By Stephen Smoot
One of the catalysts of Pendleton County success in basketball who helped the team earn berths to the state tournament in recent years has extended her career.
Jameigh Miller has pretty much done it all while battling for her team during the past four years. In her earlier years, her ability to rebound and play inside made her a post player. Through travel ball and camps, however, Miller developed a broad skillset compared to most players.
By her senior year, the former power forward was bringing the ball up as a point guard and showing more ability to hit deep shots in key situations. Miller entertained attention from a few different area schools before settling on Garrett College in Oakland, Maryland.
Miller brings elements to the court that Jeffrey Lewis, Garrett’s head coach, shared his team lacked last season. He explained, “The first thing that comes to mind is her outside shooting. We struggled last year and hopefully, she can come in and help us in that department.”
Her experience at a variety of positions will help as well. “She can play multiple positions,” said Lewis, who added that both “offensively and defensively, being versatile is very important in our league.” He also appreciated “her high basketball IQ on and off the court.”
“I see Jameigh fitting whichever system we decided to go with,” he added.
“She had a number of choices,” explained Travis Heavner, Pendleton’s head coach. “Ultimately, she liked that opportunity the best.” He went on to agree with Lewis that her versatility serves as one of her best qualities as a player.
“We had to use her in a way that best fit us,” Heavner shared.
For much of her senior season, Miller had both ballhandling and scoring responsibilities and averaged 10 points per game. She can hit three-point shots, but also score from the post. Miller also has a quick first step that allows her to get past the first defender, find an open spot on the floor, and pull up for a midrange basket. Most modern coaches consider that a lost art.
“Putting her at point guard,” said Heavner, “took her out of her comfort zone of being a scorer.” He added, “Ideally it would have been nice to have played her where we played her in her junior season. But she never complained once.”
Miller has also had the good fortune to have played under a number of experienced and knowledgeable coaches. Most recently, these were Donnie Kopp and Heavner. Another experienced coach, who happened to be her dad, Dan Miller served as an assistant under Kopp as well. All of her coaches brought years of experience to teaching the game while emphasizing teamwork, fundamental skills, confidence, and execution.
Miller ranked 12th in West Virginia Class A with 31 three-point shots and 13th in assists with 2.8 per game. She was third in the Potomac Valley Conference in assists and shot blocks. She also hauled in nearly six rebounds per game and had 2.4 steals per game as well.
She led the team in free throws made with 61.
