Northwest Remembers Miller

Player Died After Collapsing At Practice

In many of the sprints the Northwest High School football team ran last Thursday evening, Edwin "Dek" Miller brought up the rear. But in the final run the coaches asked the team to complete, he was one of the first to finish.

Miller, 16, of Germantown, collapsed on the field not long after he completed that last run. He died Monday afternoon.

"Dek didn't know the circumstances his body was under," teammate Jarrhett Butler, 16, told more than 200 mourners during a candlelight vigil at Covenant United Methodist Church in Montgomery Village last night. "But he fought until his death. He fought for the Jaguars, and we will fight for Dek."

The cause of Miller's death is unknown. Autopsy results are pending, according to a spokeswoman for the D.C. medical examiner's office.

Alston Nah, Miller's uncle, said that emergency medical personnel told the family Miller showed signs of dehydration and possible heat stroke.

According to Jacqueline Orrence, Northwest's acting principal, coaches called for an ambulance when they realized Miller wasn't breathing regularly and performed CPR on him as instructed by a 911 operator. Coach Mark Maradei traveled with Miller in the ambulance to Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, where he regained consciousness and showed signs of improvement that night, Orrence said.

Orrence said Miller, who would have been a junior this fall, "took a turn for the worse" Friday morning. He was then transported to Children's National Medical Center in the District. Miller was heavily sedated, Nah said, and never regained consciousness before passing away at 2:30 p.m. Monday.

"We had a meeting Monday with all the football players and some parents," Orrence said. "Everybody knew but we just wanted to inform them and let them know that counselors are available to anyone who needs them."

Orrence and Maradei described Miller as an unassuming and hardworking member of the Jaguars' football team. A wide receiver and linebacker, Miller played football as a freshman, but wanted to make an impact on the team as a junior after not participating as a sophomore because of a fractured pelvis.

Maradei, who declined to speak about the day Miller collapsed and referred questions about the incident to Orrence, had high hopes that Miller might become a leader on the football team.

"He was a great kid," said Maradei, who coached at Rockville and Watkins Mill before taking the job at Northwest this spring. "He did everything he was asked to do, worked very hard and was very committed. We had high expectations for him to be a contributor going into his junior season."

Miller's funeral is scheduled for July 18 at Covenant United Methodist Church. An additional vigil is planned for July 15 at 7 p.m. at the school.

The football team has not practiced since Miller's collapse, but will return to its conditioning regimen today in an effort to restore some sense of normalcy, Orrence said. Although a cause of death is still unknown, Orrence and the football coaching staff this week discussed emphasizing proper hydration, regardless of the temperature, when workouts resumed. The high on the day Miller collapsed was 81 degrees.

In June, the National Athletic Trainers' Association released a set of preseason guidelines that encourage gradual heat acclimatization for all high school sports. The program focuses on the first 14 days of practice and recommends that stages of practice -- such as two-a-day sessions and full equipment workouts -- be phased in.

Forty-two states currently have guidelines, said David Csillan, who co-chaired the task force that helped draft the recommendation. "I don't think any program is 100 percent foolproof in preventing heat illnesses.

"The NCAA has had uniform guidelines since 2003. If you think about it, the highest population of athletes we have are at the secondary school level, though, and we need to have serious guidelines to drastically decrease heat-related deaths."

Miller's death is the second tragedy the Northwest community has suffered recently. The younger sister of Jaguars football standout Hassan Dixon was killed in a car crash in Virginia on June 29.

A funeral was held yesterday for Shiane Dixon, 12, a student at Rocky Hill Middle School and the lone casualty in the crash.