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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

EWU’s Miles Weatheroy a ‘rock’ for Eagles

EWU safety Miles Weatheroy applies the boom to Montana State receiver Mitch Griebel. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)

Miles Weatheroy was poised to fly with the Falcons until a peanut allergy caused him to be ruled unfit for the Air Force Academy.

Now he’s soaring with the Eagles and “wouldn’t want it any other way,” said Weatheroy, a safety at Eastern Washington who lost one dream but gained an appreciation for second chances.

And the value of hard work. In the classroom, he’s a two-time All-Big Sky Conference selection who’ll graduate this term with a degree in business management. On the field, he’s been a major contributor on special teams and in the secondary.

“He’s worked his way up the ranks, and he’s always been someone you can trust,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding, who also coaches the Eagle safeties.

“He’s been a rock,” Schmedding said.

The foundation was built back in Portland, where his father is a recently-retired homicide detective. Weatheroy’s older brother Paul was a star running back at Jesuit High School, and Miles hoped to follow him to the Air Force Academy.

But in that summer of 2011, Weatheroy enrolled in the Air Force Academy Preparatory School, a transition in to the academy. However, a few weeks before the beginning of fall term, Weatheroy was ruled unfit because of the peanut allergy.

“It was frustrating,” said Weatheroy, who said the allergy has lessened as he’s grown older. However, the academy had been sued a year earlier after another student had suffered a peanut reaction, and Weatheroy believes the academy was being overcautious.

That left Weatheroy, an all-state defensive back, backpedaling. He called former Jesuit teammate and EWU running back Jordan Talley, who connected him with Eastern coach Beau Baldwin.

As it turned out, good luck followed bad, as a scholarship opened at the last minute.

Since then, Eastern football “has been my rock, my outlet,” Weatheroy said.

After redshirting in 2011, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Weatheroy became a regular on special teams, where he’s played ever since. By 2013, he became a regular in the rotation at cornerback and finished with 35 tackles.

He played at corner again last year, helping the Eagles win a third straight Big Sky Conference title. “That winning tradition, it’s huge. You get used to winning and we go into every game believing that we’re going to win,” Weatheroy said.

Weatheroy embraced the change. “I’ve gotten a chance to learn everything from the ground up, and I’m pretty excited to put it all together,” Weatheroy said.

Indeed, Weatheroy has been doing that his entire career at Eastern. His time is split between football and the classroom, where he’s taking classes in management, entrepreneurship and information networking.

That leaves him with little free time, but Weatheroy, 22, said the routine “instills a hard work ethic, because from 6 in the morning to 11 at night, you’re doing either football or school.”

A loving every minute of it.

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Weatheroy said.

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