Shore Regional's Braden Miller. (Photo by Tom Smith/tspsportsimages.com/)

Shore Regional tight end Braden Miller makes an impact while living with epilepsy

Braden Miller scrawls the date on his cleats before every football game for undefeated Shore Regional: 4/12/23.

That’s the day everything changed for the Blue Devils’ senior tight end/defensive end.

The day his younger siblings found him unresponsive in his bedroom in a harrowing scene. The day his parents frantically rushed home to arrive just as the paramedics were taking their oldest child away.

The day Miller suffered his first seizure.

“I was on the bed on my phone,” Miller said. “And then I woke up on a stretcher.”

Since that day, Miller has become an advocate for epilepsy awareness after being diagnosed in the wake of his seizure.

He also has become an integral part of the football and lacrosse teams at Shore after nearly having it all taken away. He even has “4/12/23” tattooed on his leg.

“He does have that date forever marked, literally and figuratively,” said Meghan Miller, Braden’s mother.

“I’m very lucky that I can still live this life still,” he said. “I was terrified that I wasn’t going to be able to do it anymore.”

A life-changing event

Miller had played a lacrosse game against Long Branch earlier in the day on April 12, 2023, when he was resting in his bed afterward. He was a 15-year-old sophomore at the time and had no history of seizures or overt symptoms of epilepsy.

In hindsight, Miller said the only symptom doctors identified was that he has a tendency to “stare off into space more than others.”

“What 15-year-old isn’t staring off into space, especially in the post-Covid world?” Meghan Miller said.

Miller’s younger sister, Maddie, now 13, entered her brother’s room after hearing some noise and found him unresponsive on his bed. She quickly ran to get her twin brother, Kellan, and older brother Teagan, who’s now a 14-year-old freshman football player at Shore.

“There’s a picture from that moment, and I had some foam by my mouth and I was just laying down on my bed,” Braden Miller said. “It was a pretty scary moment, but my siblings handled it as well as they could have.”

Meghan Miller and her husband, Sean, were at a fundraiser for the Shore Regional boys lacrosse team when they received frantic phone calls and texts from their three children with the photo of Braden foaming at the mouth. The siblings also called 911.

Shore Regional's Braden Miller (Photo courtesy of Braden Miller)  - Braden Miller

Shore Regional’s Braden Miller (No. 87) credits his siblings (from left) Teagan, Maddie and Kellan for their quick thinking to call 911 and their parents, Sean and Meghan, when Braden suffered his first seizure  (Photo courtesy of Braden Miller).

“You think the worst because you don’t know what’s going on,” Meghan said. “We ran out of the event and rushed home, and we arrived at the house at the same time as the ambulance arrived. (Braden’s siblings) handled a really scary situation not knowing what they were looking at.”

Braden spent multiple days at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, where he was diagnosed with epilepsy.

“I was frozen because I didn’t really look into epilepsy until I had it,” Miller said. “My first thought was, ‘How was it going to affect me?’”

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that produces surges of electrical activity in the brain that can cause recurring seizures, according to the Epilepsy Foundation.

By the time he left the hospital, he had been cleared by doctors to continue playing lacrosse and football while treating his condition with daily medication.

“They told me there was a chance I couldn’t play contact sports, and I got lucky,” he said. “A lot of people can’t when they have epilepsy because when they take a hit, they can have a seizure. You’ve got to count your blessings when you’re in situations like that. It really makes you see things a whole lot clearer when you have a scary moment like that.”

He was back on the lacrosse field shortly and playing without hesitation in a sport that can feature some booming hits.

“I was all in my head in the pregame, but once you get on the field, it’s like nothing ever happened,” he said. “You want to go to war with your brothers. (Collisions) were not an issue for me. If I am going to do something, I am going to do it 100%.”

Life with epilepsy

Miller has since had multiple seizures in public, including one on the field when he was checking into a lacrosse game against Red Bank Catholic in the 2023 season.

“After my first seizure, I was like, ‘That’s one in 15 years, maybe it’s a fluke,’” he said. “And then the second one happened, and I was like, ‘This is pretty serious.’”

“He hasn’t had the pleasure of being able to handle it privately,” Meghan Miller said. “His seizures are more the Hollywood ones, the grand mal seizures where he makes noise and he shakes.”

He has had two while in class at Shore and another while at a children’s charity event.

“Each hospitalization, his first concern is always everyone else,” his mother said. “He always amazes me when he’ll start talking out of his seizure and ask how his siblings are doing. He never wants to rest or take a day – he wants people to see that he’s OK because he’s always concerned about how they must be feeling.”

 

His family and friends are all trained to apply a nasal spray called Nayzilam, a prescription medicine that that can stop a seizure within minutes and keep more seizures from returning, according to the company. Miller keeps a bottle of it in his pocket when he’s hanging out with friends in case they need to administer it.

“It’s a huge credit to them that they really care that much to learn how to use it,” Miller said.

Miller also takes medication twice a day at prescribed times, which sometimes overlap with being in the middle of a game.

“Just about when I’m starting to get nervous he may lose track of time and forget to take his pills, I see him jog off, down his pills and get right back on the field,” Meghan Miller said.

Flourishing on the field

Miller has become an important part of Shore Regional’s best start since going undefeated in 2015, starting both ways for one of five unbeaten teams remaining in the Shore Conference.

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior was primarily a blocker in the run-based Wing-T offense run by Hall of Fame coach Mark Costantino, who retired before this season. He has now expanded his game to become a receiving threat in the pro-style offense installed by new head coach Don Klein.

Miller has three touchdown catches this season, including two in a pivotal 32-0 win over New Egypt that was crucial in helping Shore win the Class D North title. The Blue Devils (7-0) can claim the title outright this week with a victory over Asbury Park.

“I worked on getting a little bit faster and more agile instead of just adding muscle,” Miller said. “I also had to learn how to sell a block and still go out for a route, plus improve my conditioning.”

“He’s a really high-character kid with a strong work ethic,” Klein said. “I think he’s able to kind of compartmentalize some of the things he’s going through and still stay focused on academics and athletics. I’ve been really impressed with him.”

The Blue Devils are expected to be a playoff contender in a tough South Group 1 region that includes unbeaten Woodstown and Glassboro, which play each other this week. Shore, which won its last state sectional title in 2015, hopes to make a deep playoff run in November, which also happens to be Epilepsy Awareness Month.

Embracing the cause and pushing for change

Miller and his family have welcomed championing the cause of epilepsy awareness since his diagnosis. They have raised about $20,000 for the Epilepsy Foundation and the Walk to End Epilepsy.

“Maybe one day all of this will lead to a new medication or possibly a cure, and that’s kind of our hope,” Meghan Miller said. “Maybe there’s a little kid that sees Braden and says, ‘I can still play sports and do the things I like, too.’”

Shore Regional's Braden Miller (Photo courtesy of Braden Miller)  - IMG_20241024_083802

Miller is also a lacrosse standout who has spearheaded a fundraiser for the Epilepsy Foundation during the spring season. (Photo courtesy of Braden Miller)

A year after Miller suffered his seizure in the lacrosse game against RBC, Shore held a fundraiser for the Epilepsy Foundation in its 2024 meeting with the Caseys in the spring. They hope to do it again in the spring of 2025.

Miller’s parents are also pushing for a change in New Jersey law, writing to state legislators and the office of Gov. Phil Murphy. Currently, the only people allowed to administer the medicinal nasal spray if Braden has a seizure at a game are his parents or the school nurse. The other players, coaches and athletic trainer are not allowed to do it despite already being trained in using it.

A bill introduced in the N.J. state legislature in 2022 that has languished for two years calls for training others to administer the nasal rescue medication when a school nurse is not physically present.

“I’ve had to hop the fence to give him his nasal spray,” Meghan Miller said. “Any trained person could administer it because it really could save a life. It really doesn’t make any sense. You’re doing more harm by not giving it than giving it.”

While the Millers hope that change is on the horizon, they are just enjoying the ride of Braden’s memorable senior football season for an undefeated team.

Braden is hoping to show that his condition does not define him.

“I want to be known not just as the kid with epilepsy who goes and does something incredible,” he said. “I just want to be known as the person who did something incredible and epilepsy is just on the side.”

Scott Stump is a reporter, newsletter writer and editor who first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999 and has covered basketball, baseball and seemingly every other Shore Conference sport at some point. 

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