La Crescent will remember Mario Miller

Miller’s No. 28 will be on Lancer sidelines

Mario Miller would be heading into his senior year of football tonight for the La Crescent High School.

But No. 28 won’t be running onto the field. Miller passed away July 20, after battling cryptogenic organizing pneumonia for nine months.

It was a condition that forced him onto the transplant list for both his lungs and his heart. Doctors never did find Miller a donor.

At first Miller thought he had a common cold. When it didn’t get better, doctors throught it was maybe Asthma. 

Then he collapsed during a football game early last year. Days later his lung collapsed and doctors finally figured out what was wrong. Days after that, the other lung collapsed as coach Brad Groth explains.

“It was the next week, then, that he was air lifted to Rochester,” Groth said. “Then it all started sinking in like, ‘Holy crap, what’s going on here?’

“He had to be air lifted. Then, a week and a half later, we’re going to Plainview and his brother is getting texts on the bus about emergency surgery and he’s going on life support. It was just a crazy ride. Luckily, we were playing in Plainvew and we could get his brother off the bus and onto the school van so he could get to Rochester.”

La Crescent will rest Miller’s No. 28 jersey on the bench during all its games this year, along with, again, wearing a sticker on their helmets with Miller’s name and number.

The high school did its best to keep Miller involved and up to speed, while he was in the hosptial, last year.

Groth isn’t sure if his passing will be harder on the team this year, now that he’s gone, as compared to last.

“There was such hope that he would have gotten his heart and lung transplant,” Groth said. “Then in May, he had gotten taken off the list. And, after he was taken off the list, everyone kind of knew. So, I think everyone kind of prepared themselves that way.”

La Crescent has its work cut out for it tonight, hosting the defending state champions, Caledonia.

In going unbeaten last season, Caledonia outscored its opponents 497-0 in the first half of all its games. The Warriors won state 40-0 over Pipestone.

You can listen to Caledonia at La Crescent here on Classic Hits 94.7 FM.

Click here for video streaming on AM 580 WKTY of Central (1-1) at West Salem (2-0).

OTHER GAMES:

Onalaska (2-0) at Holmen (1-1)

Logan (1-1) at Tomah (1-1)

Sparta (2-0) vs. Aquinas (1-1) at UW-La Crosse

River Valley at Arcadia

Onalaska Luther at Dodgeville

Richland Center at G-E-T

Black River Falls at Lancaster

Westby at Platteville

Prairie du Chien at Viroqua

Melrose-Mindoro at Augusta

Lincoln at Blair-Taylor

Independence/Gilmanton at Eleva-Strum

Cochrane-Fountain City at Whitehall

MINNESOTA

Cotter at Plainview-Elgin-Millville

Houston at Randolph

Lanesboro at Grand Meadow

Lyle/Pacelli at Spring Grove

LeRoy-Ostrander at Mabel-Canton

Blooming Prairie at Rushford-Peterson

Medford at Lewiston-Altura

Winona at Rochester Century