Brennan Miles dislocated his thumbs during the 2025 boys state volleyball championships, but that didn’t stop him from finishing the match.

After his team, Discovery Canyon, lost in the first round consolation game to Valor Christian, the junior was diagnosed with a concussion.

Neither injury was going to stop Miles.

“To be honest I just took some pain meds and went back out there, my team needed me,” Miles said. “I love (the seniors) like brothers and I’m really going to miss them next year. I knew it was our last time playing together and I just didn’t want to let them down.”

That mentality of putting everything on the line has resulted in a huge season for Miles, who led the team with 300 kills, good for No. 9 in the state, and ended with a .276 hitting percentage this season.

“Brennan’s impact for our team was immense this year, he was one of our powerhouse hitters which was very much visible in every game,” Thunder coach Mallory Richardson said, “He is an overall consistent player and someone our kids could look to with assurance that the job would be taken care of.”

Miles has gained much of his hitting strength from his time living on a farm. In the evenings he can be found peppering the volleyball back and forth with his sisters in the wide open space of the barn.

He has also worked construction since he was 12-years-old, giving him the physical work needed to be a big hitter.

After choosing to quit football last year and solely focus on volleyball, Miles is seeing the improvement he has hoped for since his sisters introduced him to the sport five years ago.

Over the summer, he put in more work than ever to earn a spot on varsity, which he did with flying colors.

“We saw a different side of him that was more competitive, more of a go-getter,” Richardson said. “Being able to see him open up and bring that to the table … he was willing to outwork anyone on the court. It didn’t matter if the player on the other side was 10 times better, he was willing to work for that position.”

Despite his standout season, it’s his teammates he will always think of first.

“I think I had some good stats, but I couldn’t do it without my team,” Miles said. “It’s hard for a player to stand out if they don’t have a team to build off of. I have great teammates who helped me look good. That’s where I found my success.”

Miles’ commitment to his teammates was evident when he was chosen as a team captain after another team captain was injured.

“We put him in a couple tough situations to see if he would break under pressure, build up the team, things like that. And he excelled beyond our beliefs,” Richardson said.

“With the leadership thing I think so much of it is humility,” Miles said. “Knowing that I’m no more special than my teammates around me and I can’t do any of this without them. A lot of it is just putting them first and making sure they know how much they mean to me. I don’t think I did much more than try to be a light for Christ and build them up.”

After losing several varsity players to graduation last year, Miles and his team recognized that this year would be a year of growth. They didn’t expect to make it past regionals, so to end their season at state was more than they could have hoped.

Miles was a large part of the team’s leadership, but he still credits Discovery Canyon’s performance to his teammates.

“A lot of my team took charge and helped us out a lot so along with the coaches they are the reason we made it, I’m just another piece in the puzzle,” Miles said. “We went further than expected so we are very happy about that but sad to lose teammates.”

Miles has dreams of playing college volleyball, but also wants to become a better leader and overall player. He loves the game, and most of all he wants to make his teammates proud.

“He is an extremely caring and motivated kid,” Richardson said. “He takes into account everything and wants to be on top of things. He wants to be the best of the best, perform well, make sure everyone is proud. He is a naturally talented player but also a good kid outside of gym and that attributes to how he is as an athlete.”

Fitter and Faster Swim Camps is the proud sponsor of SwimSwam’s College Recruiting Channel and all commitment news. For many, swimming in college is a lifelong dream that is pursued with dedication and determination. Fitter and Faster is proud to honor these athletes and those who supported them on their journey.

Alaura Arringdale from San Antonio, Texas has announced her commitment to continue her academic and athletic careers at Randolph College beginning in fall 2025.

“There wasn’t anything I didn’t love.”

Arringdale swims for Alamo Area Aquatic Association and just finished her senior year at Pieper High School. She was a varsity athlete in swimming, tennis, and water polo. She also was in two orchestras in high school and also plans to also be part of Randolph’s orchestra.

This past January for Pieper, Arringdale swam to a lifetime best at the UIL Distric 26 5A Championship. She swam a 1:18.80 100 breast to finish 9th.

Arringdale’s Best SCY Times Are:

• 100 free: 1:01.84
• 200 free: 2:09.25
• 100 breast: 1:18.80
• 200 breast: 2:52.19

Randolph College is a Division III school located in Lynchburg, Virginia and had nine women on its roster this past season. The women finished 8th out of 11 teams at the 2025 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championship. Sophomore Katelyn Spuchesi led the way with five individual points.  It took a 2:04.93 in the 200 free and a 1:11.36 in the 100 breast to earn a second swim.

Arringdale will arrive this fall as a member of the class of 2029 along with freestyler Rio Bucy who remains in-state.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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EUGENE, Ore. (theACC.com) — Stanford’s Roisin Willis won the women’s 800-meter run with an NCAA Championship-record time of 1:58.13. She became the third athlete from the Atlantic Coast Conference to win an individual national championship this weekend at the 2025 NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships, joining Miami’s Devoux Deysel and Louisville’s Synclair Savage.

Willis became the second consecutive Cardinal to win the 800-meter run. The Stanford standout edged out North Carolina’s Makayla Paige and Duke’s Lauren Tolbert, who each finished in the top five to earn First Team All-America status.

She also became the first ACC student-athlete to win the event since Virginia’s Michaela Meyer in 2021. The Stevens Point, Wisconsin, native also won the 800-meter indoor crown in 2023, clocking a time of 1:59.93.

The Stanford women led the way for all ACC teams, logging 29 points and finishing in sixth place. NC State finished tied for 15th with 18 points, while Louisville’s 17 points were good for a 17th-place finish.

North Carolina led all ACC men’s teams with 16 points, which tied for 17th place. Louisville and Virginia Tech each logged 13 points, tying for 23rd.

 

The landscape of college athletics is shifting—and fast. With the House settlement accelerating the move toward athlete employment and revenue sharing, athletic departments are facing unprecedented financial and operational challenges. In this new reality, many are asking: What role could private capital play in reshaping the business model of college sports?

In this conversation, recorded at the 2025 NACDA Convention, ADU sits down with Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork and Sequence Equity Managing Partner Marcus Stroud for a wide-ranging discussion on the future of Power 4 programs in a post-House world. From joint venture deal structures to the evolving responsibilities of athletic directors, this dialogue offers a foundational look at how private equity might enter the space—and what it will take for universities to navigate the opportunities and risks ahead.

Because the majority of athletic departments (and universities) are nonprofit entities, direct ownership by private firms is not feasible. Instead, private capital deals will likely take the form of joint ventures (JVs), with the athletics department setting up a separate vehicle (e.g. LLC) and then contributing commercial rights such as sponsorships, ticketing, media, and intellectual property.

At the conference level, deal execution is more complex. Buy-in from all member schools is often required. But the potential benefits are significant. Conferences could contribute their media rights, league IP, and new commercial ventures into a JV structure, enabling both parties to share in upside from future media deals or revenue generated by ancillary businesses.

At the institutional level, deal execution may be more straightforward, though still sensitive. Here, schools might move assets—like ticketing operations, licensing rights, or NIL-related programs—into a JV structure backed by outside capital. That capital could be used to modernize infrastructure, support athlete compensation, or build long-term commercial capabilities.

To maintain nonprofit compliance, the financial structure may resemble a mix of preferred equity and secured debt. In essence, private firms are not “buying” athletic departments (at least not likely at the P4 level) but instead positioning themselves as capital partners in new revenue-generating businesses that sit alongside them.

What makes a program “investable”? Likely factors include:

• Direct control of media and sponsorship assets
• Large or engaged alumni base
• Operational efficiency and cost controls
• Scalable commercial infrastructure
• A forward-thinking administrative team with a willingness to engage external capital partners

Challenges remain. Many universities—especially public institutions—are constrained by state-level oversight, transparency rules, and political considerations. There is also a perception issue: some stakeholders view private equity as incompatible with the mission of higher education.

Ultimately, for schools facing new financial obligations to athletes, private equity offers one path to proactively build the infrastructure and operating model needed to remain competitive. The key is structuring these partnerships in a way that protects institutional values while enabling innovation.

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic).