Oct. 26, 2021, Highland's volleyball season came to an end with a 25-18, 14-25, 25-18, 25-20 loss to undefeated Westlake in the D-I district semifinals. Approximately 18 hours after registering seven kills and five blocks in that match, Miller was at basketball practice. "We're allowed to take time off, but I don't think I've ever done that," she said. "After we lost our last volleyball game, I went to basketball the next day. In a way, it makes it easier. You don't get to dwell on one season being over because you're focusing on the next." While the jumping involved in volleyball helped prepare Miller for basketball, the former sport doesn't require much sprinting, so it took a week or so for her to regain her cardiovascular conditioning and get her legs under her. Miller also stopped playing AAU basketball after her freshman year because it wasn't feasible due to her track commitments, so it was up to her to find the time to work in some offseason drills. "The first couple days of basketball practice are pretty tough," she said. "Volleyball and basketball are very different sports. Being on a basketball team that had a lot of girls coming off soccer, they're all well-conditioned. It's hard the first week and I'm very sore. You get used to it, but it takes a couple weeks to get into the swing of it." Being the full-throttle competitor she is, Miller never eases into things. She's aware of her body and understands it may take some time to adjust, but she doesn't know any other way than to try her hardest. Plus, 2021-22 was her fourth and final season in Highland's starting lineup, and she wanted to make it memorable, which she did. With Miller playing shooting guard and averaging 14.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.0 steals and getting to the line a whopping 214 times — she made 138 for a .645 percentage — Highland reached the regional semifinals for the fourth time in program history before falling 44-35 to Toledo Start. One of just two seniors on a team that had seven freshmen on the roster and three in its regular rotation, Miller finished her career fifth on the school's career scoring list with 989 points, but her relentless driving ability and leadership skills were just as important to the Hornets. "She's been through the gauntlet the last four years," Madison said. "She was in every situation possible. Us having a young team this year, she was able to talk to the girls about her experiences and what she went through when she was young. "She's an extremely hard worker. You didn't notice a drop-off (because of playing three sports). Sometimes it took a week or two to get in the groove for the next season, but when she showed up, she was always ready to go." Miller had opportunities to continue her basketball career at D-II and D-III colleges, but she decided fairly early in her senior year that she wanted to attend a big university and "meet more and different people." "Ultimately, I had to make a really tough decision when it was time to look at colleges," she said. "I decided to focus on my major. I know it's pretty nerdy, but I'm pretty passionate about it. I knew engineering was going to be rigorous, so that's what I decided on." CLEARING HURDLES After reaching the D-I state meet in the 300 hurdles as a junior, Miller's senior season on the track didn't go exactly as planned but was still enjoyable. She began the season with a painful foot injury, later started experiencing shin splints and ended up slightly pulling a groin muscle prior to the Brunswick District. Still, Miller won her second straight SL American title in the 300 hurdles and qualified for the Findlay Regional, where her memorable high school athletic career came to an end with a ninth-place finish — the top eight reach the finals — in the semifinals. "The injuries definitely held her back, but they didn't stop her from competing," Lushes said. "She had some bad luck, but she has a great quality to her that isn't pushy. She leads in a really supportive way with the younger kids and sets a great example. "On top of that, she's a real competitor. She will fight with every stride to get ahead. You've got to have that desire to win and compete. Maddie definitely has that. That's what makes her so successful." While sad to see her Highland career end, Miller was philosophical about her senior year of track. "Once we got into districts, I would be in the trainer's room trying to prepare for racing," she said. "I did as much as I could, but it was really hard. I knew there were things I needed to work on before races, but I couldn't. Track can be a pretty mental sport, because when you have an injury in the back of your mind, it definitely makes it difficult to be 100% focused. That was a challenge toward the end. "But to be honest, I was kind of OK with (not reaching the state meet). I was emotional at the time because it was the end of my career as an athlete at Highland. It was more about that. I knew my body had been hurting, so I wasn't necessarily upset. I was just emotional." Miller now faces the uncertain future of a life without organized sports, though she's still playing sand volleyball and plans to play club basketball at Ohio State. For the first time, there are enough hours in the day to join a gym and work out, so she's doing that. She also has plenty of time to attend graduation parties and work at Culver's, because there are no summer basketball camps or volleyball practices to attend. "It's been really nice," Miller said. "I keep myself very busy, but it's nice having time to do other things I've always wanted to do, like go to the gym. Engineering is going to be a time-consuming major, so it will be good to see how much free time I actually have. Then I'll be able to gauge what else I can do. "It's going to be fun to see what life is like as a college student, but I'm going to miss the competition a lot. There's not anything else like high school sports. High school in general is a very unique time, so I'm really grateful I took advantage of the experience for four years." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on Twitter.