DODDS-Europe's top female athlete
had memorable year in three sports
By Rusty Bryan, Stars
and Stripes
Rusty Bryan / S&S
Joanna Miller's stellar year in all three sports has earned her recognition as
DODDS-Europe female athlete of the year. |
VAIHINGEN, Germany — For all of us who’ll never know what it’s like to
be the star of three sports teams and make straight-A’s, too, Patch High
School’s Joanna Miller is willing to let us in on how it feels.
"It was a blast," Miller said of a junior year that culminated in her
selection as the DODDS-Europe female athlete of the year.
"This year was the greatest year I’ve ever had."
Miller was talking about the special joy of being a part of three close-knit teams
— two of them champions — achieving academic success and experiencing the
spiritual fulfillment that comes from her faith and her community involvement. But her
words also accurately describe the statistical achievements she fashioned and the
leadership she showed on the field. It just might be as great a year as anyone in DODDS
athletics has ever had.
You want facts and figures?
Volleyball: Team captain and MVP as setter for the Lady Panthers.
All-Europe second-team. European Division II all-tournament team. Division II-South
all-conference team.
Basketball: Team captain and MVP after averaging 22 points, nine
rebounds and 2.2 assists per game for the Division II-South champions. All-Europe first
team. All-Conference. European Division II all-tournament team.
Soccer: Alternate captain. Ten goals and 11 assists for undefeated
two-time European Division II champions who were Division I-II Big Schools champions the
year before that. Fourteen more goals and eight more assists in "friendlies"
played mainly against German club teams. All-Europe first team for third straight year.
All-conference. All-tournament.
The list could go on. In fact, for anyone who has observed the European sports scene in
recent years, watching Miller earn "all-this" and "all-that" time
after time, season after season, her eventual selection as athlete of the year seemed as
inevitable as another Star Wars movie.
But not to Miller.
"I was surprised," she said about her selection by a panel of coaches chaired
by DODDS-Europe athletic director Karen Snyder over a strong field of finalists that
included Kelsey Hudson of Rota, Tenika Smith of Giessen, Sarah Tackling of Ansbach and
Alicia Watson of London Central. Miller, however, swayed the panel with the level of
excellence she maintained in all three of her sports.
Typically, Miller credited others for her success.
"My coaches all are excellent," she said.
But they weren’t buying it.
Michael Abrams / S&S file photo
Patch's Joanna Miller in action during at the DODDS-Europe basketball finals at Mannheim,
Germany, in February. |
All three of them, volleyball coach Brandy Meyer, basketball coach Bruce Engel and
soccer coach Tom Manuel cited Miller’s talent, work ethic and dedication as
inseparable from her success.
To Miller, though, it’s not work. It’s passion.
"I love to play sports," she said.
Although Miller enjoyed the most team success this year in soccer, where she provided
much of the leadership and firepower for her third European title winner, basketball is
her first choice. She plays the game with an intensity and skill honed on the back-porch
basket against older brother Jeff, Patch’s quarterback and a three-sport letterman.
Obviously, he, too, got as full a share of the family athleticism as his sister and a much
bigger share of the size.
That cuts no ice with Joanna, though.
"We play one-on-one," Miller said. "It helps me, but I help him,
too."
Neither of them, however, will be able to do anything more to help Patch High School
win championships. The Air Force is sending the Miller family to the Washington D.C. area
this month.
"It’s my 10th or 11th move," said Joanna, echoing the experience of
military brats everywhere.
She got a got a jump on the family’s return to the States when she left last week
to attend a basketball camp at Penn State. After that, she’s looking forward to a new
school and new challenges.
"I wanted to move. I wanted to graduate from a stateside school," she said,
citing the stiffer competition she’ll encounter.
When she does, chances are that greatest year she just finished will get more than a
little greater.
RELATED STORY:
DODDS-Europe's male athlete of
the year
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