Plan, commitment, hard work finally pays off for Miller
When Coynis Miller arrived at Jackson-Olin High School in November of his sophomore year, Mustangs coach Tim Vakakes took one look at his new transfer, Miller’s 6-foot-2 athletic frame, and knew he could play college football.
Then Vakakes looked at Miller’s transcript.
“It was bad,” Vakakes said. “His core GPA was low. I knew he had a long ways to go just to get on track to qualify. A long ways.”
If college, much less college football, were to be in Miller’s future, grades had to improve, classes had to be retaken and sacrifices had to be made. Most importantly, a plan had to be put in place. It had to be followed. There would be little room for error and little time to waste.
“If he didn’t get started right then,” Vakakes said. “He’d have no chance.”
SLOW START
Miller’s academic troubles were the result of a poor freshman year at East Lawrence, a 3A school in the north Alabama town of Trinity, where he lived with his mother, Versie Cunningham. Miller didn’t take academics seriously. He was a 14-year-old kid. Motivation in the classroom was hard to find and Miller wasn’t searching for it. Grades just weren’t that important to him.
By the end of his freshman year at East Lawrence, it was apparent improvements had to be made. So Miller, under the guidance of then-East Lawrence coach Jarrod Helms, began retaking classes and replacing grades.
“We had a plan at East Lawrence,” Cunningham said. “And he had already started it. He was doing what he needed to do.”
Then a major change came. In the summer before Miller’s sophomore season, Cunningham took a job at UAB and moved to Birmingham. Miller, however, stayed with his grandfather in Trinity to play the season at East Lawrence and continued working on his academics. In November, after the season, Miller joined his mother in Birmingham and enrolled at Jackson-Olin.
STRONG FINISH
Miller’s transcripts from East Lawrence, even with the poor grades, were concerning to Vakakes, but the Jackson-Olin coach still had hope. It was possible for Miller to qualify – there were still two-and-a-half years to do so – but did Miller have the desire? Did he have the drive?
“I knew he had a chance to qualify because he was allowed to replace grades,” Vakakes said. “What I didn’t know was whether or not he would make the commitment and have the work ethic to get it all done. It was going to take a lot of dedication on his part.”
And a lot of sacrifices.
“He wanted to play basketball, but basketball season wouldn’t have allowed him to go to night school,” Vakakes said. “I told him that I didn’t care about basketball. I cared about him getting qualified.”
Miller agreed. He bought into Vakakes’ plan. He made the commitment. Miller scrapped basketball for night school. He sacrificed summer vacation for summer school. He did both three straight years – night school in the spring and summer school in the summer.
“I put him on a plan from Day One, and a lot of kids during their tenth-grade year aren’t that concerned about qualifying, but to his credit, he was,” Vakakes said.
Miller replaced poor grades with good grades. His attitude toward school, toward college, changed. And helping make it all happen was his mother.
“A lot of the credit goes to his mom,” Vakakes said. “She had to be as committed to the plan as he was, and she was.”
Cunningham left work early in order to take Miller to school. She stayed on him, encouraged him, and made sure he had the opportunity to succeed.
“He went to summer school at Woodlawn and that was a 25-minute drive each way every day, and that’s without traffic,” Cunningham said. “And night school was another 20-minute drive each way. I had to take off work. My boyfriend had to take him. Coach (Vakakes) and other guys would take him. It was a struggle to get him there and back, but he was determined to do it. He was up and ready to go every day.”
Miller wasn’t perfect. He had his lapses. But nothing his mother couldn’t fix.
“There were a couple of times when he got hard-headed and would get out of line, so I would have to knock him back in,” Cunningham said.
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
Miller was faced with adversity in the spring of his senior year. That’s when his father, Coynis Miller, Sr., suffered a heart attack and died. Miller, although his parents weren’t together, was close to his father.
It was a heartbreaking moment for the then-senior in high school.
“But he didn’t give up,” Cunningham said. “He still stayed focused. He had three things to do for his dad: graduate high school, play college football and graduate from college. He used his dad’s death to motivate himself to a higher level.”
Miller signed with Auburn, graduated from high school and was set to enroll in college in the summer. His enrollment, however, was delayed. Miller still needed to take two classes before he could qualify. No problem. He took the news in stride and the classes over the summer.
“He made two As,” Vakakes said.
Miller finally was rewarded for his efforts on Thursday as he received news that he had qualified. No more night classes. No more summer school. The plan, the commitment, the work had paid off. Miller will move to Auburn Aug. 1 and join the rest of the Tigers’ 2018 recruiting class.
“He worked hard. He really did,” Cunningham said. “I’m very proud of him and he’s proud of himself. He’s very excited and he’s ready. He’s been ready, but now it’s really here.”
Cunningham hopes Miller’s story will help others avoid similar situations.
“I want this to encourage young men and young women in athletics who are striving to accomplish the goal of getting a scholarship,” Cunningham said. “Don’t wait until the last minute. Take care of your academics now so when you have the opportunity, when you reach that goal of a scholarship, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
