Miller named to OCA All State team

(Editor’s note: This is first of a series on Comanche athletes selected to All State teams.)

Gracee Miller put the final touches on her hugely successful athletic career at Comanche High School as she was recently selected to the Middle West All State team.

“It was pretty special for me to make both (Oklahoma Girls Basketball Coaches Association and Oklahoma Coaches Association) all state teams, not a lot of people get to do that,” Miller said.

Each association will have all state games this summer.

The Comanche senior will be playing for the Middle West (Classes 3A-4A) in the OGBCA game and for the Small School West team for the OCA game this summer

“The (OCA) basketball All State team is the only team you have to try out for out of all the sports, it’s a big honor,” Miller said. “There were 30ish girls on our side. You go around and they split you up in these different teams and you play against a bunch of different girls. Every girl there knows they have a chance at All State because they wouldn’t be there. Everybody’s got talent.”

She got a phone call later that evening saying she had made the cut for the next day.

Miller said it took her a while to get her groove going as she was playing with teammates she had never played with before and everyone is trying to showcase their talents in order to make the team.

“It took a little while to get warmed up,” Miller said. “It’s different playing with people you don’t know and everyone’s out there trying to show their skills. It’s you against all of them. After I got settled in and started playing my game like going to the rim, the coaches were like, ‘Yeah, we know.’”

She is looking forward to getting the opportunity to finish her high school career with an All State game.

“It’s pretty cool,” Miller said. “I know a lot of the girls I’m going to be playing with. I’m excited to play with people I never played with in basketball because everyone there deserves the honor of being there. I think it’s going to be nice to take some time off basketball and then just go play for fun. It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about having fun. We’ve been awarded already, now it’s time to go have some fun.”

It will also be a chance to end her high school career on a high note. Miller was injured in what turned out to be the Lady Indians’ final game of the year in the regional consolation game against Hugo at Lone Grove.

Early in the second quarter, Miller dove for a loose ball and a player from the other team rolled over her, causing her to injure her elbow to the point where she couldn’t move it.

She left at halftime of the game to have it checked out in case she might have a chance of coming back if Comanche won. She found out she had a sprain and not a tear in her elbow and has been able to fully recover.

Another added benefit is she gets to have an opportunity to play with new and talented girls like she will when she goes to play at the University of Central Oklahoma next year.

“I definitely think it’s going to be really similar,” Miller said. “A lot of those girls who were at the All State tryout are going on to play college basketball, some of them Division I, so I’m going to be playing against the best of the best in Oklahoma and with the best of the best in Oklahoma. I think its going to have the pace like college is going to be like.”