Horace Miller posted a Sparq rating of 75.4, 11th best in the nation.
Horace Miller reaches for a cone during the compass drill. Miller hopes to improve most in that agility drill.
By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.comDunbar’s Horace Miller is more nervous about the flight to Nike Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon to compete in the My Better Championship than he is about competing for scholarship money against some of the best athletes from around the nation.
For Miller, a junior defensive end/linebacker on Dunbar’s two-time state champion team in Baltimore, it will be his first time on an airplane and his first time outside of the tri-state area.
“I’ve never been on a plane so I hope I don’t get scared,” Miller said. “We’re going to be in all these other states. It’s not like I live in California or something. I live in Maryland, so I’m going across the whole U.S.”
Miller posted a Sparq Rating of 75.4 on a range from 0 to 105 last Saturday at the My Better Championship competition at the Velocity Sports Performance center in Baltimore, placing him at No. 11 in the nation.
That performance earned him a flight to Oregon, where he will train and compete from July 22-25 with the other 11 top males from around the country. The top-12 qualified.
Miller received a call on his cell phone this past Wednesday telling him that his score qualified him for the national competition. The call interrupted linebacker in the middle of a nap.
“I was sleeping so I couldn’t be too excited,” Miller said. “After I really woke up that’s when I got more excited.”
Miller was wide awake during last Saturday’s drills. His vertical jump of 37.4 inches was the eighth-highest in the nation and tops in Maryland. He had the third-best 30-meter dash in Maryland of 3.69 seconds, he tossed a 3 kg. medicine ball 56.06 feet and hopped over a stationary object 61 times in 30 seconds. Miller’s compass drill time, a cone agility drill, of 7.22 was his worst event.
Miller has worked out every day since the Sparq Event in his parents’ house, since the school gym is often locked. The workouts typically last two hours – or however long his playlists on his Ipod last – and include Bowflex, elliptical, treadmill and free weight training.
“I’m really pretty confident and I’ve seen some of those scores and they’re not really further than me at it,” Miller said. “I actually really believe I’m going to be No. 1. Seriously. I don’t want to go to a state championship and lose. This is my personal championship. I plan on winning it.”
Miller registered 90 tackles, 17 sacks, three forced fumbles (two of which he recovered) and 20 tackles for a loss in his junior season. He has garnered interest from such colleges as Louisiana-Monroe, Tulane and Duke. He will also compete at the NATS elite combine at M&T Bank Stadium on May 31.
“I do more than I ever could; I work muscles that I never knew I had,” Miller said. “I want to be the fastest, the strongest, I want to jump the highest. I want everything.”