A 15-year-old girl from St. Albert is quickly becoming a dominant basketball player, helped greatly by the fact that she stands 6’7” tall. Erin Miller is determined not to fall back on just her above average height in her pursuit of becoming a better player. Of course, it doesn’t hurt. “It’s pretty good because people can’t reach the ball when I put it up high. I can hold it up there with 20 seconds on the clock and move it around, and they’ll just be jumping up, trying to reach it, and they’ll be smacking my face,” she said with a chuckle in an interview Saturday. “It can be good for other things as well. Some of my friends are really short, so I can get stuff off the top shelf for them.” Miller began playing basketball in the third grade but began taking it seriously after being recruited by Swoosh Basketball director Ronald Hopkins. It’s under his training, her parents say, that she’s begun to thrive. “He’s really helped her grow in the last (year), and it’s been such an immense difference in how she’s grown. It’s been phenomenal for us to see,” her father, Mark, said. Swoosh Basketball is an Edmonton-based youth basketball organization. On Saturday, the club was hosting games to gear up promising young players for a tournament in Las Vegas – which Miller will be attending. “I’m training her to be better … We train like three days a week, just on individual skills, just to get her moving. Sometimes you do lots of basketball, but you still need a lot of reps,” Hopkins told CTV News Edmonton. And she’s dedicated to working on a number of skills that will eventually put her on top, he added. “Old-school, back to the basket, post moves,” he said. “She can do a jump hook, just like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.” He’s got three more years to get her ready for college-level basketball, which means he’s focusing on helping her grow, mentally, into her height. “There’s a lot of moves with it, it takes a while to learn,” Miller reflected. “It’s not as simple as just running up a court and shooting a ball … you need to work to get where you want to be.” Eventually, though, she does have aspirations of taking what she’s learned to a professional league – maybe even the Women’s National Basketball Association. “Even if that means getting up at four in the morning to go somewhere for this, I would take the drive … I would do anything for it, because I love this sport,” she said. Her dad is just thrilled to cheer her on from the sidelines, wherever that may be. He says she’s been passing on her spirit and her skills to other teammates and younger siblings. “The constant training and commitment that she’s shown really impressed me, and it’s really pleased us as parents … I just want to see my daughter do the best she can,” he said. “The sky’s the limit.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg
