Young Bearcat athlete 'soars' on AND off the field

Dexter High School sophomore football and basketball player Jaxon Miller poses while flying a plane recently during his pilot instruction program through the Dexter Municipal Airport.

photo provided

When third-year Dexter High School football coach Chad Jamerson would watch Bearcat sophomore defensive back Jaxon Miller soar through opposing offenses in pursuit of making one of the 66 defensive stops that he made this fall, it surely brought a smile to his face. However, if Jamerson watched Miller “soar” away from the gridiron, though he would surely be proud, it might make him slightly nervous.

You see, the 16-year-old Miller is in the process of pursuing his pilot’s license.

“It’s peaceful up there,” Miller said. “You see the world from a different perspective.”

Miller’s grandfather (Roy Ward) first got Miller’s cousin, Joe Meyer, interested in aviation, leading to Meyer, a Bloomfield native, now flying for Endeavor Air. That piqued Miller’s interest enough that last summer, he began taking lessons from Dexter native and longtime commercial pilot Kevin Barks.

“It’s faster travel,” Miller said. “There are a lot of pros to it.”

Miller himself has only flown one time commercially, and that was on a family trip to Florida. However, he has flown nine times through the instruction program at the Dexter Municipal Airport.

“You can go wherever you want, really,” Miller continued. “It doesn’t take long.”

Miller wants to pursue a degree in aviation through Southeast Missouri State in a few years, and from there, who knows where his career will jettison him?

Being an “A student, except in chemistry,” he said, has set him on a (flight)path toward success as an adult.

“That doesn’t bother me,” Miller said of the thought of being required to relocate from his deep Stoddard County roots.

Just like on the football field, Miller takes a “no fear” approach to guide an aircraft a couple of thousand feet in the air. On his initial flight with Dexter native Joe Rice, who operates his own pilot training school, he actually landed the plane.

“I had some help,” Miller laughed. “But I flew the plane. I loved it.”