Ligonier Valley grad Miles Higgins building toward big future in javelin at UNC Wilmington

Track and field wasn’t something Miles Higgins aspired to do. Coming up through the ranks in Ligonier Valley School District, he played football and basketball, but his spring calendar was empty so he joined the middle school track and field team simply as a way to fill his time between basketball and football.

Higgins played quarterback in middle school, and it was his coach at the time who suggested his live arm might be perfect for the javelin.

That turned out to be prophetic. Now a sophomore at UNC Wilmington, Higgins is a rising star in the event.

In his first season — in his first meet, actually — he set the Seahawks freshman record at 211 feet, 6¹⁄₂ inches. He later qualified for the NCAA regionals with a throw of 214-1.

This season — again in the first meet — he set another record. This time, it was the overall program mark of 220-8 (67.26 meters).

So it’s little wonder that Seahawks coach Jeff Klaves, who also is Higgins’ event coach, can’t contain his excitement when talking about the former Ram.

“Miles is doing tremendous things,” said Klaves, in his fourth season as UNCW’s coach. “I’m so excited about who he is and what he’s been doing, and this truly is just the beginning of a lot of great things ahead for this young man.”

Higgins is on a path he never envisioned. He figured his college future was at quarterback. He played QB for the Rams as a freshman, but because of his size at the time (6-foot, 220 pounds), the coaching staff thought he would be more useful elsewhere.

“It was a pretty short-lived quarterback experience,” Higgins said with a laugh.

But his “elite-level arm talent,” as Klaves called it, wasn’t going to go to waste. As a freshman, he threw the javelin 150 feet using mostly that arm strength, and something started to click in his mind. Maybe this was his future.

It was during the early days of the covid pandemic in 2020 that he started to take javelin more seriously.

Though unable to train in a team setting at the time, he stayed in contact with the Ligonier Valley track coaches to keep up with a workout regimen. He also pored over video from Olympics and Diamond League events to dissect how the elite throwers were achieving their distances.

He went on to win back-to-back WPIAL Class 2A titles in the javelin and place fourth and second in the PIAA meet during his junior and senior seasons, respectively.

“Once I got to college, I was like, if I want to reach these elite standards, I’ve got to start investing more into my mobility,” said Higgins, now 6-3, 250. “The throw is 80% body, 20% arm.”

Said Klaves: “I always say that we want to build the throw from the ground up. But truly with Miles, we’re almost building it from the top down because we don’t want to lose that elite-level arm talent. Now we’re just trying to consistently put (his) body in a better position to apply force.”

Klaves likes to speak metaphorically when talking to his javelin throwers about technique. He likens the final stage of a throw to a car crash: An athlete is running and then must stop abruptly. At the same time, the arm, which he likens to a bow and arrow, must have the proper position, strength and elasticity to launch the javelin in sync with the “car crash.”

For someone such as Higgins, who has a strong “bow,” Klaves has been focused more on the “car crash.” Athletes with gifted arms, he said, often can revert back to relying on it too much.

Higgins agreed.

“A big thing for me is being patient with the ‘upper’ but allowing myself to be fast and stable with the ‘lower,’ ” he said. “I need to stay back and stay stretched with my chest and allow my legs to produce more power up through my body and bring it up through my arm.”

The Seahawks’ motto for this season is “No ceilings,” and Klaves is confident that applies to Higgins. Klaves is quick to issue a reminder that Higgins is still young in his development as a thrower.

The big numbers have shown themselves, and they promise to get bigger. The trick now, Klaves said, is to be able to produce those numbers consistently. Hitting the big throws in March is nice, the coach said, but hitting them in May and June is what produces medals.

Higgins’ throw of 220-8 ranks tied for 29th in the nation, so there remains a lot of work to do. But Klaves said he believes Higgins can be a trend setter for the Seahawks.

“As a program, we’ve been talking about, ‘Who is going to be that one to show us it’s possible?’ ” he said. “Miles has definitely done that. Now we want him to be one of many. … Now the conversation they’re having is, ‘Who is going to get to nationals? Who is going to be able to represent us?’

“Miles is a big turning point for that. … With him growing and progressing, it’s going to open some doors to more people having the amount of belief he does.”

Higgins said qualifying for the NCAA championships is an expectation rather than a goal. Last year, as a regional qualifier, he said his preparation and approach weren’t mature enough to advance to the championships. That, he said, has changed.

And being a student of the event, he knows all the numbers it takes to qualify. Even the numbers it takes to make the Olympic trials.

Numbers, however, have taken a back seat to technique. The “how,” he said, will take care of the “how far.”

“It’s easy to focus on, hey I want to throw 70 meters, I want to throw 75,” he said. “But we’ve been trying to change the mindset to, what do I need to do to throw that far. It’s more of a position-based approach. If I’m hitting these positions with my body, the numbers are going to come eventually.

“I feel like there’s no reason I shouldn’t be (at NCAAs) if I put myself in the right positions. I’m just trying to carry that confidence. Not cocky, just confident in myself and my ability.”