The hit that finally put Marquette senior defenseman Scott Miller out of commission wasn’t gruesome enough to pique the sadistic compulsion in humankind that sends them to YouTube in droves to watch it.

There was no gasp when it happened. No strained silence as the training staff attended to him. No supportive applause when he came off the pitch. In fact, there was no break in the action at all.

It was routine soccer action. In the first half against University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on a cool, rainy day last April at Valley Fields, Miller merely headed a ball.

But when his feet hit the ground, he knew he knocked something loose in his brain.

His natural toughness — the quality that earned him his spot at center-back and his captain’s armband — carried him to halftime, but everyone on the Marquette side knew something was wrong.

“We could tell he wasn’t as into it as he usually is,” said senior midfielder and team co-captain Matt Stummer.

Team athletic trainer Lauren Boyler said Miller kept holding his head and shaking it, like a kid on a playground trying to shake an annoying pebble out of his shoe. At halftime, Boyler and the coaching staff decided to take him out of the game.

Early beginnings

Miller’s infatuation with the game started at an early age in Jefferson City, Mo.

“From when I could walk, I was playing with a ball,” he said. “I played all the time.”

By high school, he competed on the club soccer scene in St. Louis, Mo., which got his name and his game in college scouts’ notebooks.

He traveled to games on weekends and several times a week drove 2 1/2 hours from Jefferson City to St. Louis school to practice with his club team for a couple of hours, usually arriving home after 10 p.m.

In four years at Helias Catholic High School, Miller scored 62 goals, had 26 assists and was a four-time all-district selection. As a junior, he was tabbed as a second-team all-state player. In his senior season, Miller was picked as first-team all-state and earned regional player of the year honors.

Even with his sparkling prep resume, interest from collegiate programs still did not surface until he showed up at a Marquette soccer camp and impressed head coach Louis Bennett.

“Miller is a true diamond in the rough. He could possibly be the best unheard-of player we’ve ever recruited,” Bennett said after Miller signed his letter of intent in February 2007.

“He played unbelievably tough without playing angry,” Bennett said in a recent interview.

Miller’s nose-to-the-grindstone approach earned him playing time as a freshman and the nod as Marquette’s Newcomer of the Year in 2007. It also got him back into the starting lineup following a frustrating 2008, when he played in only two games due to a knee injury and an emergency appendectomy.

He had a breakthrough season in 2009, leading Marquette in minutes played as the key cog in the Golden Eagle defense. The National Soccer Coaches Association of America named him to the Wisconsin All-State team, and it looked like his promising career was back on track — until it came to a screeching halt.

Playing through the pain

To say an innocuous header knocked Miller out of the game he loves wouldn’t be fair.

No, the hit that cost him his career happened a week before, when Marquette hosted Northern Illinois University.

In that game, a threatening ball floated into Marquette’s 18-yard box. Miscommunication between Miller and his goalkeeper resulted in a collision when both tried to clear the danger away. Miller broke his nose and now concedes he probably suffered a concussion.

“I don’t remember going to the sideline. I don’t remember holding my nose. I just remember kind of waking up, and I was bleeding,” he said.

Miller soldiered on, ignoring the taste of blood in the back of his throat. After the game, Boyler administered concussion tests that Miller passed. He reported no symptoms.

It was not until the game-day adrenaline subsided that he suspected he was dealing with more than a busted nose.

“I knew if I told anybody, they’d tell me not to play, so I just shut up,” he said.

In the week leading up to the game with UW-Milwaukee, Miller had little contact with coaches, who were away on a recruiting trip, and Boyler, who speculated Miller was avoiding follow-up evaluation.

Had he consulted team doctors, he might have learned about a relatively new discovery in sports medicine called Second-Impact Syndrome.

“During the (seven to 10 days) following a concussion, the brain is much more susceptible to injury because it is still under stress,” Boyler said.

This means Miller’s chances of sustaining a more severe concussion from a less forceful impact increased dramatically. And that is exactly what happened against the Panthers.

Life after concussions

The life Miller led following his concussions was a miserable one.

“The doctor told me to basically go lock myself up in my room and turn the lights out,” Miller said.

He couldn’t watch TV. He couldn’t work on his computer. He couldn’t text his friends. Instead, he slept 20 hours a day and spent the remaining four wishing he was still sleeping. After a week of this, he set his mind on reclaiming his starting spot.

“Even after going through all that … I still had every intention of playing (in the fall),” Miller said.

As time passed, however, Miller realized this injury was completely different than anything he battled before.

“It’s not like an ankle sprain where you can ice it,” he said. “When your head hurts, there’s a part of you that’s not really sure what’s going on.”

His doctors also shed light on the potential long-term effects of multiple concussions, including strokes, amnesia and neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

“He started to learn there’s more to life than just soccer … and if he had a neurological deficit for the rest of his life, he probably wouldn’t enjoy (life) the same way,” Boyler said.

A career-ending decision

With the 2010 season fast approaching, Miller had a decision to make.

He spent the summer in Milwaukee catching up on classes and getting back in shape. He kept Bennett and Boyler in the loop about his recovery.

Bennett tried not to pressure Miller into playing, saying Miller was the only one who could decide whether he was healthy enough to return. Boyler provided the education Miller needed to make the best possible medical decision. Stummer lent his support as somebody who dealt with concussions himself.

The decision ultimately came down to Miller’s long-term health against his obligation to the team.

“When a lot of people look up to you, you put a lot of pressure on yourself,” Stummer said of his teammate.

With all the medical information he received and the fact that he didn’t feel as healthy as he would like, Miller decided to step away from Marquette soccer.

“There was no reason to put myself in a situation where I could cause permanent brain damage,” he said.

All sides agreed it was the right decision.

“He could pass a physical, but you never know. That’s the problem with the brain,” Bennett said.

Moving on, while fulfilling captain’s duties

Last September, Marquette hosted UWM in one of the biggest games on the schedule. This time, Miller sat on the sideline.

Sitting that game out was difficult for him.

“I think that night it kind of hit me that it was all over,” he said.

Though his time playing was through, Miller was still able to contribute to the team last season as a mentor on and off the field, especially for his replacement on the backline, freshman defenseman Eric Pothast.

“For him to put the disappointment aside and continue working with the team was admirable,” Stummer said.

The injury irreversibly changed the future for Miller, who planned on playing a fifth year in 2011 and eventually pursuing a professional playing career after that.

“It was hard because I had to end my own career, and I always assumed somebody else would tell me I wasn’t good enough or would cut me from a team,” he said.

Instead, he will graduate next month and currently works full-time with an orthopedic sales group.

His biggest contributions to Marquette came in creating a culture of success both on and off the pitch, Bennett said. The team plans on holding a ceremony some time next year to commemorate his playing career.

“The amount of challenge that he faced as an athlete and as a person and as an (academic) was huge, and he’s come out of it shining,” Bennett said.