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A pair of pals back home keep Ronnie Miller going the distance for Summer Games
Just look for the guy with the gray hair and gold medals.
That’s how longtime followers of Special Olympics competitions across West Virginia have come to know Ronnie Miller over the years.
Ronnie is one of 700 athletes across the state competing in the Special Olympics West Virginia Summer Games this Friday through Sunday (June 4-6) at West Virginia University. The theme of this year’s Games is “Go the Distance,” which is pretty fitting, Ronnie-watchers say, when you look at his record as a competitor.
After all, the Brooke County athlete with the salt-and-pepper hair has garnered more gold than Fort Knox in his nearly two decades as a Special Olympian.
More often than not, it’s Ronnie who roars across the finish line first in the track and field events at the Summer Games. He excels in the relays, where that fine dance of speed and endurance always has the final say on whether or not you’ll be wearing a gold or bronze medal when your name booms out over the public address system.
During winter basketball tournaments, Ronnie has been known to melt the snow off the roof of a Northern Panhandle gym or two. If he doesn’t score 20 points-plus, he says, it just isn’t a good day.
He’ll be 19 days shy of his 40 th birthday when he takes the track for his first race during the 2004 Games, but the Follansbee native isn’t quite ready for the rocking chair yet, he says.
That’s because he likes the camaraderie of the Games just as much as the competition.
“I just like running,” he said. “I like seeing my friends.”
Every Olympian comes with a standard issue support group, in the form of family, friends and Special Olympics volunteers, but Ronnie just may have a little more than most.
And that’s because of two buddies back home, Bill Furioli and John Daurora. The duo, while simply being modest about the whole thing, have made Ronnie who he is – both as an athlete and a person.
“Well, for starters, he’s a good guy,” said Furioli, who coaches the Brooke County team. “But he’s also a gifted athlete and a pure competitor. The only thing now is just telling him to slow down. He’s getting to be 40 and he just can’t go like he did. I’m just glad we got him into this thing (Special Olympics). It’s given him a real direction.”
Furioli gets just as much direction out of Special Olympics as Ronnie and the other athletes he coaches.
Nineteen years ago, he was sitting his living room recliner, depressed and listless. A massive heart attack knocked him off his steel mill job, leaving a once hard-working husband and father with suddenly too much time on his hands.
“I told my wife, ‘I’m going nuts. I gotta do something,’” Furioli remembered. “I was starting to wonder if anything was gonna come along.”
Something did – in the form of a phone call from one of his friends.
Brooke County’s Special Olympics basketball team was playing that night, and Furioli’s friend asked for a favor.
Could he come out and fill in as a coach?
“I said sure. It was just gonna be for one night. That one night turned into 20 years.”
Furioli has since made two trips overseas, accompanying his athletes to international competitions. And his association with West Virginia Special Olympics also includes his wife and three grown daughters.
“My wife has been in it with me since that first day, and my girls grew up with it,” he said.
Genuine friendships with the athletes were also grown, and Furioli really found that out a few years ago when he was again facing cardiac problems.
“I had to have bypass surgery,” he said. “I was in the hospital. A lot our athletes were worried. They’d call my room at 3 in the morning. ‘You sure you’re okay, Coach?’ I had to laugh. ‘I’m fine, really. I’m getting better. I’ll see you guys in two weeks for track practice.’ I was really touched by that.”
Daurora was touched by the sight of Ronnie in his grocery store when the two got to know each other five years ago.
In the age of the mega-grocery chains, Follansbee remains the home of “Johnny’s Market,” a genuine Mom-and-Pop grocery store owned and operated by Daurora. Ronnie took to hanging out in the market, just to have a place to go.
“One day he came in and you could tell he was hungry,” Daurora said. “So we gave him some food.”
Daurora was all good-natured gruff that day, he remembered.
“It was, ‘Hey, if you’re gonna eat, you gotta work.’ So we started him stocking shelves. When you have a job, you have purpose. One thing led to another.”
Daurora would eventually become Ronnie’s legal guardian, setting him up in his own apartment in Follansbee and helping him manage his utility bills and other household expenses.
Ronnie is a paid employee of the market, and he also makes money doing painting and other odd jobs around Follansbee, Daurora said.
“He knows everybody on the hill. He’s always working. That cuts into his Special Olympics training, but he’s not going to give that up.”
Not that he didn’t think about it a couple of years ago, Daurora recalled with a chuckle. “He thought he wanted to quit. I said, ‘Are you sure you wanna do that? Ronnie, you’re a good athlete. Just stay with it for a while.’”
Ronnie did, and last year he won the West Virginia Special Olympics Sportsmanship Award – because he always cheers his opponents and is gracious in victory.
But while he is a good sport, “victory” still remains his watch-word for the Games, he said.
“You know me. I’m coming down there to win. Lots of medals, man. Lots of medals. I’m ready.
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