Almost Too Late, He Made the Grade

In high school, Eddie Miller received so many recruiting letters from college basketball coaches that he used them as wallpaper for his bedroom.

He was so talented he could have picked almost any college to attend if he had the grades. But he didn’t. “I guess I put sports ahead of my academics, and it hurt me,” he said.

As a freshman, he played on Notre Dame High’s 1993 Southern Section Division III-A championship team, then flunked out.

He transferred to Chatsworth High and was a dominating player, averaging 16.7 points his sophomore season, 17.7 points as a junio and 25.3 points as a senior.

“I never had any player more talented than him,” Chatsworth Coach Fluke Fluker said.

Miller was 6 feet 8, with long arms and quick feet. He played defense, rebounded, hit jump shots, ran the court, made spectacular dunks, hustled and cared about winning.

But he repeatedly failed to heed the advice of his mother, Vera, and of countless coaches to focus on academics.

“I would say, ‘Eddie, you don’t get it,’ ” Vera said.

Watching television, listening to music, going out with friends, playing basketball--they were always given higher priority than schoolwork.

Miller had no one to blame but himself. He was declared academically ineligible for the playoffs during his senior season at Chatsworth. It was embarrassing, even heartbreaking.

“My senior year, the most important year, I goofed up,” Miller said.

Unable to reach NCAA qualifying standards, Miller enrolled at Ventura College, played well as a freshman, then sat out last season after the school dropped basketball.

Slowly, his academic work habits were changing. It finally dawned on him that there would be no college basketball without a commitment to studying.

He earned his associate’s degree, then accepted a scholarship to Washington State. This season, he has become one of the finest newcomers in the Pacific 10 Conference.

He’s averaging 11.1 points and 5.2 rebounds and is shooting 58%.

The greatest triumph for Miller, though, is the realization that education will shape his future.

“Without that, you’re nothing and won’t get anywhere,” he said.

“That’s the hardest lesson I’ve learned.”

Washington State Coach Kevin Eastman is monitoring Miller closely to make sure he understands there’s more to life than basketball.

“He’s definitely working at it,” Eastman said. “We’re trying to sell to him there’s no guarantee of an NBA or European contract at the end of his career.

“Without question, this is the most attention he’s ever had to pay to time management. You have deadlines, you have responsibilities.

“The worst we can do in athletics is bench you. Yet, there is no bench at IBM. They’ll just fire you and bring in the next [person].”

Said Miller: “I’m trying to find something besides basketball, which is something I have never looked into and took seriously before.”

Vera said her son had no choice but to get serious about his studying.

“He loves basketball but also knows it’s a different era. Being athletically inclined is no longer enough,” she said.

Last Wednesday was the first day of the letter-of-intent signing period for high school senior football players. Dozens finally faced the reality they wouldn’t be receiving a college scholarship. For some, it wasn’t because they weren’t good enough, but because they didn’t have the academic qualifications.

“I used to tell Eddie, ‘Basketball is a game to play, not a game you get played by,’ ” Fluker said. “It seems like he finally understands that.”

Persuading high school athletes not to waste their physical and mental skills is the daily task of coaches like Fluker.

“When I talk to my players, ‘You need to do this, you need to do that,’ if they don’t believe me, I tell them the Eddie Miller story,” Fluker said. This one may have a happy ending. I pray and hope it does.”

Eric Sondheimer’s local column appears Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at (818) 772-3422.