Miles Sanders has always been a step ahead.
“When he was in eighth grade, he played for the ninth-grade team,” Woodland Hills football coach George Novak said.
And when he got to ninth grade?
“We watched him play and saw his skills, and we said he’s not going to learn anything playing ninth grade again,” Novak added. “So we moved him up [to varsity] and expected him to be a backup.
“He ended up being our starting tailback.”
And eventually one of the most highly recruited players at the position to come out of the WPIAL in quite some time.
Sanders, a starter since the first game of his freshman season, concluded his outstanding high school career with a sparkling senior season that has earned him 2015 Post-Gazette East Xtra Player of the Year honors.
Sanders rushed for 4,573 yards in four years, the fifth most in WPIAL Class AAAA history. He scored 59 career touchdowns. As a senior, Sanders rushed for 1,523 and 16 touchdowns while averaging 11.2 yards per carry.
Rivals.com ranks Sanders the No. 1 senior in Pennsylvania and No. 2 all-purpose running back in the country. He committed to Penn State the summer before his junior year, and, after weighing his options over the past few months, reaffirmed last weekend that he will sign with Penn State in February. Said Sanders: “I’m sticking with Penn State.”
Confident and talented, you would think Sanders saw his massive success coming from far away, but that wasn’t the case.
“I never thought it would happen,” he said. “My freshman year, I was more worried about my size. I never thought I’d be a Division I player. I’m very blessed.”
Sanders was 5 feet 9, 160 pounds when he took the field for the first time in a loss to Upper St. Clair in the 2012 opener. He carried the ball 18 times and gained just 9 yards.
Fast forward three years and Sanders has grown two inches and put on 45 pounds, while developing his talent to the point where his coach compares him to Steve Breaston, one of the greatest players in Woodland Hills history. Breaston, a dynamic runner as a high school quarterback, went on to play wide receiver in college and the NFL.
“Some people say runners are speed runners, slashers or power runners. He does it all,” Novak said of Sanders.
This season, Sanders and fellow senior Jo-El Shaw became only the ninth set of teammates in the WPIAL since 1979 to each rush for more than 1,000 yards in the regular season. They combined to rush for 2,865 yards and 38 touchdowns overall and led Woodland Hills to the WPIAL semifinals.
“We’re both team players,” Sanders said of he and Shaw, a Western Michigan recruit. “We both got our carries. One of our main goals was to both be 1,000-yard rushers and we got that goal.”
Sanders produced big numbers and helped the Wolverines win 39 games in his career, all while cementing his status among the best to ever put on a Woodland Hills uniform.
“He’s up there with one of the best backs we’ve ever had,” Novak said. “We’ve had a lot of great ones, but he’s one of the best.”
First Published: December 24, 2015, 5:00 a.m.