Merrimack's Jake Miller, who like his father, Merrimack varsity lacrosse coach Brian Miller, (left) has battled cancer, listens to his dad's instructions to the team during a recent practice. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MERRIMACK – The loud cheer said it all.

There was eight minutes and eight seconds left in a game just a week ago at Nashua’s Stellos Stadium between the Merrimack and Nashua High School South boys lacrosse teams when Jake Miller ran out onto the field. The Merrimack fans in attendance gave him a loud ovation, and at the time the contest was already in hand with the Tomahawks up 8-0.

“It was pretty good hearing everybody yell my name,” Jake Miller said, “and get that same feeling back on the field. It was pretty nice, my heart was pumping pretty fast.”

You see, it was the Tomahawk senior’s first appearance in a lacrosse game since early April of 2024, which was ironically against these same South Panthers at the same venue, Stellos. But after that game Miller, son of Tomahawks head coach Brian Miller, suffered extreme asthma issues which led to a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic lymphoma, which is said to be most often diagnosed in adolescents and young adults.

Miller the coach, himself a cancer survivor, was not ready to make the move to the bench, but a minor injury plus the nature of the game, why not?

“Honestly, I wasn’t going to pull the trigger,” he said. “Even though it was 8-0, I felt like it was a tight game. … Fourth quarter, I was kind of like, ‘I don’t think today’s the day.’ … but it was perfect timing.”

And Miller the father had to fight tears as he was trying to be Miller the coach in getting a player onto the field.

“It was kind of funny, I was welling up as I was trying to remind him of the play,” a happy Coach Miller said with a chuckle. “He’s like wide-eyes, ‘Which one is this, what are we doing?’

“I’m like trying not to cry in front of him…I’m glad it happened today.”

And glad it happened in the first place. The disease took away a three sport athlete from the Tomahawks as the younger Miller played soccer, basketball, and of course, lacrosse.

“Looking back, we didn’t realize it at the time, but we think it was starting to impact him his junior year in soccer and basketball, just being out of breath a little bit more,” Brian Miller said. “It was very light. But fast forward to the preseason of lacrosse, it was like he had pneumonia or something.”

He played sparingly in the opener vs. South, but that night he had a full blown asthma attack. Doctors at the Boston Children’s Hospital Jimmy Fund Clinic discovered a mass that covered his entire chest reason.

“It was crazy,” Miller said. “We were completely devastated. Shocked. Did not see that coming.”

Jake Miller spent 23 straight days in the hospital, the initial part of the treatment plan. “The cloud (mass) was gone in a week, they know what they’re doing,” Brian Miller said. “It was pretty standard treatment protocol. They’re amazing.”

But, as Miller said, “It’s the worst experience you can experience as a parent … Those doctors down there are unreal humans. Unfortunately having the experience with it, the different things they say and talk about I was starting to read between the lines, we’re going to have to walk through this, he’s in a pretty good spot. It’s going to take awhile.

“When you have cancer, every little bump and bruise you think is cancer, it never leaves your mind. But there were some reassuring moments along the way, and he handled it really, really well.”

The one thing Jake thought of was if he could play lacrosse ever again.

“It was pretty scary at first, I didn’t know if I would play again,” he said. “But as it went on, I lived with it, it didn’t ruin my life. Now I’m back here playing, so ….”

Merrimack’s Jake Miller defends during a drill at a recent practice, shortly after he was cleared for contact. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MILLER THE COACH’S ORDEAL

Brian Miller, a former Telegraph sportswriter, had left that career for one in education and coaching, but had taken time away from the latter to help raise Jake and his daughter Sydney. The Bishop Guertin alum about 13 years ago was ready to get back into coaching as a volunteer at Merrimack – he previously had been an assistant at Pinkerton — when he was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma.

A mass in his right leg was discovered. He had to call and say “Hey, I might be there and I might not … I remember being at practice and blood was dripping down my leg because I had just had surgery.”

It was the first of three surgeries he would need. The nurses at Mass General in Boston, he said, had talked about his chemotherapy treatment as being one of the harshest they had seen. For nine months he couldn’t work and would be out of breath just to walk down the street.

“But I still at times managed to make it to practice and scream my head off,” he said. “I was still a young coach.”

Miller said he wasn’t scared, but instead “was pretty realistic about it.”

Humor helped. And, as he said, “It’s funny, when you’re diagnosed with cancer, everyone around you is so upset. So I just made a lot of jokes and made light of a lot of situations to help everyone else get through it. That’s how I coped with it.”

There’s been no evidence of the disease since he finished treatment, and he made it through the unofficial big mark of five years. And he’s 13 years free, and says he’s in the best shape since his college days.

But of course Brian Miller was the one Jake leaned on the most, as they were kindred spirits, both having to fight cancer, one before the other.

“He helped me the most through it all,” Jake said, “because he knew what it was like, feeling crappy on certain days, things like that.”

What was the best advice Brian had given him?

“Don’t let it ruin your life,” Jake said. “Pretty much get better every day and keep working. … At first it kind of did ruin my life but over time things got better.”

The toughest time was when he was first diagnosed, as he had to stay in the hospital for 23 days. But friends and family would visit to help him keep his mind off it. How did he deal with the fear?

“I don’t really know,” Jake said. “It was painful at first, the procedures, that was probably the hardest part. But (Brian) was there with me the whole time.”

Jake wasn’t even four years old yet when Brian was undergoing his treatment. He’d ask about the scar on his leg and Brian would jokingly tell him it was a shark bite. “Once I got older I understood that was part of his chemo treatment,” Jake said.

THE TIME FINALLY CAME

Jake Miller has had a few bumps in the road, mainly from medical side effects as he’s still undergoing treatment. He had a stroke in January as one of the medications he’s on had a rare side effect of blood clots, and Jake had two at the base of his brain. He was at home with his family during Christmas vacation and he fell three times, and lost the use of one of his legs. Miller had to carry him to the car to get treatment, which were blood thinners. “You’re watching your kid an all of a sudden he can’t walk,” Miller said. “It was pretty weird.”

But there was light at the end of the tunnel. Jake’s medication ended a couple of weeks ago and his energy returned once it left his system. And as soon as was told he was done with the blood thinners, the first thing Jake Miller asked was, “Can I play?”

A day at practice over a week ago, Brian Miller let his son jump in maybe a day or too ahead of schedule, like with his game appearance.

“It was light contact,” the coach said, smiling. “I probably shouldn’t have, but it wasn’t a big deal. And he scored a goal, on his first touch. It’s a simple little drill we do to open practice sometimes.

“I didn’t realize how much I was smiling when it happened. All of a sudden I realized, ‘Oh, crap, that’s my son right there, playing lacrosse against these guys. I started smiling.

“Then when you realize what you’re actually doing, it was ‘Oh my God, this is awesome’ I went over with a big smile, gave him a fist bump, and said, ‘Don’t tell your mother!”

But of course Jake did tell Caryn Miller as soon as he got home. “It felt pretty good,” he said. “It was a 2 on 1 bucket drill and I hit top right. He (Brian) was pretty pumped about that.”

His second practice back, he jumped in and led a warmup/exercise drill, to the loud applause of his teammates.

“It feels pretty good to get back into it, to have that same feeling again, be with all the guys,” he said.

It wasn’t easy being away from the game., as he admits, “I was just waiting for the time to come. If that (the stroke) didn’t happen I’d have been playing since the start of the season.”

The stroke also kept him away from what was supposed to be a return to basketball.

He’s a group of six seniors that Brian Miller has been coaching in lacrosse or basketball since the first and second grade. Jake said Brian gave him a lacrosse stick in first or second grade, “and it stuck with me.”

“It’s pretty great,” Jake said, when asked what it was like playing for his father. “He’s a decent coach I’d say (laughing). But it’s fun to be with him.”

Jake Miller is undergoing a standard two-year treatment for ALL, so the battle is still being fought, but as Miller said, “It’s not like the movies, they don’t tell you you’re in remission.” But the mass, he said, did clear within a month. He has another year of treatment to go, but next year he is headed to Rivier to play lacrosse. Jake Miller takes it day by day. One day after a recent treatment he didn’t feel “so great, because it’s a new cycle that started with a bunch of different meds. But usually I’m feeling pretty good so I can play.”

He actually was working out with a trainer – former Merrimack standout Matt Brewster, who is also the Exeter varsity coach. Sports have been a great outlet through this process.

“Definitely,” Jake, who plays attack, said. “Helps me focus on lacrosse and forget about cancer.”

“He’s very fortunate he’s upright,” Miller said. “Some kids aren’t so lucky. … He can play, I don’t know to what capacity.

“I told him ‘You’re like any other guy here. There’s no special treatment just because you finished you’re treatment. You still have to earn your spot.'”

Jake Miller has done that, and more. And he has a coach he now shares a common bond with that transcends that of just father and son.

Merrimack’s Jake Miller (13) stands on the sidelines at Stellos Stadium during last week’s game vs. Nashua South, hoping to see his first action in a year after battling cancer. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)