By: Matt Florjancic '07
BEREA, Ohio -- When senior All-Ohio Athletic Conference and Academic All-OAC forward Alyssa Miller (New Philadelphia) steps onto the basketball court representing Baldwin Wallace University, she does so carrying the memory of her father in her heart.
Miller lost her father, Tim, to Legionnaires Disease the summer after her freshman year at New Philadelphia High School. Miller and her family were with Tim when he passed away, and nearly seven years later, the memory is still fresh in her mind.
"He went to the hospital, just sick, rundown, and wasn't getting better," Miller recalled. "It all happened very fast. A lot of things were just going wrong, so they decided to medically sedate them, and then, had to do a bunch of different surgeries.
"He was transferred from Mercy Hospital in Canton to Cleveland Clinic and was in the ICU for 14 days. It was just to the point where things were failing. His body was just taken over and couldn't fight it, basically. We had to turn off the machine that was giving him oxygen, which pumped blood out and back in with oxygen. Basically, once we turned that off, it was just a few minutes later."
Processing the Loss
Miller had a close bond with her father, one that was furthered by their mutual love of basketball.
Rather than continuing to go to the park for games or in the driveway to practice shooting, Miller had to cope with the unimaginable loss at only 15 years old. Admittedly and understandably, she did not handle the loss well.
Just to get through those initial weeks and months after her father's passing, Miller needed help from her family, as well as New Philadelphia girls basketball coach Kevin Cornell.
"I am very thankful for my family, my brothers that went there with me, especially with my older brother, Christian," Miller said. "He's only 15 months older than me, but even if you ask any of my friends that have met him, he seems a lot older. We both had to do a lot of growing up very quick, but I think he has done a very good job just being strong and caring.
"Without certain people, I don't know how things would have gone. My high school basketball coach and I are also very close. I had people, even when I was at school, support system-wise, friends and family."
Outlets for Frustration
After the initial disbelief over the profound loss, Miller advanced to the next level in the five stages of grief, as defined by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: anger.
Already a self-professed "hothead" in her early teenage years, Miller struggled to find a way to process the anger associated with the loss of her father.
"The frustration definitely got out in ways I would say I wasn't always proud of," Miller said. "I definitely acted out of emotion. I would say being an athlete, just with stuff going on in the background, it's hard sometimes.
"We all try. We'll say, 'Leave it at the door.' We try to come in and just perform our best, and when you have stuff like that going on, it isn't always the easiest thing. When you have people like this that can kind of meet you halfway, it definitely is helpful."
Grateful for Help
Despite the connection to memories made with her father, Miller poured her efforts into basketball.
While playing for the Quakers, she earned First-Team Eastern District, Second-Team East Central Ohio League, Second-Team All-District 5 and Division I Special Mention All-Ohio honors. Additionally, she was the District 5 All-Star Game Most Valuable Player.
Although Miller was lauded for her career in basketball, and also, a four-year letterwinner in track and two-season varsity volleyball player, it was not as easy as she made it appear.
"My high school basketball coach, I feel like he had his patience tested a lot with me," Miller said. "We're very close, and I'm lucky enough to have someone that just cared so much about me and helped me through everything I went through.
"A lot of other coaches, I don't think, would have helped. His patience was tested to the max, for sure. Having a coach like him helped a lot because basketball is something my dad and I shared and bonded with.
"Sometimes, those emotions, even if it was sadness in basketball, would come out angry. It was hard. Something really good could happen, but it could make me upset. It was hard to even accomplish things just knowing, 'Oh, my dad's not here to see me do that.' Emotions -- definitely sad, angry, good and bad -- all came out. Without my high school coach and teammates, I wouldn't have been able to do it."
Mom's Support
Miller had another advocate in her corner throughout the process, and that was her mother, Renee.
Even now as a senior in college, Miller relies on her mother's strength to help navigate any challenges that come her way. Also, Miller appreciates her mother's presence in the stands for Baldwin Wallace women's basketball games.
"She is my best friend," Miller said. "My mom is my rock, for real. I don't know what I would do without her. I call my mom about everything. I don't go a day without calling my mom. She has just been the most amazing person in the world, very understanding and loving, and just there for everything.
"Senior year, she's been to every single one. Out of all my four years here, she's probably missed like three games, and it was because of weather and the game was three hours away for her. She's been the best friend I could ask for and mom, all in one. Being there with us through everything we went through, I was a pain in high school, and I know for her, I didn't always make it easy. Through that, she still was just the most supportive and loving person, even if I pushed her away."
Honoring Her Father
Renee Miller's work as a mother and mentor to her children helped forge a path that was one of the further thoughts from Miller's mind after her father's passing.
Coupled with advice and guidance from Cornell, Miller discovered a path that would allow her to continue pursuing the sport she loved and honor her father at the same time.
"He and my mom had my older brother and I pretty young, and so, he started working right away," Miller said. "He didn't go to college, and that was always the thing he really wanted me to do. In high school, I didn't really want to go to college, and my high school basketball coach was someone that really pushed me to do that and showed me basketball was a way to do that.
"It gave me motivation. He showed me that college basketball was an option, and it was a motivator to go to college. If my dad could see me playing college basketball, I know how proud he would be."
Dogged Defense
Miller enters this weekend's NCAA Division III Tournament having started 87 straight games for the Yellow Jackets, and before each one of those outings, she speaks to her father.
Between the National Anthem, introduction of the starting lineups and the opening tipoff, which Miller takes for the Yellow Jackets, she lets her father know his advice to "let the dog out" will be followed, especially on the defensive end.
Since joining the BW program under the direction of Coach Cheri Harrer, Miller has built a reputation for playing aggressive defense with the statistics to back it up. In 114 career games, Miller has registered 69 steals and 127 blocks. She ranks second all-time in blocks at BW and third in blocks-per-game average (1.11).
This season, Miller has registered a career-best 45 blocks, 42 of which came in the regular season. For those blocks, along with the 72 defensive rebounds and 22 steals, Miller was selected as the Ohio Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year.
"I enjoy playing defense, for sure," Miller said. "Blocks are always fun. I just enjoy defense in general. Coach will laugh because she'll have us doing shooting. She'll say to do a shooting drill or something. I'm like, 'No,' because I would rather do a bunch of defensive drills and work by myself like that than go and just shoot around forever.
"Most people probably wouldn't say the same, but I do enjoy playing defense. The blocks are always a fun thing, and a lot of times, I honestly surprise myself, too. Sometimes, a girl will get a step on me, and I just kind of throw my hand up there, hoping that my athleticism and reach will save my butt. If not, one of my teammates does. I've never played team defense like this, just so willing to help. The connection we make on the court, it's really fun to be a part of."
Choosing BW
When Miller decided she wanted to go to college and extend her basketball career, she looked at a few different schools and took an overnight visit to Baldwin Wallace.
It was during that visit that Miller spent time with the women's basketball team. Because of the positive interactions with the players and the comfortability she had on the campus, Miller actually wanted to extend her stay.
Ultimately, that bond she had with the players was the reason she chose BW.
"It definitely had the best record, a very respected program and very good coach," Miller said. "What really sealed the deal was the people. I just remember on my second visit here, I got to go to a tailgate and football game.
"It was homecoming, and after spending the day with them, I had plans later to go home. I was debating canceling them. They're like, 'Well, stay, just keep hanging out,' and I was like, 'I want to.' The second I got to interact with the team, I knew this is where I was supposed to be."
Living Up to the Hype
Miller's experience at Baldwin Wallace has been a continuation of that visit during Homecoming Weekend.
She has enjoyed building relationships with her teammates, pursuing her management and marketing major and making four straight trips to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
"I've met some of my best friends in the whole world, and the family aspect is exactly what I needed," Miller said. "Just going away to school -- I'm only an hour-20 away -- but without these people, it would be so different if we weren't so close-knit and just supportive and caring. These are my favorite people in the world."
And that is why Miller enjoys sharing the floor with her teammates, particularly when the 2023-2024 team advanced to the Sweet 16 by winning first- and second-round games at the State University of New York New Paltz.
"I just remember after winning the game to go to the Sweet 16 hugging some of my teammates, and it just being like the best feeling ever," Miller said.
"I would say that some of those wins felt like the most rewarding thing because of the people I was doing it with. We all were there for each other."
One Last Run
Miller has one final chance to make new postseason memories with the Yellow Jackets, as they were rewarded for an undefeated regular-season run through the OAC with an at-large bid to the 2026 NCAA Division III Women's Tournament.
Despite the Yellow Jackets having their 20-game winning streak snapped by Otterbein University in the OAC Tournament Championship Game, Miller is confident the team can go on the road for opening-round games at Johns Hopkins (Md.) University and make a nice run.
"I think we could go as far as we want," Miller said. "We set goals at the beginning of the year, and obviously, the goal every year is to go as far as we can. Every year, we meet our goals. We work hard for what we have accomplished, and I think we are the only things that stand in the way of ourselves. We prep, and we work just as hard as every other team out there that we will play, or even harder. I think we can accomplish anything we honestly set our minds to.
"All of us, we have accomplished a lot, and we want to go as far as we can, but for us, I feel like the main focus is just to have fun. We are all here for the same reason, and we just want to see each other succeed, on and off the court. Especially as seniors, our goal is just to savor every second of this, because this has flown. I want to savor every bit of it if I can. If I could do this all again, I would."
