Miller Excels as All-Around Athlete 2010

MILLER, CAVANAGH, SHOWALTER, SATHOFF, WENTZIEN

Posted By: Mistina Christner (email)
Date: 7/18/2018 at 12:18:10

Source: Iowa City Press Citizen 3/17/2010

Miller excels as all-around athlete

Mid-Prairie senior a key player on basketball, football and track teams
By Susan Harman

Basketball isn't Tanner Miller's first sport. It might not even be his second. But no one meant more to his basketball team this season than the Mid-Prairie senior.
Miller is the Press-Citizen's boys basketball player of the year after helping lead Mid-Prairie to the quarterfinals of the state basketball tournament and to a 19-6 record. He averaged 18.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, led his team in steals and was second in assists.
He earned first-team all-state recognition from the Iowa Newspaper Association and The Des Moines Register.
He probably is best known in these parts as a running back with a rare combination of speed and power and a defensive back with a nose for the ball and the ability to separate same from its intended target. Those skills earned him a football scholarship at Iowa.
"He's just a natural tailback, the way he runs," Mid-Prairie football coach Pete Cavanagh said. "He's a cut-back runner and glider. He's gotten stronger from his junior to his senior year. Definitely his positives are his vision and his speed. He's the total package. He's as good on defense as he is on offense, but he's just not noticed as much there."
Miller also is an outstanding hurdler. He is the reigning 2A state champion in the grueling 400 hurdles and was third in the 110 highs. He was a member of the fifth-place 4x400 relay. He also reached the finals of the Drake Relays in both hurdle events.
Truth be told, he is a team MVP in all three sports.
"What makes him so good is, not only is he athletic and he's pretty skilled, but he hates to lose," Mid-Prairie basketball coach Don Showalter said. "He has the mindset that when he steps on the football field or basketball court or track, he is going to win. And you're not going to convince him any different. And I think that rubs off on his teammates. It's hard to replace somebody who has that mindset and attitude."
Miller worked at basketball even though he already had decided it wasn't going to be the sport of his future. It wasn't easy balancing preparation for football with track and basketball last summer.
"He spent time in the summer getting better skills," Showalter said. "He went to camps. He did the basketball stuff that everybody else did in the summer, and then you combine that with his strength and athletic ability, he probably took off a little faster than some other kids might have.
"He's always been a confident player. Wanted the ball in key situations. He wanted to git the big shots. Through his high school years, he really worked on his game. I think this past year he became a much better ball handler, and I think that helped his shooting and just his overall confidence. He's a great passer."
He's always been adept at driving to the basket, but he became a proficient jump shooter and almost patented a fall-away jumper that was impossible to block. At 6-foot-3 with great leaping ability, he was versatile enough to play the high or low post or any perimeter position.
Miller almost always guarded the other team's leading scorer. He totally shut down Pekin all -stater Trey Sathoff in the playoffs. He defended on of Albia's post players in the substitute final and helped shut down the Blue Demons' inside game. In the state quarterfinal, he made it very difficult for Solon's leading scorer, Tanner Wentzien, to find a shot.
Miller grew up in Superior, Neb., where his father's family lives. He had a football in his hands at an early age, and his grandfather constructed a goalpost our of PVC pipe so he could begin to learn how to placekick with Nerf balls. Later, his grandfather replaced it with a regulation sized goalpost with a net attached.
"My uncle taught me how to kick soccer-style rather than straight on, and it's just something I stayed with," Tanner said.
Both his father, Brian, and uncle, Kevin, walked on and played football for Nebraska. Another uncle, Andrew, was a quarterback at Nebraska Wesleyan. His grandfather and father coached football, and Kevin is the current coach at Superior High School.
"It was sports all the time," Tanner said of his adolescent years. "That's our family name."
While baseball never struck his fancy, Miller competed in AAU track in the summers. He learned hurdling from a former record-setting hurdler in Superior at age 8 or 9. He ran in the National Junior Olympics in Sacramento, Calif., and in Miami.
From age 4 until 11, Miller competed in gymnastics.
"He did it for five or six years and even went to the nationals when they were in Des Moines," Brian Miller said. "I think that was one of the biggest things to help build coordination with him, flexibility, balance. He actually came to the University of Iowa for a gymnastics camp."
Basketball was Tanner's first love in elementary school, but he never thought about devoting full time to any one sport with all of the others competing for his attention.
The family moved to the Kalona area in the summer before Miller entered eighth grade. His mother, Raelyn, grew up in Morning Sun and played six-player basketball at Winfield-Mount Union.
Football soon eclipsed basketball. Miller set a goal of playing college football and built a terrific resume at Mid-Prairie. Northern Iowa offered a scholarship. He visited Nebraska and was urged to walk on and follow his dad and uncle. His family in Nebraska has season tickets to Husker games, while his mother's family has season tickets at Iowa.
But Iowa changed the landscape when it offered Miller a scholarship just before the national signing day in February, and Tanner accepted.
"He was able to see a couple of great programs," Brian Miller said. "It's always been something he's wanted to do."
Even though he accumulated about 4,000 rushing yards the past two seasons, Miller is happy to be slated for defense at Iowa.
"Being around my dad and uncle, they're defensive guys," Tanner said. "That mindset and the way we talk back and forth, that's what got me into playing the defensive side of the ball. All my accolades came on offense and being a running back, but I've always preferred defense, and I'm just lucky now that for the next four years I get to be the one hitting people rather than taking a beating.
"I think that position (safety) fits me the best in the way I can grow and develop as a college football player."
Brian was a middle line backer and Kevin was a defensive tackle.
"He likes being the last line of defense," Brian said. "If things happen to break down, he wants to be the one to make the play. I think that's why he's done well in the individual events (In track or gymnastics) because he knows what he needs to get done. He's a hard worker, and he's been fortunate to have some awfully good coaches."
Perhaps his biggest adjustment in college will be with his family.
"My whole family, no matter how big of Husker fans they are, they are going to have to become Hawkeye fans," Tanner said firmly.