Long process for Miller ends well with commitment to UW-Green Bay

TO THE NEXT LEVEL

For the third straight school year, Medford Area Senior High can boast of producing an NCAA Division I recruit.

The latest student-athlete to earn a scholarship offer is Martha Miller, who announced last week on social media that she verbally committed to accept that offer to attend UW-Green Bay in the fall of 2023 and pitch for the Phoenix’s women’s softball team.

“It’s definitely a dream come true, but also a lot of relief,” Miller said last Thursday after playing in Medford’s volleyball match with Tomahawk. “The recruiting process is long and stressful. It was a nice thing to just get that stress off my shoulders.”

Miller will join a UW-GB program that is led by head coach Sara Kubuske and assistant Alaynie Woollard. Kubuske just completed her third season leading the Phoenix. A native of Milwaukee, Kubuske came to Green Bay after a successful 10-year run at NCAA D-II University of Indianapolis. After going just 4-15 in the Covid year of 2020, UWGB was 23-21 in 2021 and 25-25 last spring, including a 15-10 record in the Horizon League, which was good for fifth place.

Miller said the contact with Green Bay and coach Kubuske was developed while she played the past few summers with the Central Wisconsin Edge club softball program, which not only gave Miller the opportunity to showcase her talents against other top players in the Midwest but also promoted her successes to help her get noticed by various colleges.

“Ever since I started club ball this was the goal,” Miller said. “That would have been freshman year. So I’ve been working toward it. Then people start looking at you and reaching out, especially about June before your junior year and then it goes all the way through that. Then you’re waiting around, waiting around, waiting around, seeing other people commit, more waiting around.

“(Green Bay) has kind of been watching our team for awhile,” she added. “A girl in the class ahead of mine, they came to a bunch of her games and they’ve been on and off coming to our games. I know the coach really likes coming and watching players a bunch before making an offer to them. I’ve been seeing this coach around and talking to her for awhile. They’ve been doing pretty good. I know the last couple of years have been a rebuilding period for them. But the environment of the program has really changed and is a really good place to be I feel like.”

Miller has led the Medford Raiders to an undisputed Great Northern Conference championship in 2021, a shared title in 2022 and two straight WIAA Division 2 regional championships. She was the undisputed GNC Player of the Year as a sophomore and shared the award during an injury-shortened 2022 season.

After losing her freshman season due to Covid, Miller burst onto the high school scene as a sophomore by compiling an 18-2 record in 21 appearances with 235 strikeouts and just 21 walks in 119.1 innings pitched and a 0.65 earned run average.

In 2022, she went 13-3 in 17 appearances with a 0.89 earned run average and 199 strikeouts with just 15 walks allowed in 102 innings pitched.

While the talent is evident, Miller’s success also is the result of countless hours put in perfecting her craft, much of it with Medford’s pitching coach Ron Fisk.

“I started working with Ron in seventh grade and since then, during the school year I’d like to go in once or twice every week, just getting the work in even in the winter and fall and spring. Over the summers it’s been a lot of work. Travel ball has definitely helped, just getting those extra games that you don’t get during the school season and getting those extra practices and situations you don’t see in school ball.

“The club experience really paid off,” she added. “That’s where the colleges see you and where you get really good competition because all the other girls there are vying for spots in college too. So you get to face the best of the best hitters and as a pitcher, that is pretty important to face. When you see these other D-I, D-II committed girls and you have to pitch against them, it teaches you things.”

As the recruiting process dragged on, Miller said the final decision came down to Green Bay and Macalaster College of St. Paul, Minn.

“Of all the schools I looked at, some schools checked some boxes, some checked others,” Miller said. “So it was just weighing those out and figuring out where I wanted to go. D-I was definitely something I was shooting for, hoping to get the opportunity.”

Now that the decision is made, all that’s left is to put pen to paper on National Letter of Intent signing day on Nov. 9. and to have another stellar senior season this spring.

“I’m pretty excited. I’m ready to go,” Miller said. “I think we’ll have a pretty good team this year. We lost a few players, but we have a pretty strong group of seniors coming back. We’re looking forward to the freshmen coming into the program. I think we’ll be pretty solid and hopefully make a run for it.”

Medford’s other most recent D-I recruits are 2022 graduate Caleb Guden, who is playing baseball with the Air Force Academy, and 2021 graduate Alicia Kawa, who is running with the UW-Green Bay’s women’s cross country team.

Medford senior Martha Miller, pictured in the Raiders’ WIAA Division 2 regional final over Antigo last May, verbally committed last week to join UW-Green Bay’s softball program. Signing day for Miller is Nov. 9.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS