In Touch With…Lindsay Hallion Miller

Evan Cardimino and I welcomed Lindsay Hallion Miller to the studio for Episode 15 of The Wolverine Report. Lindsay is once-a-generation athlete and competitor and I was lucky enough to watch her greatness during her time at Westwood High. She is the standard when it comes to talent, athleticism, work ethic and leadership, A no-brainer Mount Rushmore WHS athlete, who was a major part of the girls basketball dominance, behind the historical 71-game win-streak and back-to-back state titles in 2001 and 2002. After high school Lindsay went on to play at Harvard under legendary coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, where she thrived as a player and eventually went on to become one of Kathy’s most trusted coaches on her staff.
 
Morgan – One commonality I’ve seen when we’ve brought in alumni is that they followed the teams before them. In grade school – they’d go and watch the team, and they would say, “I wanna be that person.” Were there players that you would go see, where you’re like, “I wanna be that person.”
 
Lindsay – Yes. And I would say, globally, I wanted to be on that basketball team so bad. Those girls were so tough and so good, and they played with swag and heart. Even in the devastating defeats that I watched, it was that “person in the arena” thing. They gave it their all, and it was just so fun to watch. I remember, really young or not so young, looking up to C White. I’m a point guard. She’s a point guard. She was just a star and really fast and ferocious and such a good leader out there. She would speak at camps, and she would tell the group, “You know, I sleep with my basketball. I walk it to school. You have to live and breathe this. You have to be purposeful. What kind of training do you want to do? What do you want get out of this? Write yourself a workout, and if it’s not done when your friends call you to come out and play, you can’t go with your friends.
 
That work ethic really stuck with me, and I did sleep with my ball and dribble it to school, and I learned so much of that from her. I also looked up to Andrea Barr. She was the first player I saw that had a true jump shot, the first woman, and I really wanted to do that, too. I think that ended up being a unique part of my game that I definitely stole from her. Lots of hard work, but I stole it from her.
 
Morgan – Long before you, Westwood had incredible success. The 70s teams were legendary. However, you had a 71-game winning streak of your own. You had back-to-back championships. You had an incredible coach in Coach Reilly. Were you aware of what these ladies did in the 70s? How much did that history motivate you to say, “Let’s match that! Let’s start our own streak, and let’s start something special here.”
 
Lindsay – Good question. I don’t think that in the moment when we had our streak, we felt the pressure to match that streak. But I think you know about that greatness, you know the expectation and the standard is so high, and in some ways, the pressure is high, but I truly cannot say enough about our coach, Bill Reilly. I’ve been a high school coach – that is a demanding job, and it is so tricky. I think he walked the line so beautifully between fun and holding us to a standard that would really help us be great. I think that’s so hard to do at the high school level and he was the perfect person for it. What a great leader we had while we were on that streak.
 
Morgan – So, when you were at Harvard, you won three Ivy League Championships, which came with automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. How special was that, to be among the top 64 teams and to be in March Madness?
 
Lindsay – I mean, that’s awesome. It was awesome. My first time in March Madness, we played Maryland. They were the defending national champions, and we kinda stuck with them for the first half, but it was just so cool. It’s a different world to be in the tournament.
 
It was a dream for me to play for Kathy and to play Division 1 basketball. I really did not know that I would be able to do that, and I just had so many teammates that welcomed me and I looked up to them and they taught me how to be that person for other people. Sport helped so much with my life.
 
Morgan – What do you want your Westwood High School athletic legacy to be?
 
Lindsay – I think competing. It’s not about the outcome. It’s about how you compete. I would love my legacy to be what I appreciated so much about the people that came before me and how they gave back and cared for their teammates. I think if you can compete and if you can play for your teammates and be there for them, I think that’s a wonderful legacy I would be proud to have.
 
Morgan – Certainly, I would check off all those boxes for you.
 
Lindsay – You set me up there.
 
Morgan – You were an amazing competitor. You were someone who loved the game. You had your teammates’ backs. You were passionate about it, and you weren’t afraid to show your love for the game – carrying a ball to school, bouncing it on the way. No care in the world. Love that. Ultimate competitor, earning every point, setting the bar even higher, winning back-to-back state championships. Well guess what? There’s a bar even higher.
 
Kids might not have believed it, but they would look at you and then they believed it because you believed it. I will always remember that this girl had something special. When you think you’re tapped out with what you can do or where you can go, there’s another ceiling you’d crack through. There’s always a way. You set an amazing example.
 
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