Ronda Jo Miller | |
Nationality: | American |
Birth Date: | 21 April 1978 |
Birth Place: | Little Falls, Minnesota, United States |
Ronda Jo Miller (born 21 April 1978) is a retired American professional deaf female basketball and volleyball player.[1] [2] She is one of the few deaf women basketball players to have tried out for WNBA.[3] [4] However, she did not make the team.
Ronda Jo Miller was born profoundly deaf in Little Falls, Minnesota. As a child she played basketball with her brother, Robert using a hoop nailed to a shed next to their barn. She attended and graduated from the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf. She graduated at Gallaudet University in 2001.[5]
She made her Deaflympic debut at the 1997 Summer Deaflympics as part of the US deaf basketball team that claimed the gold medal.[6] She then became the member of the US deaf volleyball team and clinched silver and bronze medals at the 2001 Summer Deaflympics and 2005 Summer Deaflympics respectively.[7] [8]
Apart from her Deaflympic career, she had a historic stint with Gallaudet University women's basketball team, scoring over 1000 points for Bison.[9]
In 1997, she was nominated for the ICSD Deaf Sportswoman of the Year award for her performance in the basketball event at the 1997 Summer Deaflympics.[10] She was inducted into the Gallaudet Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008. She retired from international basketball competitions in 2014.