FEATURE: Not so 'scrawny' anymore
3/7/2005 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Feb. 27, 2005
Neville Miller thought he was going to die after the first day of track practice his freshman year.
The wake-up call was too early, and the thought of a year without intramural flag football was too much for him to handle.
Having to run a few miles didn't help, either.
He told distance coach Jared Wilmes he was thinking about quitting that day, but Wilmes encouraged him to give it a month and see if he felt the same.
Miller gave it a month.
"A month turned into now," Miller said.
Now a senior and MU's co-captain, he is the epitome of what the track team believes can happen. A good person who does the right thing every day will have great success, in life and on the track.
It took Miller some time to find that success, but the journey that began years ago in St. Louis is reaching its high point.
Miller came in ninth in the state meet his senior year at Vianney High School. His best time of one minute 57 seconds in the 800-meter run did not catch the eye of any college program.
No schools recruited him, and Miller focused more on finding a school with lots of scholarships and an atmospheric science major than one that would let him run track.
Missouri had Miller's priorities of aid and academics, and a surprising bonus made his decision to come to Columbia easy.
"His high school coach had kind of contacted me and said, `This kid wants to come to Missouri and thinks he wants to run,'" MU track distance coach Jared Wilmes said.
Wilmes said he looked up Miller's times from high school and thought there was a chance he could turn out to be a good runner. He offered a chance to walk on the team, and the partnership has worked wonders for Miller and MU track.
Miller's personality took over early and preceded the success on the track that would come after months of training and dedication.
"The profound statement is that he permeates, his person just permeates the entire team and the entire environment," coach Rick McGuire said. "And it has, kind of for as long as he's been here."
McGuire said everyone knew Miller right away, but Miller recalls there being some adjustments in the beginning.
"I felt kind of out of the loop," Miller said. "I don't know why, but I just separated myself and felt like I was so much slower than everyone else."
McGuire described Miller as "pretty scrawny" when he first arrived at MU, and Miller said he had never spent time working out until he got to college. A commitment to hitting the weights and a growth spurt changed Miller from a scrawny freshman to a quick runner with an ideal body for distance sprints.
Working out with two of MU's best all-time runners, Derrick Peterson and Timothy Dunne, helped, too.
He consistently improved his time in the 800-meter run, and then toward the end of last year began a breakout campaign that he said he doesn't want to end any time soon.
"This year I'm hoping to keep it going," Miller said.
He is keeping it going. He set a personal best time at the Iowa State Classic Feb. 12, running the 800-meters in 1:48.46. That was good enough for third best in MU history, and the faster outdoor season has not started yet.
Miller's success is not much of a surprise to those who have known him at MU. Teammate Marcus Mayes said Miller works twice as hard as everyone else, and McGuire, Wilmes and Peterson attributed Miller's success to doing the right things day in and day out.
Miller's work ethic extends far off the track, though.
He carries about a 3.8 grade point average and is working on a dual major in atmospheric science and communication.
Mayes, a sophomore, said Miller's priorities off the track rub off on the rest of the team.
"I'll call him up and ask what he's about to do," Mayes said. "And he'll say, `I'm about to study.'
If you hadn't planned on studying, him saying that just might make you be like, `Yeah, I think I'm going to study, too.'"
Miller's love for track is rivaled by his love for weather. Although he would like to be a chief meteorologist for a TV station one day, he enjoys getting out and chasing a storm occasionally.
"I'm a weather nerd," Miller said. "We go out there and get pretty into it."
Besides a weather man, Miller said he still has hopes of making it to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. McGuire has compared him to Peterson, a 2004 Olympian, in the past and said a post-collegiate career is in Miller's future.
"He should want to, he does want to, and he will," McGuire said. "We'll work hard to help him."
Miller said the comparisons to Peterson are too much for him right now, but his goal is to follow in one of his mentor's footsteps.
Wilmes summed up Miller's progression and potential well.
"A year ago I probably wouldn't have said (he could go post-collegiate)," Wilmes said. "I don't know how good he's going to be, but if he keeps getting better and keeps doing these things, I think he's got a lot of things in front of him."
