Hi - My name is Kevin Miller and my daughter Nicole is going to West Point. She was given her appointment in early December 2009 and soon after sent in her acceptance letter. My mission with this blog is to describe my experiences as a father of a daughter who is a West Point cadet. First though a little background: I am a Fire Chief for a Fire Department in SW Washington. I have been with that Fire Department for 28 years. I have served as the chief there since May of 2006. My daughter will graduate number 3 in her class on June 12 - 1 week from today. Last Friday, May 27, she won the state 2B javelin title on her very last throw. She PR'd by over 5 feet to win that event. To say that I was happy would be a huge understatement. I was totally overjoyed and still am. Talk about dramatics - to be behind by over 3 feet and to throw the spear 5 feet further on your last throw to win a state title - pretty tough to top that, unless it is to receive an appointment to West Point.

Nicole applied to West Point in February of 2009. Her original goal was to go to the University of Portland, apply to their ROTC program and then come out as a 2nd Lt. nurse. U of P has a great nursing program and Nicole always wanted to be a nurse. But then I was talking to a friend one day at the fire station and he suggested that Nicole apply to WP. I took that idea home and Nicole's first impression was - that's a long way from home. A week later i came home from work and she was finishing up the initial application.

She decided to turn out for track. The idea was to get an additional athletics letter to build up the resume and to get into shape for the physical test necessary to gain acceptance to WP. She had turned out for track her freshman year but decided not to turn out her sophomore year.

Luckily for Nicole, a throwing coach from a neighboring high school decided to jump ship and move to Nicole's high school: Willapa Valley. She took up the Javelin and immediately showed promise with the spear. Her throwing coach gave her alot of help and boosted her confidence. Her distances improved with each meet until she qualified for the state meet with a personal best throw of 118'+ at district.

In the meantime, Nicole was hooked up with a very nice gentleman from Washington DC by the name of Dr. Roth. He works for WP as a mentor to Minorities and small school candidates and his main job is to assist candidates with getting their SAT and/or ACT scores improved. Mr. Roth called the house one afternoon to talk to Nicole. Instead he got to talk to me. I mentioned to him that Nicole was at track practice. He was impressed when I told him that she threw the Javelin and was even more impressed when I told him the distances she was throwing after just picking it up. He told me that he had 3 kids who graduated from West Point and all 3 were track athletes there. Mr. Roth knew the throwing coach and he was going to speak to him about maybe recruiting Nicole for the WP track program.

A few weeks later Mr. Knute Hjeltnes called and told me he was interested in having my daughter as a track athlete at West Point. I was totally blown away. And Nicole, well, Nicole just needs a few words of encouragement to get her into the weight room so you can only imagine what being recruited by a major university would do for her. It became her passion. She attended Washington State's track camp and worked out in the weight room all summer long.

Next edition: I will speak to how being a recruited athlete helps gain admittance to West Point.