Brock Miller accepted his first-out status in a game of lightning with Farmington children with grace and a good-natured smile on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021.
FARMINGTON, Utah — The lanky, bald college graduate towered over the six grade-school kids on the basketball court, a giant smile on his face: Brock Miller, now working on a master’s degree while playing out his eligibility at Utah State, dropped everything in the middle of a serious conversation about helping people with alopecia, to play a pick-up game with the kids.
We spoke to Brock Miller last year about how his alopecia helped him connect with others facing the same auto-immune disorder. Now, he wants to do more to be a voice and support for what he describes as the alopecia family. He’s starting a social media campaign to connect those with alopecia and their families where they can come, find resources and others and make connections and understand they aren’t alone.
When he encounters a young person recently diagnosed with alopecia, he knows exactly what to say.
“First of all, I’m just like, ‘How are you doing?’ You know, I just want to see where they’re at. Because everyone has different situations, and different lifestyles, different, you know, experiences. So I like to kind of ask them to see kind of how they’re doing and, and see if I can find a way to relate to them. But I like to emphasize, you know, ‘What’s your outlet? You know, what, what, what, what are you passionate about? What do you like?'” he said.
Despite his “out first” status at lightning, Brock Miller absolutely dominated KSL’s Dave Noriega in both “HORSE” and in ball spinning. Photo: Becky Bruce, KSL NewsRadio
Miller said he likes to help connect kids with alopecia to their passions to help them define themselves and find their confidence. More importantly, he said taking his message to social media offers an opportunity to connect other people with the condition to each other.
“That’s what I can offer to them more than anything,” he said. “Let’s start a page on Instagram, let’s connect with people on Facebook, let’s put something just to connect, because it’s different if I talk to a 10-year-old than another 10-year-old, to a 25-year-old talking to the 25-year-old, or a 40-year-old to a 40-year-old, or having, you know, a parent be able to talk to another parent that has it, because I think parents have it just as hard. You know? They want their kid to be happy and, you know, confident.”
With or without alopecia, kids seem to relate well to the Utah State basketball star. After knocking him out first in a game of “lightning,” they crowded around him to take selfies and shake his hand.
“I hope that I’ll be able to be that voice and be a voice that whether I can influence one person, or thousands. It doesn’t matter as long as I have connection with one person. That’s what that’s what matters, that’s what life – that’s what life is all about, is helping others,” he said.
Starting Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021, his new Instagram account, @alopecia_family, is live.
