St. Mary’s Ryken rising senior Miles commits to Towson for women’s basketball

Published by The Enterprise on July 1, 2020 

By Paul Watson

Chalon Miles has one less thing to worry about when she takes the court this winter with the St. Mary’s Ryken High School girls basketball team.

Miles, a rising senior, announced her commitment last week to play in college at Towson University.

“It feels very good to have this decision off my plate actually,” she said. “I feel like now I can relax a little bit, but I still need to get ready and change my mindset, just continue to get better because I do know that college is even more intense than high school is. I just have to make sure I’m ready.”

Towson is an NCAA Division I school which plays in the Colonial Athletic Association.

“I liked the coaching staff. They made me feel wanted,” she said. “They made me feel like I was already a part of the team before I joined and I feel like they can make me a better person as well as a player.”

Miles added: “They [Towson] gave me a nice offer and the coach was extremely welcoming and it’s just a good, healthy atmosphere that I know I’m going to enjoy and I’m extremely excited.”

Staying close to home was also part of Miles’ decision.

“It affected it a lot,” she said. “I really did want to stay close to home just so my parents could watch me play and I could get back there anytime I want, like if something was wrong.”

Miles will be joining a Towson program a year from now that finished 14-15 overall this past winter and 9-9 in CAA play under head coach Diane Richardson, a season that was cut short before the CAA tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic. The year prior, the Tigers won the CAA championship and earned a berth into the NCAA tournament during a 20-win season.

“Towson is getting a kid that is determined to make any program that she is affiliated with better,” St. Mary’s Ryken head girls basketball coach Toyja Somerville said. “Chalon’s athleticism, is paired with an strong basketball IQ and keen situational awareness and is fueled by a desire work. She joins a very strong class and should make an ideal Towson Tiger for coach Rich.”

On Miles making her decision so quickly that she can fully focus on the season at hand, Somerville said: “Committing to a program, under normal circumstances, always allows the athlete to breathe a sigh of relief. COVID-19 has thrown all kinds of loops into the recruiting process. We are seeing a lot of 2021s deciding significantly earlier than normal. I’m sure Chalon feels like a weight has been lifted and that she can now focus on her academics and getting better.”

Miles, a point guard for the Knights, started playing when she was 4 “because my brother picked up the ball and that was a time whenever I saw my brother do something I would do something” and added that she did not begin to take the sport seriously until the third grade.

“That’s when I realized like, ‘Oh, I could be pretty good at this,’” she said.

Miles played in multiple leagues, including ones with just boys, then it was on to play for teams like the Fairfax Stars in Virginia and now Maryland Lady Tigers.

“The Fairfax Stars was whole other level from the competition and the programs down here and you are constantly playing the best of the best,” she said. “And I just stayed there until the end of my 10th grade summer and now I’m playing for the Maryland Lady Tigers. Now I’m learning more about the game, what decisions to make, when to make them just to make me more of an all-around player.”

At St. Mary’s Ryken, Miles has been named to the All-County team in all three of her varsity seasons thus far. She averaged 15.7 points per game this past winter as a junior to go along with All-County and All-Washington Catholic Athletic Conference first-team selections in a campaign that also saw her reach 1,000 career points in a Feb. 13 WCAC contest versus Paul VI of Virginia.

“1,000 points is a very special moment, but the fact that I did it as a junior didn’t really sink into me until my parents were like, ‘A lot of people get that over a span of four years, but you got it over 3.’ I was like, ‘Wow. That’s great,’” she said. “And it just feels good because basically we have this banner, so I will forever be remembered in the gym, I have a ball in the gym and it’s just cool to tell people that whenever I talk about my career and I think it’s also very special because it gives you a sense of respect in the league and it’s just an awesome feeling to have.”

Among Miles’ goals for her senior season is breaking the school’s scoring record.

“Chalon entered St. Mary’s Ryken with the goal of making a lasting mark at the school,” Somerville said. “One of her primary goals was to top the scoring record held by one of her old mentors and trainer, Katie McCormick, Georgetown grad. Chalon is well on her way to achieving that goal.”

Miles noted that her coaches and teammates have been a huge influence on getting her to where she is at today.

“A lot of my highlights came from my teammates just finding me,” she said. “They just kept getting me the ball and a lot of this stuff wouldn’t have happened without them, so 50 percent of it goes to them and Coach T also continuing to push me, putting me in leadership positions and positions to excel. So I really couldn’t have done it without my team and my coach.”

After one more season with the Knights, Miles will be off to Towson to make more highlights.

“Just knowing that being this small, tiny kid until really the seventh grade I was like, ‘Will I even get to college because everybody’s so huge?’, and now I’m not only playing college but D-I at a really good school,” she said. “It is amazing, truly a dream come true.”