Athletic Trainer

Miles Kliewer has been an athletic trainer at Apex High School since the fall of 1995. Prior to coming to Apex, Miles played football and ran track at Richlands High School. He then went to Elon College in 1987 and played football. After two years at Elon, Miles transferred to ECU in 1989. While at ECU Miles worked with the football team and was part of the legendary 1991 Peach Bowl team. Miles also worked with men’s soccer, outdoor track, and swimming and diving teams at ECU.  Miles received his Undergrad Degree at ECU in 1993, earning his BS in Health and Physical Education with a concentration in Sports Medicine. He continued studies at ECU to receive his master’s degree in Health Education in 1995.  

When Miles took over as the Athletic Trainer at Apex High, the Apex High School athletic training department was rather modest in terms of the facilities and equipment available to serve the athletes of the school. From the start, Miles worked to acquire more equipment, upgrade the number of supplies available to use in serving the AHS student-athletes, and built storage areas for the athletic training program to use. In addition, he initiated the first athletic training class at Apex High School, which created an influx of sports medicine student assistants to assist each athletic team. Additionally, Miles was the first athletic trainer in Wake County to move the myriad of athletic forms into the digital world. Rather than handling countless pieces of paper, all forms are now turned in through an online portal and Miles takes on the burden of verifying all of the information. The professionalism which Miles has brought to the Apex Athletic Training program has been exemplary, and his work has provided critical athletic training diagnosis, care, and rehabilitation for thousands of Apex athletes. 

During his tenure, Miles has covered literally thousands of games for our Apex Athletes. He has overseen over 18,000 athletes. Furthermore, until his son was in basic training: Miles had never missed a football game since starting as our athletic trainer and other than that week, he has not missed a game since.  

Apex has been very fortunate to have someone of Miles’ professional knowledge. He became Nationally Certified in 1996 and then became a Licensed Athletic Trainer in 1997. On top of that, he was also awarded North Carolina High School Athletic Trainer of the Year in 2002.  

Miles has grown the athletic trainer program and has worked to grow student’s interest in the medical field. There have been many students who have gone to be certified athletic trainers. He says that he has always treated his students as if they were his own sons and daughters. Along with growing his program, Miles has always used his skills to make his facilities state of the art for high schools.  

Because Miles has built such an outstanding athletic training program at Apex High School, he has been recognized as a leader in the field of athletic training. Miles has been recognized as one of the best Athletic Trainers in the state. In 2006, he was invited to be the high school athletic trainer for the Shrine Bowl game of the Carolinas. Miles was later chosen to be the permanent trainer for the North Carolina Shrine Bowl team from 2012-2019. Now, Miles has been named the Athletic Trainer Chairman for the entire North Carolina vs South Carolina Shrine Bowl in 2019. The Shrine Bowl experience indicates the value that people outside the Apex community place on Miles’ knowledge and hard work. 

Along with his volunteer service for the Shrine Bowl, Miles attends All Saints Orthodox Church where he is a Member of Parish Council and the church handyman. Miles was also the NCATA Website Administrator from 1998-2018. 

Miles and his wife, Mary, have three children. Their oldest is Nicholas, who is a 2019 graduate from Apex High where he was a 4-year wrestler and a football player. Their younger son, Joey, graduated in 2022 from Apex where he played football and wrestled. Their daughter, Olivia, is currently a student at Apex High School and she is involved in the athletic training program.  

Miles has a pride, devotion, and passion for Apex Athletics. In trying to define a few special moments of his career, Miles would honestly say that all twenty-eight years have been special because of the staff he’s had to work with. With the consistent hiring of good people at Apex High School, it has made every season and year enjoyable.  Every time any Apex athletic team has achieved that special season where a deep run into the playoffs became a reality, Miles was pulled along for the ride. The additional requirements placed on him in these instances were many. But Miles responded to this situation as he did with every similar playoff run. He handled it with professionalism in meeting the duties of being the athletic trainer, and he did it in a way that brought joy to that role. That, in turn, allows coaches to coach, and players to play. Apex High School has been fortunate to have Miles serve as athletic trainer for the past 28 years.