Mia Miller's impact on the Waterloo softball program will always be seen in the school's record books.
But those who watched the right-hander guide the Bulldogs to heights they had not seen in over four decades understand the story of Mia Miller extends well beyond that.
"I think that her legacy is going to be she set an example," Waterloo softball coach Matt Mason said. "She set the bar very high for the next player, the next generation of players coming in. She was just able to lead a team to the state tournament, and I think that's a pretty good legacy."
A four-year starter for Waterloo, Miller led the Bulldogs to their third regional title in four seasons and first final four berth in program history this season. Waterloo finished fourth in the Illinois Class 3A tournament, its top finish in team history, and posted its second-winningest season since 1989 in the process with a 28-8 record.
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In the circle for the Bulldogs for more than two-thirds of those victories was Miller, who accumulated a 19-6 record this season and pitched to a 1.41 ERA with 284 strikeouts in just 159⅓ innings. The workhorse started all seven of Waterloo's postseason games, and she singlehandedly pitched the final 57 innings of the Bulldogs' season.
"She's a competitor," Mason said. "She had a lot of confidence in herself because of all the work that she had put in over the years, and this being her last shot in high school, she wanted to make it special. She did everything we needed her to do to get us to the state tournament."
The 2024 All-Metro spring softball player of the year closed her four-year career as the school's record holder in strikeouts (790) and wins (51) while also racking up the fifth-most hits in team history (121). This season alone, Miller tossed seven shutouts and totaled 18 double-digit strikeout games, including four in the postseason.
"For me as a player, (this season) was a blast," Miller said. "That entire season, every practice, I was laughing, every game. I was laughing, whether we were losing or not. It was just such a fun season."
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Waterloo senior Mia Miller (8) delivers a pitch during the Class 3A Millikin University Super-Sectional on June 3, 2024 at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill. Paul Halfacre, Post-Dispatch
Miller, who had 399 strikeouts across her sophomore and junior seasons, took her performance to another level this season. The senior had 10 games with at least 13 strikeouts, including a pair of 15-strikeout games against Columbia and Mount Zion, the latter of which came in the super-sectional round and sent the Bulldogs to the final four.
Of those performances, though, none mattered to Miller as much as her 13-strikeout effort against Freeburg in the Waterloo sectional final May 31. The Bulldogs had not defeated the Midgets in Miller's career nor had they secured a sectional championship in a quarter century.
That was until a teary-eyed, emotional Miller struck out Freeburg's Emylee Martin with the bases loaded to secure a 4-0 sectional championship victory.
“It was pretty amazing,” Miller said of the sectional win. “It just emphasized the fact that I wasn't doing this alone, like everybody had wanted it as well.
“My senior year, to come out and ... they're all out there with me and behind me, it felt like a team, but more than that.”
What Miller discovered was a family at Waterloo, a unit that rallied behind its unquestioned on-field leader donned in the No. 8 jersey.
"From 2022 on the softball team was her team," Mason said. "She was the leader. Even as a sophomore, the rest of the girls knew it and tried to follow her example. ... (Our success) was mainly due to the team following her lead."
Miller embraced that responsibility, quickly becoming a role-model figure for the younger athletes as one of four seniors on the Waterloo roster. Mason said Miller was the first one in and the last one out, always in search of ways to help the team with her contagious attitude and desire to impact others.
From her work ethic on the field in her consistent and tireless approach to the impact she had on teammates off of it through bonding experiences, Mason said the dedicated senior carried a mindset unlike many others he's come across.
"I've been the head coach now for 10-plus years," Mason said. "There may have been players that had just as good of an attitude, but I can't remember a player who ever went through here that's had a better attitude than her.
"Whenever I have had the best success as a coach, my best players were always my hardest workers, and this was just a prime example of that. (It) doesn't matter if it's younger players or older players, they do gravitate toward that. They don't want to let her down because of the effort she's putting in. It's just contagious."
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Waterloo senior Mia Miller (8) celebrates after a strikeout during the Class 3A Millikin University Super-Sectional on June 3, 2024 at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill. Paul Halfacre, Post-Dispatch
Anchored by that contagious attitude and winning spirit, Waterloo reversed its fortunes in an emphatic way.
In three of the four season before Miller's arrival, the Bulldogs had a losing record. But with Miller on the roster, Waterloo posted an 82-43 record and set a foundation on which to build upon in the coming years, a bedrock that Miller is already impacting as a recent graduate.
"(Miller and two of the other graduating seniors) worked at the little girls softball camp this week, and again, the same way the team gravitates toward (Miller), the little girls out there did too," Mason said.
"You hope (her appearance at the camp) spurs the interest, and they see how much fun she has on the field, and that's what you want ... because I think the more fun the girls have, the better off they're going to be down the line."
For Miller, she will continue her career at Missouri S&T — a NCAA Division II school in Rolla — where she will pursue a degree in civil engineering. Although she had the talent to compete for a spot at a Division I school, Miller had her eyes set on Rolla starting in eighth grade and is thrilled about the opportunity to make a name for herself there.
"They're competitive; they want to win, and they're my kind of people," Miller said. "I'm excited to play softball but also go to school there."
As she departs for the collegiate level, the dominant righty will leave behind a number of memories and milestones, each of which will help tell the story of how Mia Miller brought the Waterloo softball program back to prominence.
"I don't think many people have the experiences that I had," Miller said, "and so I'm really, really grateful for that."
The Post-Dispatch All-Metro spring series continues with spring softball.
The Post-Dispatch All-Metro spring series continues with spring softball.