Howard and Nash Mills

STRENGTH, SURVIVAL, AND SUCCESS

Howard Mills and his son Nash overcome tragedy and prevail

story by WENDY NILSEN POLLITZER                  photos by JOHN WOLLWERTH

According to Outside Magazine, the seven traits of a mentally tough runner are resilience, focus, strength, preparation, vision, openness, and trust. Howard and Nash Mills, father and son running pair, possess all of these and one more … love.

Both members of the Beaufort High School cross-country and track and field family, one is a coach, and one is a prodigy. Both are self-driven. And both are survivors. The two were involved in an almost fatal accident last year, and the experience is now a significant marker in their passage through life. This is their story.

Howard grew up in California, ran cross country and track in high school, and loved it. “There was a camaraderie between us teammates, and it gave me a reason to go to school,” he jokes. After graduating, Howard left Cali on a sailboat and cruised through Panama, South America, and the Caribbean. After 15 or 16 years of sailing, Howard met Fred Montgomery near the Bahamas. Fred was going home to Beaufort on a friend’s sailboat, and Howard decided to sail his boat along with him. He’d been at sea for a bit, and it was time to consider settling down. He arrived in Beaufort, and met friends Peter and Lilyan. They hosted a party with a beautiful woman and kind spirit in attendance. Her name was Phoebe, and Howard fell in love. They’ve been husband and wife on St. Helena Island ever since, living beyond the same green spartina and winding creek as Fred.

On March 17, 2004, Nash was born. As he became a toddler, Howard and Phoebe knew he was fast. When he was seven years old, Nash entered his first 5K with his dad, what is now the Beaufort Shrimp Festival Run Forrest Run 5K. Shortly after the race began, he looked at his dad and said, “You’re way too slow.” He left Howard in the salty dust, and crossed the bridge and finish line before anyone. He won all the age groups at only seven years old. When he reached eleven, Nash began to train seriously. He joined USA Track and Field (USATF) and started running 5Ks in Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, Bluffton, and more. By his eighth-grade year, Nash was on the Varsity team at Beaufort High, excelling in the 400- and 800-meter dash. Howard became the assistant coach, and together, the father and son duo trained for the next step… college.

In June, just after his junior year, scouts from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) invited Nash to tour the school for an unofficial visit and a potential scholarship opportunity. This was Nash’s dream—to run collegiately at a school also well-known for its academia and a school by the coast. Nash is also an avid surfer. Wilmington would be the perfect spot for him. Excitement built the following week, and he continued to train harder than ever to finalize that signing commitment in the fall. And then, tragedy struck.

On July 1, 2021, just one week after visiting UNCW, Howard and Nash left their home on St. Helena Island to surf at Hunting Island. Instead of driving Howard’s truck, they chose to drive the smaller Prius and took Seaside Road to Hwy 21. While taking a right at the former Boondocks toward the beach, a concrete truck plowed head on into the car from the other direction when it couldn’t slow down for the braking car ahead of it. Jaws of Life were needed to extract them from the mangled metal. Howard was taken to Beaufort Memorial, and Nash was airlifted to Savannah.

Howard endured a severe concussion, a torn knee and shoulder, and a broken thumb. Nash sustained a broken femur, the largest bone in your body, among multiple injuries to the flesh. Surgeons inserted a permanent metal rod in his leg from his knee to his hip.

“I was really scared, but I knew I would come back,” Nash grinned. After months of physical therapy, Nash was able to finally walk again. UNCW honored his scholarship in October, but he missed his entire cross-country season. He was determined, through discipline and faith, that he would run track and field in the spring. And he did. After his walk turned into a “gimpy gait” as Nash calls it, he was able to jog one lap around the track. That one lap became several, and as the Region VI 4A cross-country meet approached, Nash was able to run again. “I finished last, but I was running. And that’s all that mattered.”

That regional meet delivered an emotional revelation, and one that will likely stay with him through life. As he ran his final leg in the three-mile race, 15 of his athletic peers joined him. They weren’t only from Beaufort High. Competitors from Bluffton, May River, and Hilton Head rallied beside him for one purpose: to congratulate Nash and remind him he was never alone in his physical and psychological recovery. Over the years, these young men throughout the county became more than friends. They realized at an early age that this sport will travel with them through decades of experience. They too at some point will need a cheerleader to get them back up when challenged and a friend to say well done when they succeed. They were and will always be there, through trial, tribulation, victory, and triumph. It’s called community, and that’s the beauty of finding a non-ancestral family. They chose each other.

On May 14, 2022, Nash placed first in the Men’s Varsity 800 meter, running in 2:01.00 minutes, almost one year after an accident that nearly killed him. Over the summer, Nash trained seven days per week for two hours a day. He often took the Spanish Moss Trail with his buddies or ran downtown to Sunset Bluff. He left to begin his freshman year at UNCW in August. He’ll run his first meet against Elon on September 2nd. But athletics isn’t his only priority. He is majoring in Oceanography, intending to study seafloor mapping in the Outer Banks area. His love of the water is almost as powerful as his love of running.

Howard, Phoebe, and Nash are grateful. “We were inches from not being here. It gave me a second look at life, and we don’t take a minute for granted,” Howard says. When asked about what the tragic experience taught him, Nash emphasized, “Don’t do too much too soon. You’ll lose your passion if you get burnt out.”

And that’s what both Howard and Nash focused on during their recovery. Slow and steady wins the figurative and literal race. As the Mills ease into empty nest life, Nash is spreading his wings on his new journey. For more stats of Nash’s high school career, please visit www.scrunners.com. And to follow him at UNCW, please visit www.uncwsports.com.

I don’t have to say make Beaufort proud, young Nash, you already have. Great work, Mom and Dad.