By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SPENCER — Jarvis Miller arrived in the world two months before anyone expected, checking in prematurely at a meager 2 pounds, 2 ounces.
Physicians couldn’t offer much hope, but 2 pounds of the kid was heart. He survived. He made it home.
Diagnosed with Spastic-Diplegic Cerebral Palsy when he was 18 months old, predictions for Miller’s future weren’t sunny. The pessimists said he wouldn’t live to go to school. The optimists said he’d probably live, but those tiny legs would never walk.
Sometimes willpower and prayer and family support are stronger than science and logic. Miller is 28 now, and he was announced on Monday as North Rowan’s new head girls basketball coach.
Obviously, no game and no moment and no adversity is going to be too big for someone who already has beaten the toughest opponent there is more than once.
“I overcame a lot of health obstacles to be where I am now,” Miller said quietly. “I know I grew from every adversity I ever faced. I developed a tough mindset.”
By the time he was 2 years old, thanks to a rigorous physical therapy program, he started to make progress. When he was 5, he was on his first basketball team, making up for any athletic shortcomings with spirit and enthusiasm. He was the best teammate anyone in the Junior Hornets program ever had.
He got to rugged, athletic, older brothers play hoops, Jermaine Miller for North Rowan and Jerry Miller for Salisbury.
His passion for basketball grew daily and coaches who loved the game could see the kid had something special in him.
When Miller was in eighth grade, North Rowan had a squad that was headed for a 1A state championship, and head coach Andrew Mitchell would let Miller travel to games with a powerful, spiritual team that included future NFL star Javon Hargrave.
“Watching that great team play, feeling that energy in the student section at the North home games is not something I’ll ever forget,” Miller said.
There were other mentors along the way for Miller such as Tom McDaniel, the late Chris McNeil and the late Tony Hillian. They befriended Miller, taught him the nuances of the game and advised him. They were coaching a future coach.
“All those men were inspirational for me wanting to become a coach,” Miller said.
While he was a student at North Rowan High, Miller survived serious surgeries, including a senior-year spinal fusion, but when graduation day 2015 arrived, Miller rose from a wheelchair and walked across the football field to accept his diploma. There weren’t many dry eyes at Eagle Stadium. He’d missed a lot of days of school, but he’d never missed doing any of the work.
Miller got his first chance to coach not long after graduation – in 2016. Dadrian Cuthbertson, who is now the head boys coach at West Rowan High, spearheaded an organization called Team F.L.Y. (For Love of Youth). Cuthbertson and Ron Bost allowed Miller to participate in the vital experience of molding talented young individuals into a team.
Miller proved highly successful as a coach, including winning a national championship with local athletes during the COVID era.
The last two seasons Miller has been the head boys jayvee coach for North Rowan. He also was part of the varsity coaching staff.
Miller still goes to physical therapy and PT will be a constant for the rest of his life, but that’s something he’s learned to deal with. It’s almost routine now.
“I’ve learned over the years how to take care of my body so I can always coach to the very best of my ability,” Miller said.
He may have vetunred somewhere else in search of a head job, but his first choice was always to be a varsity coach at North.
He hasn’t coached girls before, but he’s very familiar with the girls who are returning in the program, as well as the girls who have been at North Rowan Middle. Nick Means, a former Catawba athlete and a banker who is a prominent assistant coach with North boys basketball and football, has a daughter who could be a future star for the Cavaliers.
Miller looks forward to having her. But he looks forward to coaching the ordinary players as well as the stars. They are all Cavaliers.
“North Rowan is home, so it’s a blessing to get an opportunity to coach in the gym where I went to school and where so many members of my family went to school,” Miller said. “One brick at a time, we’ll build something great here.”
North’s girls were 5-18 in a rebuilding 2024-25 season, but won 25 games as recently as 2023-24. And a couple of talented players can turn around a basketball program in a hurry.
Miller will be the program’s fifth coach since the 2019-20 season, but as someone who bleeds green and gold, he could bring some stability.
Lovetta said they did not plan to have a fourth child and that she had been experiencing normal cycles while pregnant with Jarvis. At 22 weeks, she found out she was pregnant, and five weeks later Jarvis was born at Forsyth Hospital. He was 2 pounds and 2 ounces and more than two months early.
Lovetta and Jarvis stayed in the hospital for a week and went home with everything seemingly fine.
But by the time Jarvis reached 18 months, his parents had noticed he wasn’t as active as he should have been. Lovetta began to worry.
A cousin, Lori Flowers, who is a physical therapist, came to visit and play with Jarvis. Flowers told Lovetta she was concerned Jarvis might have cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a group of disorders resulting from damage to the brain caused by one of a number of complications during pregnancy or birth.
Lovetta called a doctor, who sent them to Amos Cottage — part of Forsyth Hospital — for a battery of tests.
Finally, a doctor gave a name to Lovetta’s fear: Jarvis had Spastic-Diplegic Cerebral Palsy.
“I think they thought I was crazy, but I knew,” Lovetta said. “I was at ease with it.”
Spastic Cerebral Palsy is the most common type, and the term Diplegic indicates the disorder affects either the arms or legs. In Jarvis’ case, it is his legs.
At the time, doctors told the Millers that Jarvis might not survive. But if he did, he would probably never walk and would require a lot of physical therapy.
But the Millers wouldn’t accept that.
They took Jarvis to Charlotte Pediatric Therapy, where they learned how to care for his needs.
At first, one of his therapists tried to get him to use crutches.
“He’s a go-getter. He’s very independent,” Lovetta said. “He said ‘I’m not walking with those, I don’t need them.’ ”
And he never used them. They ended up donating the crutches.
When he was 2, Jarvis began making tremendous progress. “And he’s been making those steps ever since,” Lovetta said — using braces.
Robert Ito, of Charlotte, designs the plastic braces that help support his thin legs. On his fourth pair, Jarvis selected a safari animal design.
Every time he outgrows a pair, they are retired to a box, his mother explained, to remind him how far he’s come.
Each morning they work with Jarvis’ legs, stretching his muscles. At night, they massage his legs to help him relax. The Millers hope Botox, a therapeutic muscle-relaxing agent, may help their son.
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