A look behind Jadyn Miller’s multi-sport college juggling act

HONOLULU – Having a packed schedule is nothing new for Jadyn Miller.

A five-sport athlete in high school who toiled away in the classroom to graduate as one of the valedictorians in a highly competitive Class of 2025 at Waialua, life would almost feel incomplete if she wasn’t running around from event to event.

She starred on the soccer field for the Bulldogs, earning all-OIA West honors in her junior and senior campaigns while helping the Waialua program make back-to-back state tournament appearances for the first time since 2015 and 2016.

Miller also participated in cross country and track and field; a pair of sports that helped the ever-busy high schooler stay in shape for when soccer wasn’t in season.

When she wasn’t busy sprinting around, she was crushing it on the diamond for the Waialua softball program. Miller took her game to new heights by 2025, hitting .417 while scoring 19 runs and stealing 12 bases in 14 games as she earned first-team All-Hawaii honors in Division II.

As if four sports and a full academic schedule weren’t enough, Hawai’i became the 12th state to officially sanction girls’ flag football as a high school sport just in time for her senior spring.

Of course, Miller had to try and make it work.

“Flag football was my first sport,” Miller shared. “I did it when I was younger and it was really like my favorite sport, so I couldn’t turn down the opportunity.”

With her springtime coaches willing to collaborate with each other and share the standout student-athlete during the same season, Miller made her dreams come true and returned to the gridiron before she wrapped up her time at Waialua.

“Just really grateful that I got to do them all,” Miller smiled.

But when high school ends, most multi-sport maniacs like Miller have to pick just one path so they can keep up with school work in college.

Miller isn’t like most student-athletes though.

After considering options on the continent for college, Miller decided staying closer to home was a better path for her and promptly enrolled at Hawaii Pacific University. A conversation with women’s soccer head coach Connor Artigue also helped seal the deal as an opportunity to continue her athletic career awaited with the Sharks.

Jadyn Miller (16) takes the field for Hawaii Pacific University. | Photo Credit: HPU Athletics

“Playing college soccer was definitely always my goal,” Miller said.

Not only did the Sharks have a spot for her on the soccer team, but a change in the softball program head chair popped an idea into Miller’s head just before she embarked on her freshman year.

“We knew there was a new softball coach, and I reached out to him,” she remembered. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to be a dual-sport athlete in college, but I went to, I guess you can call it a tryout, and [Coach Takemura] saw me play and he offered me a spot on the [softball] team.”

After talking to both Artigue and Takemura about the idea of playing both sports and getting both coaches to sign off on the plan, Miller officially became a dual-sport athlete again as she prepared for her first year of college.

“They were like both 100% and very supportive of me doing both [sports],” she said of her two separate head coaches. “I’m just so grateful that they were just so accommodating and that I have the opportunity. It’s pretty awesome.”

She had an extra appreciation for Artigue, the coach who she first committed to when choosing HPU. Instead of meeting her optimism with pessimism, the head coach of the women’s soccer team simply stated how rare the opportunity was in college and how awesome it was that Miller was going to try it.

Takemura was also very supportive of the idea, going over the different give-and-take it would involve as she pieced together her plan. The sport that was in-season would always take priority for Miller, but she would try to make up for the time she would miss with the other program by putting in her own individual offseason work.

Unfortunately for Miller, her plan would get delayed and changed quickly as she tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus in the first week of her freshman soccer season.

Practically for the first time, the on-the-go sports standout would be forced to sit out for an extended period and watch from the sidelines.

Jadyn Miller (16) watches the action on the field. | Photo Credit: HPU Athletics

“Through that process, I really learned how important it is that you take care of your body,” Miller said.

Rehabilitating her knee included wading through plenty of troubled waters, testing her mental resolve as much as her physical toughness.

“Every day, I’d try my best to stretch and roll out [muscles], make appointments with the trainer and make sure that I’m taking care of my body properly,” Miller said, noting the importance of a balanced diet and getting appropriate amounts of sleep. “You have to really prioritize your time management.”

Still, she felt a crashing wave of sadness over a year of sports stolen away to begin her college career. After thinking she would be playing multiple sports in her first go-round at school, Miller would ultimately play none as she watched from the bench in soccer and softball.

The time off provided a new perspective for the former high school star, who originally felt down from not being able to go out and help her teammates through the battles of the campaign. Thankfully, Miller found comfort still being around the teams.

“Mentally, it was tough,” Miller conceded. “But eventually I figured out that I still got to bond with my team and just learn, like I didn’t have to take the load of everything in my freshman year and just see everything out [instead].”

There was still the physical battle of returning though. While the actual rehab exercises weren’t necessarily difficult, the process of getting her mind and body to trust certain movements again proved to be a challenge.

“Your muscles, you’ve got to get them to connect again, and you have to really learn how to trust your body and trust that you’re not going to get injured again,” Miller said.

She would ask her physical therapist everything, from questions about if she would be able to bend her leg again to how much of her ability to run would return.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to do all these things again,” Miller chuckled.

But after months of work, both physically and mentally, Miller returned to action ahead of the 2026 fall campaign for the Hawaii Pacific University women’s soccer team. She officially made her Sharks debut on August 27, tallying 38 minutes of action against the University of Texas-Dallas and has played in all six contests of the season so far for HPU.

Jadyn Miller (16) gives chase in her return to action as a sophomore. | Photo Credit: HPU Athletics

Now back and active, Miller has a simple message when it comes to advice for other student-athletes who might be looking to play more than one sport in college.

“I would just say dream big and just shoot for it because the worst you can get is a no,” said Miller. “Just take the opportunity and go for it … because you never know if it might go away, or you’ll never know what you could’ve lost out on. Anything is possible.”

Miller hasn’t stopped shooting for the stars herself.

Her return to soccer was the first step. Next up, softball season … and a little more.

With Hawaii Pacific University announcing the addition of a women’s flag football program, Miller dialed up another coach (after a little push from her father) and found out that her dual-sport schedule could be upgraded once again.

Armed with the blessing of her current coaches, Miller will get to play her favorite sport once again while making history as part of the first collegiate women’s flag football team in her home state of Hawai’i when Spring 2027 rolls around.

Besides, by her own standards – she clearly wasn’t busy enough yet.