The Heart Of A Lion
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
Through a school year of terrible lows, it's been basketball, and an energetic mother, that's kept the mood lighthearted.[[In-content Ad]]Prior to the school year even starting, Lincoln Elementary sixth grader Pamela Alexis Miller, was enjoying a summer day at a neighbor's pool, when a dive into the shallow end resulted in a broken neck.
Lucky for Pam, a neighbor was also a former lifeguard, and her injury wasn't as bad as it could have been, as she was only relegated to wearing a brace.
"The doctors said the treatment could be either wearing a brace, a halo or having surgery," mom Jolie Miller said of her daughter's diagnosis.
After getting that good news, and following the removal of the brace in late December, the Millers, including dad Dale and fourth-grade brother Sam, seemed to be back on track, that is until Jolie received news back from her Dec. 31 mammogram.
Hearing she had breast cancer on the same day that Pam returned to play her first sixth grade game for Lincoln, which is coached by Jolie, the Millers were right back in a tough situation.
"I found out an hour before the game," Jolie said about receiving the news about her cancer diagnosis. "I told my kids, no matter what the news was, good or bad, we would talk about it after the game. The focus was on beating the Washington Hornets. After we got home, I told them."
Coaching the Lincoln girls for 23 years, Jolie had looked forward to coaching her daughter this year, after she and four of her friends suffered through two consecutive winless years.
"We started four fourth graders when she was in fourth grade, which is unusual," Jolie said. "The year before that, I had nine of my 12 girls graduate from sixth grade, so I had to. As fourth and fifth graders, they did not win a game, and this year, got off to a rough start. But they did finish strong."
The girls finished strong by winning Jolie's first city championship, defeating the previously undefeated Leesburg squad 21-19 on Feb. 9 at Warsaw Community High School.
"I told the girls, 'If you want to see me cry like a baby,' and they never see that, I said, 'Win this game and I'll go to center court and cry like a baby.'," Jolie said about the championship contest. "When we did, I said, 'Girls, let's go to center court.'."
Prior to any tears of joy, there were tears as heartache.
As a third-grade manager on her mom's basketball team, Pam saw the Lincoln team lose in the city tournament, and looked to do something about in a few years.
"She said to me, 'Mom, wouldn't it be cool to win the championship when I'm in sixth grade?'," Jolie recanted. "I said it would be great if she did, but she would need four of her friends to come along her side."
As fourth graders, the young Lincoln team wasn't winning games, but at that time, winning wasn't the goal.
"We began to set goals like scoring in double digits," Jolie said. "I also had the girls set individual goals, so that even if we didn't win the game, it still felt like we were doing well. Pam may have a goal of getting three rebounds, and if she did, there was a feeling of doing well."
After the fourth-grade campaign, which saw Lincoln's closest loss be 11 points, the girls also went winless the following year.
Despite failing to win a game as fifth-grade players, the margin of defeat decreased, losing one game by just a point.
Seeing that improvement, Pam spent this past summer playing a lot of basketball in preparation for this season. And then it all seemed to be for naught following a leisurely day a the pool.
"I had been practicing all summer, and all I could think about was not being able to play basketball," Pam said about her neck injury.
After realizing her daughter would be fine after wearing a brace for a period of time, Jolie's attention also couldn't be completely diverted from basketball.
"As a mom, you could care less (about basketball)," Jolie said. "But as a coach, you're thinking, 'She's going to be out for the season.'."
Pam originally thought she'd be confined in the uncomfortable brace, which couldn't be removed, for four weeks. However, after seeing the doctor, she was told the brace would remain on for a while longer.
Even after getting the go-ahead to remove the brace, it was a slow process.
"She was told she could remove it on Dec. 12, but it took about two weeks to wean her off of it," Jolie said.
Because she had gone so long wearing the brace, she couldn't just take it off all at once. Instead, she gradually increased the amount she could go without it, until ultimately, she could rid herself of it completely.
"I got used to wearing it," Pam said. "But when I had it off, then had to put it back on, it felt weird."
"When she would go five hours without wearing it, then had to put it back on, it was kind of hard," Jolie said.
Along with wearing the brace, Pam was also not allowed to lift her arms too high, making it kind of tough to regain her shooting touch.
"When I began practicing, and getting back into shape, I knew we would have a chance to win the championship," Pam said.
Without Pam in the lineup, the Lincoln girls had picked up wins, making her return an added boost.
"When they were winning games without me, it was a confidence boost," Pam said. "When I got back to playing, we all had fun and kind of thought we could win, because all the other teams weren't as good as they'd been because of graduation."
But then, just as she was set to play her first game of the season, Pam had another setback when her mom revealed her illness.
Making the news even tougher for Pam, and her younger brother, was the fact that cancer had claimed the lives of an uncle, as well as a grandfather-figure, in the form of Jolie's college softball coach.
"I told them how mine is different and is treatable," Jolie said.
Each year, Jolie got a mammogram, but this one turned something up. But like Pam's neck injury, the diagnosis doesn't seem as bad as it could have been.
"It was caught early enough and scored low enough that I won't need (chemotherapy)," Jolie said. "But a bunch of the guys on the basketball team said they'd shave their heads if I did."
And while she always got a mammogram, Jolie also took all the other preventive measures to prevent the disease, without success.
"Cancer doesn't care who it attacks," she said. "It's evil. You do all the preventive things, and it doesn't seem to matter. I exercise, eat right and don't drink."
Pam also mentioned that her mom does buy blueberries, which is suggested, but the family usually gets into the fruit before mom can.
Once again, just when things could have looked dark, basketball seemed to be a big part of things.
"I had to miss the Leesburg game," Jolie said about a doctor's visit costing her a game on the sidelines. "I was told I'd be out by 4:30 (p.m.), but surprisingly, they made it so I wasn't out of recovery in time."
Jolie was eventually back on the sidelines for her team's tournament run, where they won three straight games to win the championship, capping off a 6-4 season.
"All the teams had pink shirts and ribbons (in support of breast cancer awareness) at the game, and it felt good to win," Pam said.
Even in the championship game, the outcome wasn't decided until the very end, as Leesburg got off numerous shots in the final 14 seconds before the horn sounded on a two-point Lincoln win.
"It was probably the longest 14 seconds of any of our lives," Pam said.
Despite all the shots by Leesburg, Jolie had a feeling her team would prevail.
"I had a lot of people telling me they were praying for me," she said. "But I told them to pray for the Lincoln Lions to play well and win. I know so many people prayed, so I knew it was going to happen. I had the faith that it would all come full circle."
Upon winning the city championship, Jolie submitted her resignation as the girls coach, cutting her duties down to just coaching the boys.
"I resigned the next day," she said. "I was always prepared to stop if we won the championship. I just thought I'd have to coach until I was about 140."
Instead, she was able to step down well before that, enabling her to celebrate with friends and her players, all decked out in pink, supporting the longtime Lincoln girls basketball coach.
"It was special," Jolie said. "It was real special."
Through a school year of terrible lows, it's been basketball, and an energetic mother, that's kept the mood lighthearted.[[In-content Ad]]Prior to the school year even starting, Lincoln Elementary sixth grader Pamela Alexis Miller, was enjoying a summer day at a neighbor's pool, when a dive into the shallow end resulted in a broken neck.
Lucky for Pam, a neighbor was also a former lifeguard, and her injury wasn't as bad as it could have been, as she was only relegated to wearing a brace.
"The doctors said the treatment could be either wearing a brace, a halo or having surgery," mom Jolie Miller said of her daughter's diagnosis.
After getting that good news, and following the removal of the brace in late December, the Millers, including dad Dale and fourth-grade brother Sam, seemed to be back on track, that is until Jolie received news back from her Dec. 31 mammogram.
Hearing she had breast cancer on the same day that Pam returned to play her first sixth grade game for Lincoln, which is coached by Jolie, the Millers were right back in a tough situation.
"I found out an hour before the game," Jolie said about receiving the news about her cancer diagnosis. "I told my kids, no matter what the news was, good or bad, we would talk about it after the game. The focus was on beating the Washington Hornets. After we got home, I told them."
Coaching the Lincoln girls for 23 years, Jolie had looked forward to coaching her daughter this year, after she and four of her friends suffered through two consecutive winless years.
"We started four fourth graders when she was in fourth grade, which is unusual," Jolie said. "The year before that, I had nine of my 12 girls graduate from sixth grade, so I had to. As fourth and fifth graders, they did not win a game, and this year, got off to a rough start. But they did finish strong."
The girls finished strong by winning Jolie's first city championship, defeating the previously undefeated Leesburg squad 21-19 on Feb. 9 at Warsaw Community High School.
"I told the girls, 'If you want to see me cry like a baby,' and they never see that, I said, 'Win this game and I'll go to center court and cry like a baby.'," Jolie said about the championship contest. "When we did, I said, 'Girls, let's go to center court.'."
Prior to any tears of joy, there were tears as heartache.
As a third-grade manager on her mom's basketball team, Pam saw the Lincoln team lose in the city tournament, and looked to do something about in a few years.
"She said to me, 'Mom, wouldn't it be cool to win the championship when I'm in sixth grade?'," Jolie recanted. "I said it would be great if she did, but she would need four of her friends to come along her side."
As fourth graders, the young Lincoln team wasn't winning games, but at that time, winning wasn't the goal.
"We began to set goals like scoring in double digits," Jolie said. "I also had the girls set individual goals, so that even if we didn't win the game, it still felt like we were doing well. Pam may have a goal of getting three rebounds, and if she did, there was a feeling of doing well."
After the fourth-grade campaign, which saw Lincoln's closest loss be 11 points, the girls also went winless the following year.
Despite failing to win a game as fifth-grade players, the margin of defeat decreased, losing one game by just a point.
Seeing that improvement, Pam spent this past summer playing a lot of basketball in preparation for this season. And then it all seemed to be for naught following a leisurely day a the pool.
"I had been practicing all summer, and all I could think about was not being able to play basketball," Pam said about her neck injury.
After realizing her daughter would be fine after wearing a brace for a period of time, Jolie's attention also couldn't be completely diverted from basketball.
"As a mom, you could care less (about basketball)," Jolie said. "But as a coach, you're thinking, 'She's going to be out for the season.'."
Pam originally thought she'd be confined in the uncomfortable brace, which couldn't be removed, for four weeks. However, after seeing the doctor, she was told the brace would remain on for a while longer.
Even after getting the go-ahead to remove the brace, it was a slow process.
"She was told she could remove it on Dec. 12, but it took about two weeks to wean her off of it," Jolie said.
Because she had gone so long wearing the brace, she couldn't just take it off all at once. Instead, she gradually increased the amount she could go without it, until ultimately, she could rid herself of it completely.
"I got used to wearing it," Pam said. "But when I had it off, then had to put it back on, it felt weird."
"When she would go five hours without wearing it, then had to put it back on, it was kind of hard," Jolie said.
Along with wearing the brace, Pam was also not allowed to lift her arms too high, making it kind of tough to regain her shooting touch.
"When I began practicing, and getting back into shape, I knew we would have a chance to win the championship," Pam said.
Without Pam in the lineup, the Lincoln girls had picked up wins, making her return an added boost.
"When they were winning games without me, it was a confidence boost," Pam said. "When I got back to playing, we all had fun and kind of thought we could win, because all the other teams weren't as good as they'd been because of graduation."
But then, just as she was set to play her first game of the season, Pam had another setback when her mom revealed her illness.
Making the news even tougher for Pam, and her younger brother, was the fact that cancer had claimed the lives of an uncle, as well as a grandfather-figure, in the form of Jolie's college softball coach.
"I told them how mine is different and is treatable," Jolie said.
Each year, Jolie got a mammogram, but this one turned something up. But like Pam's neck injury, the diagnosis doesn't seem as bad as it could have been.
"It was caught early enough and scored low enough that I won't need (chemotherapy)," Jolie said. "But a bunch of the guys on the basketball team said they'd shave their heads if I did."
And while she always got a mammogram, Jolie also took all the other preventive measures to prevent the disease, without success.
"Cancer doesn't care who it attacks," she said. "It's evil. You do all the preventive things, and it doesn't seem to matter. I exercise, eat right and don't drink."
Pam also mentioned that her mom does buy blueberries, which is suggested, but the family usually gets into the fruit before mom can.
Once again, just when things could have looked dark, basketball seemed to be a big part of things.
"I had to miss the Leesburg game," Jolie said about a doctor's visit costing her a game on the sidelines. "I was told I'd be out by 4:30 (p.m.), but surprisingly, they made it so I wasn't out of recovery in time."
Jolie was eventually back on the sidelines for her team's tournament run, where they won three straight games to win the championship, capping off a 6-4 season.
"All the teams had pink shirts and ribbons (in support of breast cancer awareness) at the game, and it felt good to win," Pam said.
Even in the championship game, the outcome wasn't decided until the very end, as Leesburg got off numerous shots in the final 14 seconds before the horn sounded on a two-point Lincoln win.
"It was probably the longest 14 seconds of any of our lives," Pam said.
Despite all the shots by Leesburg, Jolie had a feeling her team would prevail.
"I had a lot of people telling me they were praying for me," she said. "But I told them to pray for the Lincoln Lions to play well and win. I know so many people prayed, so I knew it was going to happen. I had the faith that it would all come full circle."
Upon winning the city championship, Jolie submitted her resignation as the girls coach, cutting her duties down to just coaching the boys.
"I resigned the next day," she said. "I was always prepared to stop if we won the championship. I just thought I'd have to coach until I was about 140."
Instead, she was able to step down well before that, enabling her to celebrate with friends and her players, all decked out in pink, supporting the longtime Lincoln girls basketball coach.
"It was special," Jolie said. "It was real special."
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