Heisman & Harvard – EG's Miner Has A Big Week

It’s been a big few days for Andrew Miner. Friday afternoon, the EGHS senior learned he’d been accepted early action to Harvard. Then, that night, Miner was named one of two winners of the Wendy’s High School Heisman award, out of a whopping 48,000 applicants.

The Heisman comes with a $10,000 gift to the winner’s school and $500 worth of Wendy’s food for the winner, which Miner said he will spend with his teammates. Miner already earned East Greenwich High School $1,000 when he was named one of the 12 Heisman finalists in November.

Harvard had been a dream of Miner’s.

“I went to the [Harvard football] recruiting camp this summer and talked to the offensive coordinator,” recounted Miner this week. “He was like, ‘Yeah, we really like the way you play but we’ve already got two blue-chip recruit quarterbacks coming in, so send us your senior film, keep us updated, but we’ve got two big guys coming in.’ I didn’t think it was going to happen. So I applied on my own and was fortunate enough to get in.”

He’s now talking to the football staff at Harvard about playing next fall.

Yeah, it’s been a big few days. So how does Miner keep it real?

“My family, my parents, my siblings do a great job of busting me down to size,” he said, laughing. Then Miner turned serious.

“The thing that’s so great about East Greenwich High School is that an achievement like this isn’t – it’s not that it isn’t outstanding – but everyone here is doing outstanding things,” he said.

For his coaches, Miner’s achievements come as no surprise.

EGHS football coach John George said he was skeptical when his assistants kept telling him how good this freshman quarterback was back in 2009.

“I would brush them off and say, I’m not going to play a freshman quarterback,” said George. “Then, halfway through the season I got mad at the starting quarterback and pulled him out and put Andrew in there. As quarterback, he came from behind,” George said of that first game. “He drove 80 yards to score the winning touchdown to win the game as a freshman. It’s amazing for a freshman to play at all. For a freshman to play quarterback is really special. And to do it so succesfully, really surprised me.”

Miner went on to play quarterback the rest of the season and for the next three seasons (interrupted by a bad leg break during his sophomore season).

George said he was always impressed how Miner kept things in perspective.

“Sometimes when kids get that much success early they feel like they have all the answers and they’re kind of hard to coach,” said George. “Andrew was the opposite of that. He took criticism. He always wanted to learn. He always wanted to get better and he always worked hard at it.”

That made Miner an ideal teammate, he said.

“When your best players are your hardest workers, you have something special. So he’s vocal and he talks and he rallies the troops but the way he leads best is by example, working hard every day, getting coached every day. When the other kids see a kid that talented acting like that, they get in line.”

Miner also plays baseball and Bob Downey, his coach in that sport, was similarly generous in his comments about the senior.

“I knew he wanted to play football in college,” Downey said about Miner. “But he’s a pitcher and the throwing motion’s kind of different, the release is different. And I always told him, you know, I don’t want you to compromise anything for your football career. He was like, ‘Coach, it’s baseball season and I want to be a pitcher.’ He’s been a relief pitcher for me for the last two years and he’s going to be the ace for me this year of a very, very young team. I couldn’t pick a better kid to lead the situation.”

EGHS Principal Michael Podraza remarked on Miner’s willingness to take chances – for instance, his decision to try out for the high school musical last year, where he ended up the male lead.

“It’s what you want for all kids in school. You want kids to be fearless, to be able to feel comfortable in your school and feel like they can take risks even if they fail,” said Podraza. “Taking those risks, doing things outside the box, is something that’s infectious, is something that’s a good lesson for the whole school, adults and kids as well.”