Chase Miles said several factors led to him deciding to play football at Franklin College beginning this fall.

The Seymour High School senior said wanted to stay close to home, go to a school he had a chance to play at, and academics were important to him.

“I feel like it was being closer to home, and I’d be able to come back and see all the players that I got to play with last year,” Miles said. “(Franklin) helped me out a lot financially. I’m just looking forward to getting the feel for the next level, and hoping to continue to be a (defensive back).”

He said having both played zone and man defense in high school should help him at Franklin.

“We normally played a lot of zone (at Seymour), but we played a little bit of man toward the end of the season,” Miles said. “I went up there for a visit and talked to the coaches. They tend to mix it up. I’m just glad I can go up there with a little bit of diversity and push through all that.”

Miles, who is 5-feet-10, said his playing weight was 160 pounds last season.

“They talked to me a lot about their running program, mostly, for the summer,” Miles said. “They said for the rest of the year I could focus on what we were doing in actual weight class, and then once the summer comes it would change. I’m sure I’ll be in the weight room quite a bit, and out on the field. I got to talk to coach (Mike) Kelly and he said he would be fine with me just being on the field that got me where I’m going. That’s just amazing.”

He enjoyed his time with the Owls.

“I liked playing under the lights on Friday nights and having the community I grew up in around me and supporting me, cheering all of us on,” Miles said. “My teammates made it a lot better because I could get along with all of them, and we were pretty good friends.”

Steven Wolfenbarger, an assistant football coach at Seymour, said he feels Miles can contribute at Franklin.

“I think he’ll go up there and work his tail off, and hopefully he can get on the field sooner rather than later,” he said.

Wolfenbarger said Miles has worked hard to become a better football player.

“I’d say the biggest thing that Chase did is he became a real student of the game,” Wolfenbarger said. “He was one of the first guys in every morning or afternoon and he’d spend his time knocking on the coaches’ office door coming in, asking Coach (Brian) Balsmeyer and myself questions.

“He really wanted to make sure he understood what his responsibility was out there so he’d go out and execute.”

Miles played safety for the Owls and last fall and had 16 tackles, 19 assists and one interception.

“He played over the top,” Wolfenbarger said. “One of his responsibilities was making sure he was the deepest man on the field. That is something we struggled with previous years so he came in and made sure nobody got over the top on us, and made sure we had that part of our secondary locked down.”