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Miller Family Part of Europe Baseball Trip
by Brad | October 7, 2022

Miller Family Part of Europe Baseball Trip

James Madison High outfielder also enjoyed travel to South Carolina
By David Driver, MVP Communications

VIENNA, Virginia – Graham Miller was able to go from Vienna, Virginia to Vienna, Austria this past summer.

A sophomore outfielder at James Madison High in Virginia, Miller was part of one of the three MVP International baseball teams that played games earlier this year in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.

“You get to play baseball with some of your best friends in the coolest places,” he said after a fall workout with Madison High at Waters Field in Vienna earlier this month. “It was an amazing trip.”

Besides facing local clubs, the MVP International group was able to take tours in Vienna, Austria; Prague in the Czech Republic and visit the Eagle’s Nest, the compound in Germany of former Nazi tyrant Adolph Hitler.

It was not the first time Miller had been outside of the United States, but it was his initial overseas excursion with MVP International.

“The whole atmosphere was super nice,” said Miller, who played junior varsity as a freshman in 2022 for Madison High. “I thought the Eagles’ Nest was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The whole experience was awesome.”

 

 

It was the second MVP trip for Miller, who went to Charleston, South Carolina on another baseball trip with one of the leaders in youth sports tours. “I played so much baseball there, for hours,” he recalls.

Miller was joined on the trip this summer to Europe by his father, Michael, and mother, Rita. They have also been to Italy and Greece on family trips.

Michael Miller enjoyed the cultural aspects of the MVP International trip this past summer and the tour guides who aided the adventure.

“They do a great job of pulling together the resources; they make your life as easy as possible,” says Michael Miller, a graduate of Bishop O’Connell in Arlington, Virginia, and the University of Virginia. “They have extremely intelligent guides on the buses. I was only on one bus but I had the chance to speak to multiple guides. They were super knowledgeable; they made even the long rides extremely informative.”

The elder Miller had been to Germany before the MVP International trip.

“For us, it was our first time going to three of the four countries. It was great to get that education while in transit,” he added.

The baseball competition in Europe will aid his son, Miller said.

“The competition was really good,” said Michael Miller. “The game in Slovakia, that team was really good. When we got to Regensberg, Germany, not only was that team good but they had a phenomenal facility. It’s obviously a great baseball town. The teams in Prague were great and the families of the players were really fun.”

Miller said he enjoyed the time spent with other parents of MVP International players who went to Europe.

“We were going out in groups and seeing lots of different things,” he said. “We went to a lot of Michelin-star restaurants over there and had some awesome meals. We look forward to having a reunion with parents of our U-16 team.”

One interesting educational aspect of the trip to Europe for the Millers was learning about “Stumbling Stones, an idea inspired by German artist Gunther Demnig.

He derived it from the Jewish mourning tradition, according to published accounts, and he has placed more than 70,000 cooper-colored stones in the pavements and sidewalks in more than 20 countries to mark the homes of Jewish people and others killed by the Nazi regime, according to the Jewish Cultural Quarter.

“The first ones we saw were in Vienna, Austria. We happened to be randomly walking down the street,” the elder Miller said. “It was very moving. We took a tour of Old Town Prague and the stones were all over the place. There were just so many of them; it was something to see.”

That was just a small part of the latest baseball tour that Pudge Gjormand, the Founder and Visionary of MVP International, has helped to lead overseas. He is the long-time varsity baseball coach at Madison High and 2020 class member of the National High School Coaches Baseball Association Hall of Fame class.

What advice would Graham Miller give to young players considered a trip with MVP? “I think they should definitely go for it,” he said.

Editor’s note: David Driver is the former sports editor of papers in Arlington and Harrisonburg in Virginia and worked for papers in Burke and Springfield; he was in Ireland in March and interviewed American basketball players. His book “Hoop Dreams In Europe: Americans Building Basketball Careers In Europe,” was published in March and is available on Amazon and at his website – www.daytondavid.com. His other book, written with Lacy Lusk, “From Tidewater To The Shenandoah: Snapshots From Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” is also available on Amazon and his website.

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