Jered Miller full of optimism at Montana school

November 11th 7:20 pm | Van Williams    

A two-time state champion and a four-time state semifinalist, Jared Miller was the quintessential star of the Kotzebue High School wrestling team.

He was the strongest, the hardest working and the top technician.

But that all changed when he got to Montana State University-Northern, a NAIA school in Havre, Mont. It was here that Miller experienced losing for really the first time in his career, taking his lumps against bigger, stronger, faster opponents.

"It's a lot different froing from high school to college where everybody is as good as you or better," he said. "You're not having laxed days and stuff like that. Every day the practice room is really hard. You're pushing yourself every day. That's one of the things that's toughest about college wrestling that I have to practice."

The 174-pounder is renowned for his work ethic and toughness, so it sounded weird hearing him admit that he was almost overwhelmed.

"I started off the season a little scared, trying to acclimate myself to the college level," he said.

In typical Jared Miller fashion, though, he used the setbacks to his advantage.

"Even in losing you learn something from a match," he said.

As time progressed, Miller became to feel more and more comfortable on the mat and his results changed as a result.

In addition to the physical lessons, he learned how to change his mindset. In high school he expected to pin his opponent in the first round. In college he expects a battle every time out.

"I'm going to have to stick it out for seven minutes," Miller said with a laugh.

By the end of his freshman season, he had won 20 of 42 matches and qualified for the NAIA National Tournament. Other highlights included a second-place finish at the Northwest Open, a third at the NAIA West Regionals and a fourth at the Inland Northwest Collegiate meet.

Miller also benefited from technology as every MSU-Northern match is recorded with a video camera. Afterwards the coaching staff breaks down the action with each wrestler like a film room with football.

"It really helps," he said. "We got to see the mistakes we made so we could work on them in practice. The next match I would tell myself, 'I'm going to work on this or I'm going to do this better.' That's something that really worked."

Off the mat, Miller spends most of his time studying as a civil engineering major.

"Going to school and wrestling, it's a full-time job," he said. "But you can have fun, too. This summer I worked on a ranch for a local farmer. It was such a good experience. They liked the way I work and they invite me out for dinner and stuff; just to hang out on their ranch."

Miller loves being outdoors and tries getting out of town as much as possible.

"Hunting season opened up here maybe two weeks ago and some of the guys wanted to go out with me," he said. "Back home, you know, we go hunting every fall and I'm used to that. I've gone out a few times with a couple buddies of mine on the team. We'd go hiking and look for deer."

Now he's stalking victories.

The wrestling season just got started and so far Miller is undefeated in two matches against Western Wyoming and North Idaho College. Even better, MSU-Northern is also 2-0.

"Things are just going really well," he said. "Wrestling is looking up this year and I'm feeling a lot better about school, so things are just looking really good."

Van Williams can be reached at sports@reportalaska.com

 

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