2020 Grosse Ile grad Maddie Miller
BY SAMANTHA ELLIOTT
Maddie Miller is an athlete. When she was little, it started with softball and basketball. In middle school she added volleyball. Her plan was to continue basketball and softball all the way through her senior year at Grosse Ile High School. One summer changed that.
When she was in seventh grade, Miller tested the waters in a two-week rowing camp at the Wyandotte Boat Club.
“I was so enamored by rowing, that I decided freshman year to stop playing softball and do rowing,” she said.
Now, the 2020 Grosse Ile graduate is heading to Eastern Michigan University on a rowing scholarship. While Miller did continue her basketball career until her junior year, she spent her entire senior year training for rowing year-round.
“Rowing grew to be my favorite sport over the years and I wanted to devote myself entirely to it,” she said.
A four-year varsity rowing at GIHS, Miller was a part of several different races during her time as a Red Devil. During the spring, she was on the 4+ (coxed fours) and the 8+ (coxed eights) and during the fall she would often row the 4x (quad).
Miller was typically the three-seat or stroke in the 4+ and six-seat in the 8+ and also rowed some 2-(pairs) and 2x (doubles) in the summer, along with the 4+ and 8+ boats.
While rowing has been both the most rewarding, yet challenging sport she has been in, Miller is excited and ready to go to the next level.
“It asks for a lot,” she said. “If you commit to it though, it gives a lot too.”
For Miller, being on a rowing team is a family-type atmosphere unlike anything she has experienced.
“I have been on many teams for many sports, but the rowing teams I have been a part of have been the most tightly-bonded teams,” she said. “You know that your teammates have you back.”
Being outside and on the water only adds to that atmosphere she loves.
“The beauty of the water and early mornings combined with the synchronization of movement with your teammates creates something that is found nowhere else,” she said. “There’s nothing like the experience of being on the water at 5 a.m. with your teammates, knowing that you are with people who want to work hard and achieve the same goals as you. It’s invigorating and inspiring.”
During her time at Grosse Ile, Miller also rowed for the Wyandotte Boat Club Competitive Summer team for three years and made friends she will now be rowing with at Eastern.
She also competed in the Scholastic Rowing Association of Michigan, which is a statewide competition in Grand Rapids.
For short, the rowers simply called the regatta States and Miller made it to finals every year, including her sophomore year where she took a seat in the Junior Women’s 4+ (coxed four) that placed second.
Family has been a huge component of Miller’s athletic career as well. While none of her family members rowed, the whole family has always been supportive or going to events together, watching a game on TV, or attending hers and her sister’s sporting events in person.
“It has been tradition that most of our family members come to see my sister and I play whatever sport we are participating in,” she said. “That support is special and has yielded some of my best memories — looking over and seeing my grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents and my sister.”
Being a collegiate athlete was always on Miller’s mind.
“Ever since I started playing sports, I was interested in playing in college,” she said. “My dad played football at Yale University and I found that to be inspiring. I started to think about rowing in college my sophomore year after I realized how much I loved the sport.”
When it came time to choose a college, however, academics came first for Miller.
“When I looked at schools, I would first look at their academic programs,” she said. “It was a bonus if they had a rowing team.”
Miller picked Eastern because of scholarship opportunities and their AP credit system.
When she starts this fall, she will have 39 credits thanks to her AP classes, making her academically a sophomore. She is majoring in history with a minor in philosophy and plans to attend law school after graduation.
For younger athletes looking to get into the sport, Miller encourages them to find a boat house near their community and see if there is a rowing camp.
“You really must get on the water; you cannot find the feeling that you get being out on the water in any other sport,” she said. “Once in high school, ask about your own high school team. Stay focused, celebrate the wins, learn from the losses and seek opportunity in whatever you decide to do.”
As Miller turns to her own collegiate career, she said in order to stay focused and disciplined, she always remembers what she is training for and focuses on the team.
“When we are out on the water, everyone has to synchronize their movements down to the second the blade enters and exits the water and how fast we come up the slide,” she said.
While training, Miller focuses on the goals the team has set and during a race itself, remembers the training hours that her teammates have put into the race.
“I cannot let them down because they’ve worked hard to get here and we are all depending on each other,” she said. “The fact that I am a part of something bigger than myself focuses my mindset on improving.”
