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Molly Miller: Working together
By: Tim Groff
07/16/2009
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M-P Shortstop Molly Miller makes a play to first base during the team's recent game against Sigourney.
M-P Shortstop Molly Miller makes a play to first base during the team's recent game against Sigourney.
Molly Miller has been on fire at the bat for M-P this season, through 33 games she's second on the team in hits, with 32, second on the team in runs scored, 20, second on the team with RBI, 15, and has a .314 batting average.
She's also played a keen defensive shortstop for the Golden Hawks this season, logging the second number of chances - 145, behind first baseman Kaitlin Kaalberg, and is ranked first in assists with 79.
She's played in all of the M-P softball games this season, batting left handed as a slap hitter out of the second slot in the batting order behind classmate Missy Hershberger.
Watching Miller take a ground ball and throw to first, or race down the first base line after a quick slap hit, you can tell see she's athletic. Being good at what she does is important to Miller. She wanted to be a starter on the M-P softball team when she was an eighth grader.
Molly's father, Merle Miller, who can be seen at the softball diamond almost as often as Molly, said he remembers a Christmas afternoon before Molly's freshman year.
"In her eighth grade year we went down into the basement and started to practicing slap hitting because she was determined to make the varsity squad as a freshman," said Miller. "After the first month of slap hitting I was beginning to wonder if she would get it."
Molly admits that learning to slap hit after being a natural right-handed hitter, was one of the more difficult things she had to learn.
But she understood that she needed to have a skill that would make her stand out and earn her a spot on the varsity roster.
Her slap hitting skills did earn her a spot and she played left fielder during the M-P 2006 state-qualifying softball season.
In the 2008 softball season, Molly suffered a set back that put her on the bench.
Molly had a bad cut on her hand, which required stitches, and she also had a torn muscle in her leg.
"I couldn't not only run and play, but I couldn't practice and I was just sitting there watching the team do good and not be a part of it. I could cheer them on but it was really hard," said Molly.
Learning to cheer on her teammates despite her injuries, was a good life lesson for Molly, but the one lesson she'll take away from her years of playing volleyball and softball at Mid-Prairie, is the one about getting along.

Getting along:
"Working as a team is the hardest thing you'll ever do," said Molly. "We hate each other sometimes but we have to get along it's like a little family sometimes. Personalities will clash no matter where you go or what you do. You'll have to learn to work at it and change to accommodate different things. The biggest thing is having to adjust to the different personalities and know that you're going to have those difficulties and that you'll have to just get over them."
Merle said it was rewarding for him to see his daughter learn with her injury last season, but watching her overcome differences among her teammates has been even more important.
"I've always told all our kids: sports is like life, you have to get along with each other, you have to win as a team, and lose as a team. You've got to do things together," said Merle. "It's not just one person who makes a team. In life, if you work in an office setting, you've got to get along with everybody. That's just the way life is. That's one of the things I've seen her work on really hard and do a good job at."
Getting along and working together as a team is one of the most difficult things to do, but Molly admits it's also the most rewarding. Her favorite memories are the accomplishments the team has had - from team bonding to qualifying for "State".
Molly, the daughter of Merle Miller and Teri Miller, will be attending William Penn University - joining a former M-P teammate Hannah Lugar on the softball team there - and learning how to get on base and get along with a new set of peers on the diamond for the Statesmen.



©Kalona News 2010

Reader Comments
 Submit your own comment!
Added: Saturday August 01, 2009 at 11:02 PM EST
Molly you're the best
Go cuz you're the best softball player i've ever known. I wish you the best in your live.
Love Adel
Adel Al-Wathiqi, kuwait

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