School: North Penn
Favorite athlete: Ryan Hall
Favorite team: Philadelphia sports teams
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning XC States 2007
Future plans: Go to college to run and get a degree in Business
Words to live by: “Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.”
One goal before turning 30: “Travel to many Caribbean islands”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I am a Christian.”
Brad Miles had his sights set on becoming a sprinter when he went out for track in seventh grade.
“I always wanted to be a sprinter because it wasn’t far,” the North Penn junior said. “The longest I wanted to run was the 800 meters.
“My coach was like, ‘Your last name is Miles, so I’m going to throw you in the mile for the fun of it.’”
That declaration marked the beginning of a prolific distance running career for Miles, who turned out to be a natural.
“I won my first race, and my coach was like, ‘Wow, I’m keeping you in this race,’” he said. “I was pretty much a distance runner after that.”
Miles ran his first timed mile in 5:18. These days he is the class of the Suburban One League.
On Friday, the junior harrier won the National Conference individual title at Lehigh University. He finished five seconds ahead of his next closest competitor with the best overall time of 15:38.
Not bad for a soccer player turned runner who was a key member of the Knights’ state championship squad in his first season with the team last year.
“I never saw running in my future,” Miles said. “I always loved doing the three sports in the three seasons – soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and track in the spring.
“I thought I would do that all through high school, but the guys got me out for cross country, and I absolutely loved it.”
Miles’ transition to cross country began during spring track of his freshman year when he specialized in the mile and two-mile.
“The guys started talking to me about it and just wanted me to come to summer workouts to see how I liked it,” he recalled. “It pretty much grew on me.”
No one was happier than coach Ron Jaros to have Miles come on board an already talented team.
“He’s got a lot of natural ability,” the Knights’ coach said. “When you talk about the difference between a player and an athlete – he’s an athlete. He can do everything.
“He’s good at swimming, he’s good at running, and he’s good at soccer. He has a lot of talent, and he also has some good genetics which allow him to benefit from the workouts.”
Soccer fell by the wayside after his freshman year and basketball shortly thereafter when he began running with the cross country team the summer after his ninth grade year.
If there were any doubts that cross country was his sport, Miles effectively erased those doubts with a banner rookie season when he consistently finished in the top three, sharing the spotlight with seniors Zach Hoagland and Zack Montijo.
At the end of the season, he was the Knights’ number two runner, and he points to competing with last year’s squad as a turning point.
“That probably helped a lot with the mental aspect of cross country,” Miles said. “We had a great group of guys. It was so much fun.
“Every practice was a great time. All the guys really got along well. We just all bonded as a team, and that really made me love the sport.”
As for winning a state title, Miles admits it was quite an experience.
“It was really exciting because I had no idea what I was coming into,” he said. “When we started winning and getting recognition, it was just an incredible feeling.
“It was like, ‘Wow, I could not be doing this in soccer right now,’ so I definitely knew I made the right choice. I just loved it.”
Running is part of Miles’ everyday routine, and he is the number one runner on a Knights’ squad favored to vie for the district and state titles.
“Our team is really strong,” he said. “We return five of seven guys from last year, and we gained a new one.”
That ‘new one’ is another convert from soccer – junior Sam Bernitt, who is the number two runner for the National Conference champions.
“He’s helping us out incredibly,” Miles said. “He’s just having a great year. He probably feels like I felt last year coming in his first year.”
According to Jaros, this year’s squad is a perfect mix of runners.
“They’re a different group of guys,” he said. “Brad’s the number one guy, but it’s not like they’re all hanging back. He works well with everybody.
“It’s a team concept where last year they all knew Zack and Zach were the leaders. He was with those two guys. He learned what it was all about and how it works. We have four seniors that were on the varsity last year, and it’s more of a team because all five of them have gone through it.”
Miles, according to Jaros, is more than just a gifted runner.
“He’s polite, he’s a good student, he’s good with all the kids – it doesn’t matter where they are on the team,” the Knights’ coach said. “He’s just a good all-around person.”
Who happens to be able to be an excellent distance runner.
