54 // VARSITY May 15, 2014
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D
arrah didn't know Miller, she only knew of
her all-around exploits at Pleasant Valley
High School. Her name was out there. As a se-
nior, she was the Quad-City Times Female Athlete of
the Year.
"We got to see her play volleyball," Healy said, "and
she was a stud."
Miller left Pleasant Valley as the career leader in
kills. She was the Mississippi Athletic Conference
Player of the Year and first-team all-state in volley-
ball. That was her focus in the fall.
In the winter, she played basketball and help lead
her team to the regional final. In the spring, she com-
peted in track. At the state meet, she placed third in
the discus. She was also a long jumper.
Softball dominated her summer as sure as she
dominated softball. She rewrote the record book in
becoming a four-time, first-team all-state pick. She
finished her career with 43 homers and 188 RBIs.
How feared was she? In the Class 5A state quar-
terfinals against West Des Moines Dowling, she had a
walk-off home run and drew three intentional passes
the next game. She was still only a junior.
Softball has been her calling ever since Ardie Mill-
er began working on his daughter's fundamentals.
"Back when I started," she said, "he had me doing
catching drills."
This was before Miller shifted to the infield (she
played third and shortstop in high school). Her dad
taught her what he knew: he had caught in fastpitch
softball. One of her older brothers also caught.
"I always wanted to be like them," she said of her
two older siblings, Cam, who was a pitcher, and Co-
rey, who was the catcher. Chloe Miller would go to all
of their games in other sports, too.
"I was always kind of strong and rambunctious
and rough growing up," she conceded. "But I could
hit when I was little. I could swing the bat and when I
made contact, it would go pretty far.
"In making the switch from 14U to high school
pitching, it was a little different, so I was a slapper
in eighth grade because I was still speedy back then."
But she devoted her offseasons to getting stronger
and it has since paid dividends. So has that earlier in-
troduction to catching, though she had to start from
scratch last fall at Wisconsin.
"I had done it and I had a knowledge base of it," she
said. "But it was pretty rough and a lot different than
I thought it was going to be. It was a lot more work
GREG
ANDERSON
