Just like his NBA role model, Kawhi Leonard, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps guard Miles President HM ’20 is a man of few words but many points.
Just over two weeks ago, President stepped onto the court for the Stags’ Feb. 19 battle against Redlands with 988 personal career points. In just the first half, the senior forward reached the coveted 1,000-point mark. CMS went on to defeat Redlands 82-80, with President scoring 23 points.
“During the moment, it doesn’t really mean anything, because, you know, you’re trying to win a basketball game,” President said. “But after, it was pretty cool.”
The Chino Hills native is the first Harvey Mudd student-athlete to achieve the 1,000-point milestone since Dick Barton HM ’67 passed it in 1967. Michael Scarlett CM ’18, who accompanied President in the backcourt for two seasons, was the most recent Stag to accomplish this feat, in 2018.
“We always have a great group of guys,” President said of his experience playing four years with the Stags. “We’re really close. I’ve definitely been on teams where that’s not the case, so it’s cool to have people that you’re actually friends with on the team.”
CMS head coach Ken Scalmanini praised President’s contributions to the team during his four seasons.
“Miles has been a tremendous two-way player for the Stags,” he said. “He has been a four-year starter for us and helped the Stags win two SCIAC championships and two NCAA Tournament wins in his career.”
President, whose other hobbies include Scrabble and Texas Hold ’Em, has been playing basketball for as long as he can remember. His father, who played in college at UC Riverside, introduced him to the game at a very young age.
“I have had numerous coaches help me improve my skills throughout my career, first and foremost being my dad,” President said. “The love and support I have gotten from him and my mom has been invaluable.”
As a Harvey Mudd computer science major, President’s academic and athletic experience has been different than most collegiate student-athletes.
“It’s pretty tough, especially during the first three semesters of [Harvey Mudd’s core curriculum], it gets really busy,” he said. “But being able to manage time is a valuable skill.”
Although it has not always been easy for him to balance basketball and such a rigorous academic load, President has excelled in both areas.
Just after reaching 1,000 points, the senior earned a spot on the Academic All-District 8 team from the College Sports Information Directors of America for his impressive 3.94 GPA. President is now up for CoSIDA Academic All-American honors, and would be the third player in CMS history to receive the award.
President’s basketball career may be coming to an end, but he has much to look forward to post-graduation. Next year, he’ll be working for Google in its cybersecurity division.
“Recently, about a year ago, I got into security,” said President. “So I did a security internship [at Google] this past summer, and I really enjoyed it, so I’m going to go back to security and privacy this summer.”
Whether it is cyber defense or man-to-man defense, you can always count on President to get the job done.