Overcoming devastating concussion, Joshua senior finishes inspiring cross country season
Cross country ended two weeks ago and even though Joshua’s Miller Quinn didn’t race at the state meet, his season is among the most inspiring stories in the nation.
Quinn was seconds away and only three runners behind a state berth during the Class 5A Region 2 meet in Grand Prairie back on Oct. 26, but he probably shouldn’t have been there.
He shouldn’t have even raced this season.
Playing on his club team during the spring of 2019, Quinn, who was a freshman at the time, took a ball to the face while playing goalkeeper. The shot attempt came five yards away.
Quinn finished the game, but his mom Kristy knew something was wrong on the drive home.
“He was really disoriented. I was driving home and he would talk and point out random things on the road,” Kristy Quinn said. “I knew something was wrong and as the night went on, he was slurring his words and repeating himself like a record player.”
Quinn had suffered a concession and had to regain his ability to speak.
He lived with migraines for the next three months.
“I don’t remember much about that night,” Quinn said. “The doctor said there’s a good possibility I wouldn’t play sports again. So much was going on and I was trying to come to terms with that. I just wanted to get well first, but I knew I wanted to be back out there.”
It was a slow recovery for Quinn, but he went to a speech therapist over the summer of 2019 and his goal was to regain his ability to speak before going back to school.
His final session was the day before the start of his junior year.
“Miller is goal-oriented so he set his goal to speak properly before school,” Kristy Quinn said. “He worked hard. He wanted to get healthy again as a sophomore and junior and come back his senior year.”
The return
Quinn returned to the field during his junior season in early 2021, but he was nervous.
“Once I got well, it was small things, light training and non-contact training, and just trying to go over all the basics again,” he said. “I was scared during my first game back. I didn’t want something to happen or take another ball to the face and be completely done.”
Quinn was able to come back and help the Owls’ soccer program to a playoff appearance and 18-7-1 record as a midfielder. He was voted by the other coaches to second-team all-district.
As the leading runner on the Joshua boys cross country team this fall, Quinn won the District 14-5A meet, becoming the first at the school to win a district title, and finished in 27th place overall at the regional meet.
Joshua girls soccer and cross country coach Jeffrey Brooks said he’s grateful to watch part of his story.
“Miller is obviously a good runner, but he’s a better person,” Brooks said. “It’s just hard to over-estimate what he’s had to overcome to be here at all. It would’ve been easy to accept it, but he never wavered to get back.”
While Quinn didn’t have his best race at regional, he left it all out on the course.
And when he crossed that finish line, he and his mom had a moment.
“I just told him I was so proud of him,” Kristy Quinn said. “No regrets. I told him he wasn’t suppose to be here as a runner based on what his doctors told him and based on what he’s been through. But he pushed himself and he did everything he could for his team.”
Added Miller, “It’s just hard to imagine being here especially thinking about two years ago. But I could only be here with the help from my coaches, my teammates, my doctors, parents and the Lord.”
Quinn will have one more soccer season left as the Owls take the field during the upcoming winter season.
He said he’s going to try to run cross country in college.
Said Quinn, “It’s been everything just coming out here and having fun with my friends and doing the sport I love.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
