Border water polo star Taylor Miller back to US after hectic month

The Sharks export rejoined his Alumni Water Polo Club teammates this week to begin his preparations for the start of the new season.

However, his most recent venture back to the Border was far from relaxed.

Miller and his brothers, Jarek and Logan, are volunteer firefighters and spent several days working on fires around Jingellic.

"We spent a couple of days up at the Jingellic fire and tried to do as much as we could," he said.

"It's horrific up there, if you have the chance to go up there, it looks like a bomb has gone off. It's terrible."

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Miller managed to sneak a few games in with his home club and featured prominently in Sharks' country clubs tournament campaign at Mittagong last month.

"I love coming back here and playing with all the guys," he said.

"There was some good quality teams (at Mittagong) and some good things to come out of the weekend.

"A lot of our young kids played really well and the likes of Shannon Gould and Ben Douglas obviously performed well.

"I probably won't qualify for (Ovens and Murray) finals, which is disappointing, but that's the way it is."

There's no rest for Miller upon his return to the US, often training twice a day, including twice a week at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles).

"It's probably the hardest training I've done in a long time. It's three hours a day, twice a day, so it's pretty full on," Miller said.

"We do a lot of film watching, strength training is usually twice a week and there's swimming every day, plus drills and ball work after swimming.

"You might do a 3.5-kilometre swim set and then get in and do ball work for a couple of hours.

"We do a bit of yoga as well to loosen all the muscles up and get the core a lot stronger.

"It's not compulsory to do weights, but a lot of the boys do."

The season runs through until August, before the quest for the championship begins.

"Last year we came third and we're striving to get the title back after winning it the past two years," Miller said.

"There's a lot of training and tournaments in between leading up to the championship.

"We've got a lot talented players in our team, so it's looking promising."

Miller returns to the Border mid-March for his brother's wedding and hopes to play for Sharks in the finals if given the all clear by the O and M committee.

Sharks are currently undefeated after 12 rounds.