MIRACLE RECOVERY
Zion Miles battles past injury
The coach in Barron Miles couldn’t understand why his son Zion, so naturally talented in high school that he excelled in three sports, seemed to be training so haphazardly, running somewhat awkwardly and complaining of pain in his hips.
Then came the day in winter 2018 when the teenager couldn’t walk and was basically immobile. An X-ray discovered a mass on his hip. Following an MRI and more tests, doctors told Zion he had femoroacetabular impingement, a congenital condition in both hips in which extra bone grows along one or both of the bones that form the hip joint, giving them an irregular shape. Because they don’t fit together properly, the bones rub against each other during movement.
Zion, who was born in Montreal, had been playing football, basketball and running track on a fractured hip for at least two years. He would require two surgeries within six weeks and his athletic career hung in the balance.
“For me, it was watching his dream disappear, right before his eyes,” Miles, the Alouettes defensive backs coach, told the Montreal Gazette from his home in Phoenix. “That was heart-wrenching. All of it disappeared. He couldn’t do anything.
“I kept a brave face on for him because it was going to be a long road ahead of him. Hours in physical therapy.”
Almost immediately, Miles the coach became Miles the father, caring and devoted. He woke up every two hours throughout the night for 12 consecutive weeks after the surgery, turning his son’s legs in both directions to retain mobility. There were also daily early morning trips to a gym, so Zion could ride a stationary bike and keep the hip rotation going.
“That’s what families do. We’re a family that sticks together, good or bad,” said Miles, a father of three whose wife, Jen, has been battling her own health issues for years.
Miles, a native of Roselle, N.J., was an undersized defensive back coming out of high school. He grew up without a father, defiant, who was against everyone and everything it seemed. A sixth-round draft choice of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1995, Miles came to the Canadian Football League in 1998, signing with the Als and went on to a 12-year career with Montreal and British Columbia.
When he became a father,
Miles vowed his children would not want for anything. And that, despite a playing and coaching career, he would be the rock on which they could lean.
“I was proud of the entire family during what was the hardest year of our lives,” Miles remembered of his son’s rehabilitation. “It was a proud moment as a dad. It’s not a question of inconvenience. It’s an honour to be there for your kids.”
Although only 5-foot-7 as a freshman receiver in high school, Zion had speed, a long stride and great hands. He had the ability to run past defenders, and NCAA Division 1 schools were taking notice, including former Als slotback Ben Cahoon, Miles’ former teammate and, on two occasions, the receivers coach at Brigham Young University.
“As much as he had everything stacked against him, his sisters and I took it harder,” said his mother Jen. “He was in the locker with Barron from the time he could walk. Football is everything. We didn’t know if he was going to walk normal again, let alone play football. It was heartbreaking watching him through it.
“He never wavered. The kid never broke down. He knew it was going to be hell for a few years, but said he was going to play and do this. I had to apologize to him. I didn’t doubt him. I doubted the huge medical obstacles he had to overcome. The odds were stacked against him.”
While he had to give up basketball and track, Zion returned for part of his senior high school football season. Now 6-foot and 170 pounds, he had little film on which recruiters could assess his talent, meaning he had virtually no opportunity of gaining a scholarship.
While there was interest from Lake Forest, a Division 3 school near Chicago, the younger Miles ultimately decided on the University of Nebraska, his father’s alma mater, where he’s considered a preferred walk-on. He has been there for three weeks, participating in small group conditioning drills and plans on majoring in business or architecture in the fall. And, if the college football’s season isn’t cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, he hopes to overcome the odds once more with the Cornhuskers.
Despite the pain and mental hurdles he faced, Zion said he wouldn’t change anything.
“It was kind of scary the first few days” he said from Lincoln, Neb. “What’s going on? What’s happening? There were so many ups and downs. But I can do anything I put my mind to. The only thing that can stop me is myself. This journey has taught me a lot.”
That Zion recovered, returned to football and arguably gained speed in the process, according to his father, lifted his father’s spirits.
“It is a miracle,” said the proud elder Miles. “They pulled his hips apart, then put them back together. And this kid’s running now. Running by people without lifting weights. I’m super proud of him.”