2024 Herald-News Girls Golfer of the Year: Plainfield East’s Taylor Miller

It’s been a banner year for freshmen all over the country. Jeremiah Smith is setting a new standard for wide receivers at Ohio State. Cooper Flagg is dazzling basketball fans at Duke.

And at the high school level, Taylor Miller – a freshman golfer at Plainfield East – rewrote the Bengals record book this year.

Miller set the mark for lowest score for a nine-hole tournament (34), lowest score for a 18-hole tournament (69, twice including at the conference tournament), was their first freshman to ever advance to state and finished in the top five in nearly every tournament while leading the Bengals to sectionals as a team for the first time.

Consider all of that, and it’s not hard to understand why Miller is the 2024 Herald-News Girls Golfer of the Year.

“It feels pretty good,” Miller said of the honor. “I feel like I put in a lot of work, so I’m just kind of proud of myself.”

Any of those marks are impressive on their own, but to accomplish them at just 14 years old is all the more amazing. Plainfield East coach Erin Janozik knew early in the season that Miller was something special.

“When she joined the team, she started out really quickly,” Janozik said. “She had some really low scores in those early tournaments, which helped us take second place at the [Plainfield] North Invite and first place at the Joliet Invite, where she shot a 69. When I saw her card a 33 on the back with a few last-minute birdies, and she took us from third place to first place, I thought we really had something here.”

Miller has been golfing since she was about 6 years old. Her family first brought her to a Plainfield East dual invite in seventh grade to help prepare her for the high school game. Janozik believes that commitment from the Millers helped play a tremendous role in her success this season.

“Her commitment to the sport is unmatched,” Janozik said. “We’ve had players do the work in the offseason, but the number of hours she put in on the golf course in the offseason have made her successful. All the extra things her family does in terms of equipment, effort and time they commit to helping her be the best was enormous.”

In addition to the school records, Miller also tied for second place at the Plainfield North Regional with a 73. She ended up fourth at sectionals with a 77, and she finished better than anyone in the JHN coverage area at state with a score of 158, tying her for 29th. To most people that would be pretty dang impressive.

To Miller, however, it wasn’t quite what she’d been aiming for. No matter. It just gives her one more thing to strive and train for moving forward.

“Because I set the bar so high for myself, at the end of the season, I don’t think I played to my full potential,” Miller said. “I was able to take care of focus this offseason, and I’m committed to placing higher and breaking more records my upcoming year.”

That might sound like a lot of pressure for a young kid. Miller isn’t your average young kid, though. She says there was no point during the year that she felt the pressure was too much. On the contrary, she felt perfectly relaxed throughout.

“My coaches were very relaxing, so I didn’t feel a lot of pressure on me,” Miller said. “I never thought I couldn’t do it, because I always competed with older girls in summer tournaments.

“I never thought it was too much. I knew I was ready and I could do it.”

The goal for Miller is to eventually play golf collegiately, but she’s still got three years left before that time comes. She’s aiming to make the all-state team and finish in the top 10 multiple times before her prep career is over. Janozik believes Miller will also help take Plainfield East to even greater heights.

Obviously, Miller will be looking to win this award the next three years as well. However, if you’re wondering what it takes to be Herald-News Golfer of the Year, Miller has some advice for you.

“Get out of your own head and trust yourself,” she said. “Every athlete and golfer knows their own game. If you can trust in that process, even under pressure, then you can be as successful as you want to be.”