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Steamboat Springs — Soroco High School coach David Bruner said he was sure early in his first season at the high school.

Cody Miles was just a freshman at the time, and Bruner was just an assistant football coach, both seemingly insignificant cogs on a struggling high school football team.

"You could tell he was a special kid," Bruner said, recalling his first encounters with the youth who would grow into his quarterback. "He would do anything - do whatever he could even as a freshman. He was always willing to take on seniors in tackling drills."

Miles' mother, Jane, said she's seen her son's unique competitiveness since he was a child and is reminded of it almost every time she sees him step onto the field of competition.

"The coaches all just know he's like a workhorse," she said. "Even his middle school track coach, he'd enter him in all kinds of different running events, then just say, 'He's like a machine. You just turn him on, tell him what he needs to do, and he does it.'"

It's a competitiveness and drive - a passion - that separates him on a football field so distinctly that, sometimes, it's like he's wearing a different-colored jersey.

And it's a drive that might just lift Miles to his dream of college football.

Ready for more

Cody Miles will start his third season as quarterback of the Rams football team Monday when fall practices begin.

Last season was a great one for the Rams. In the team's first year in the 8-man classification, it turned a miserable 2007 campaign into a 4-4 2008 record.

Miles was one of the leaders of that turnaround, and entering his senior season, Miles is confident his school's second year of 8-man football will be even better.

"We've already got the jitterbugs out. Now we're used to it," he said. "Now it's time to assert ourselves as a dominant team."

The only problem is, almost no matter what Miles does to lead that resurgence, it won't have much of an effect on his college plans.

Soroco won't be eligible for the postseason in 2009, part of

the conditions of its classification change last year. That means there will be no dramatic playoff run and no exposure in front of big crowds that gather for such late-season games. There won't be much real chance for large- university recruiters to check out Miles and Soroco.

That's why when the decision came down, when Miles still was a sophomore, that Soroco was destined for 8-man football and a two-year stint on the playoff sidelines, transferring seemed like such an easy solution.

A big decision

It came down to Hayden and Steamboat Springs.

"We were thinking about probably going to Steamboat," Jane Miles said. "We had a house where we could definitely get residence there. We thought about it, made plans and were doing what we had to do."

Playing elsewhere would have meant some major changes for Miles. He's a two-way star in Soroco. In 2008, he led his team in offense - he was the top rusher with 719 yards and added 1,419 through the air - and in defense, where he racked up 132 tackles from his linebacker position.

At a larger school, playing both ways would have been much less likely and could have pigeon-holed Miles into a position in the eyes of collegiate recruiters.

But the chance for the increased exposure of playing for a larger school was difficult to ignore.

In the end, it was a sense of loyalty combined with that trademark competitiveness that decided the issue.

"I love the guys here too much," he said. "I wouldn't trade them for anything. These guys are my friends, on and off the field. I feel like it's my team, and I wouldn't feel right leaving."

Bruner said he was impressed when, as a freshman, Miles offered to play any position he could to get on the field. He served as the team's tight end before taking over at quarterback as a sophomore.

He was even more impressed when his young talent turned down the apple that was a larger school.

"It says a lot about him and his character," Bruner said. "He told me he wants to start a tradition of winning here at Soroco. That says a lot about him just as a person.

"Was it the right decision? You bet."

Making it

Miles is not embarking on his quest to play college football alone. In addition to a team of friends backing him up, Bruner has taken it on himself to find the right fit in a college.

Miles attended two camps this summer, one at Mesa State College in Grand Junction and another at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. He also traveled with Bruner for a visit at the University of Wyoming, a Division 1 football program.

"I didn't think I had much of a shot until Bruner started helping me out," Miles observed. "He's talking to people and getting my name out there.

"He's amazing. I don't think I could ever say enough about him."

Just how successful the whole operation is won't be obvious for months, until after Miles and his friends are finished trying to lay the foundation of a winning Soroco football program, until after he's thrown his last pass in the maroon and white and until after he's brought the home crowd to its feet for the last time.

"He just has something special inside him," Bruner said. "He's got the work ethic to make it. He wants to compete after high school, and he's of a high enough caliber that he will."