Lewiston’s Ceci Miller gets ready to whack the ball past Mt. Blue’s Elle Marshall during a 2021 game in Lewiston. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
Cecilia “Ceci” Miller remembers her last countable high school field hockey game. Not for Lewiston’s heart-breaking 2-1 loss in penalty corners to Messalonskee in the Class A North quarterfinals, but for how far the program has come in her four years wearing the Blue Devils’ jersey.
“You can always look at the negatives, but it’s not going to do anything good for you,” Miller said. “You have to appreciate how far you have come. I mentioned improvement before, but we have improved so much as a program in the past few years.”
“It was a hard loss, but it showed how far we went; we hosted a quarterfinal (game), and we haven’t done it in a very long time,” Miller added. “While it could be easy to focus on the loss in the moment, I just really wanted us to be in the moment with each other and appreciate how far we have come — how well we played in that game. We had an amazing game and we worked together super well.”
Lewiston got better in each of Miller’s four seasons. In her freshman year, the Blue Devils went 3-11, followed by a 4-10-1 season with a playoff appearance in 2019. The coronavirus pandemic shortened the 2020 season, with no playoffs, and Lewiston had a 7-6-1 season in 2021, with a bye into the quarterfinals.
Lewiston coach Jenessa Talarico, who graduated from Lewiston in 2014, said Miller helped grow the player pool for the school.
“My sister and I both played field hockey at Lewiston and the summer programs, we maybe had 10-15 girls and it was a struggle to get enough kids,” Talarico said. “This summer, we have 44 signed up, and I do think Ceci and her class of kids being successful and working hard, drawing attention from the school. That’s probably the most wins (we) had in a while.”
This past fall, Miller had a standout senior season with six goals and 13 assists in 14 games. She was named the KVAC Class A field hockey player of the year and named to the Sun Journal All-Region team.
She started on the varsity team as a freshman and became a captain during her sophomore season.
Now she will play for Team North in the Moe McNally Senior All-Star Game at Thornton Academy on Saturday to cap off her high school career.
Miller is excited to play in the game.
“It’s especially cool because I am getting to playing with a lot of girls who were on different teams in high school and obviously girls in (Southern Maine) that I really didn’t get to play against,” Miller said. “There’s a couple of girls on my travel team, too (that are playing).”
Miller is looking forward to playing against Maine Styx teammates Chloe Bush (Falmouth) and Lily Clifford (Morse), who will be on the South team Saturday.
Talarico said Miller is one of the best field hockey players to come out of Lewiston in a long time.
“I honestly think Ceci is probably the best player at Lewiston in the past 20 years,” Talarico said. “She’s that talented.”
Talarico added that Miller is talented because she can play any position on the field.
“One thing for her is she can play anywhere,” Talarico said. “She can play offense, defense and in the midfield. She’s very versatile and she has strong stick skills. She plays field hockey year-round and (started) at a young age as well.”
Defense is Miller’s strong suit. Talarico said she lost count of how many times Miller stopped a penalty corner with her speed to get from the goal cage to the top of the circle to prevent a shot from being taken.
During her senior year, Miller spent the season as a midfielder, and she said her success was due to the chemistry with her fellow midfielders.
“Kelsey (Westleigh) and Mya (Grant), they played midfield and Mya played (more of a defensive midfielder),” Miller said. “We kind of all had this little unit that we worked together with. They would help the ball up the field, Mya would be there in the defensive end, and it’s awesome to have that group of people that you work so well together.”
Miller will continue her field hockey career at Wellesley College, a Division III school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She’s undecided about what she will be studying.
She believes her versatility will help her at the next level.
“It’s a totally different game in college,” Miller said. “You never know where you are going to be placed. Personally, my favorite position is mid, but I may play forward, I may play defense. It’s wherever the school needs you. I am super grateful I have the experience of playing almost every position, except goalie.”
Talarico said it will be hard to replace Miller as a player but even harder to replace the person.
“It’s just not her skill. She’s loved by all of her teammates. She’s one of the kindest, sweetest people I have ever had the privilege of coaching,” Talarico added.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
