Starkville High School’s Miller signs to take her ‘strong left foot’ to ECCC
Starkville High School girls soccer player Skylar Miller will be taking her “strong left foot” to East Central Community College.
Even though she is fighting to get back from an injury and play for the Lady Yellow Jackets down the stretch of this season, Miller is looking forward to what’s ahead in Decatur.
New SHS girls soccer coach Rafa Costa is anxious to get Miller back on the field, but he is also considering her future in college.
Miller tore the right labrum in her hip and is only one month removed from surgery.
She has not felt any pain post-surgery and has full range of motion. Costa is approaching Miller’s possible return with extreme caution.
“We are going to take things a little slowly because obviously her priority right now is East Central,” Costa said. “Those two years for her down there are a little bit more important than high school right now. Hopefully she’ll be back before the end of the season and especially for senior day.”
In the meantime, Miller will offer some valuable assistance to Costa on the sideline and can serve as an extra coach.
“You’ll notice she’ll be right there next to me, giving me things in my ear and making sure the girls are where they are supposed to be,” Costa said. “She is the reason probably why the program is where it is right now and why it’s successful because without her, it probably wouldn’t be as good as it is. I hope her leadership skills will rub off on the other girls and we keep stepping up year after year.”
Miller said she wants to be an “encouragement” to her teammates, “make sure they stay hyped for whatever comes ahead and make sure they keep their heads up.”
After starting out at left wing, Miller has played left back for five years in the SHS program. The move was made because of the strength in her left foot and needed to be farther back.
The Warriors plan to keep Miller in the left back or center position. She is just thank
It appeared the Starkville Yellow Jackets were on their way to their second boys soccer win of the season when Ben Buehler found the net for the second time during Tuesday night’s match against Saltillo.
Buehler’s goal with 12 minutes remaining in regulation gave the Jackets a 2-1 and some hope.
The visiting Tigers took advantage of an opportunity and scored the tying goal with 4:05 left in the match. That was the final goal of the night and the two teams settled for a 2-2 tie.
“We were trying to push the ball up so much and were trying to get another goal to secure the win, but we ended up being caught up a little too high and only two people back,” SHS boys coach Evinn Watson said. “There was a questionable call from the referee, but that’s how it goes sometimes and they ended up getting a kick and put it in.”
After two outings, the Jackets have a 1-0-1 record. Saltillo took a 1-0 lead at the 31:25 mark of the first half, then Starkville answered less than 4 minutes later on Buehler’s first goal of the match.
Even though the Jackets took advantage of the Tigers being short-handed following a red card with one goal, they couldn’t get anything else in the first half and went into the halftime intermission tied 1-1.
“They were down early a man after they got the red card,” Watson said. “They knew their task to just defend to pull out a win. They succeeded and did a great job on their game plan. Hopefully next time we can execute a little better and get some goals in.”
Starkville will travel to Clinton on Thursday.
Girls Match
Saltillo 1, Starkville 0 (4-3)
The Lady Jackets and Lady Tigers battled through 80 minutes with no goals scored in regulation.
In an unusual move, the play continued with a series of penalty kicks.
Saltillo put in four of its five shots, while Starkville could only get three in the back of the net.
Sara Pinzon, Veronica Dunne and Hailey Miller scored the penalty kicks for the Lady Jackets.
Starkville saw its record fall to 1-2 with the loss.
ful for the opportunity to play at East Central and that coach
Ryan Joiner is giving her a chance.
“It’s a family and Godoriented college,” Miller said of East Central. “I met their coach through my club practice
and he saw me and said I want you on the team. He does everything for the team. I want somebody who can help me through all aspects of college.”