Not even six years removed from St. Pius X High School, Adrienne Miller is all grown up.

As in living on her own … making a living as a professional bowler.

And hearing stories “all the time” about her dad, former PBA Tour member Mike Miller of Rio Rancho, and a partner at Tenpins & More and coaches the Rio Rancho High School bowling team, 9-0 so far on the lanes.

Adrienne Miller is a regular at Tenpins & More in Rio Rancho when she's home to visit/

“’Have I told you my Mike Miller story?’ Everyone’s got one,” she said, laughing.

Adrienne, who graduated SPX in 2003, now lives in the suburbs of Chicago, not far from her job as a youth director at Brunswick Zone Hawthorn in Vernon Hills, Ill., which allows her plenty of free practice.

And access to attending Chicago Bears home games, even to the extent of sitting at freezing Soldier Field for a Monday Night game in December. “It was so cold I was wearing -- literally, no joke -- about 10 layers of clothing,” she recalled, opening her jacket to show off the orange Bears jersey bearing the number 54.

“I’m bowling as much as I can,” she said, adding she also takes care of making her lease payments and arranging for all the travel involved in getting from tournament to tournament. “I feel like I need a manager – a manager or an assistant or something like that.”

The Midwest is a haven for bowling, Miller said.

“Bowling is big back there. It’s like every weekend I have a choice of three or four tournaments I can bowl, as opposed to being here,” she said during a recent interview while home for the holidays.

Next stop: Lava Lanes in Medford, Ore., for the Earl Anthony Classic, which has a women’s series. That tournament runs Jan. 14 through 18, with the finals being telecast on ESPN.

“The women have a tournament in Medford the week after theirs,” she said.

Miller’s an old hand at being on TV, as millions saw her match against Carolyn Dorn-Ballard on TV in the fall.A second-team All-American for 2007 while bowling at the University of Nebraska, Miller, 23, can even be found chatting on YouTube (“PBA pretty women Adrienne Miller interviews”). She is also in a “pretty serious” relationship with boyfriend Jason Graham, who also bowled on a college team (Pikeville College in Kentucky) and flew to New Mexico to spend time with her family over the holidays.

Life is indeed good for Miller, who missed out on the wave of high school bowling that’s taken the state by storm in the past three years. By the time that happened, Miller, a five-time New Mexico women’s bowler of the year (1999-2003) was already a key part of the Cornhuskers’ national championships in her freshman and sophomore years.

In the right place at the right time, when people are taking a serious look at what women can do on the lanes, Miller is part of the 2008-09 PBA Women's Series.The 16 exempt-bowler field was determined at the 2008 PBA Women's Tour Trials, which were held in conjunction with the 2008 U.S. Women's Open, a USBC event, in August. The U.S. Women's Open started with more than 180 competitors, who battled through 32 grueling games of qualifying before the top 16 advanced to the single-elimination bracket that has been featured on ESPN and ESPN 2. There, 16th-seeded Miller was defeated in the first round by top-seeded Dorin-Ballard. “I DVR’d it at home,” Miller said. “It was surreal. … It’s so funny. I used to get calls or text messages, saying, hey your dad’s on or hey, your aunt’s on. Now I get messages saying, hey, I’m watching you on ESPN. That’s weird but cool.”

The new PBA Women's Series marks the only opportunity for women to bowl on tour since the Professional Women's Bowling Association, of which Miller’s aunt, Dana Miller-Mackie, was a part, folded in 2003. The PBA Women's Series, which debuted in 2007, proved to be so popular that the PBA increased the series to seven events as part of the 50th anniversary PBA Tour season.

“$1,500 is my top cash, which should be more than that. I should be making (more),” she said. “What I’d really like to do, because the women’s series is over after Medford, is I plan on bowling some of the men’s stops. I plan on bowling the Masters. I plan on bowling the Dick Weber Open.” Yup, Miller says now, giving up varsity volleyball at St. Pius was the best move for her.

“Bowling has offered me a career, so it’s a life thing,” she explained. “(It provided) an education and then beyond that. I can still bowl now. I don’t think I was good enough to continue on a volleyball career.”

And Misty May-Treanor already had a partner.

“The best advice I’ve ever gotten – I don’t know if I ever understood it until now – is no matter how I’m bowling, whether it’s good or bad, whether I make a cut or miss a cut, whatever it is, I need to walk away from that tournament knowing something I didn’t know before.”

That, apparently, includes dressing warm for Bears games.

“You can only make one shot at a time, so you can’t judge yourself by any one frame,” she said. “Experience-wise, I have more experience than I had in college because I’m bowling more. But, at the same time, I realize how much experience I’m lacking – like I’m the youngest person.

“People like Carolyn Dorin-Ballard bowled against Dana. She’s been out there for 30 years,” Miller said, not about to use her youth as an excuse. “I like to self-affirm. I think that’s important, because I think if I don’t believe it, what am I doing out there? Yeah, you’ve got to believe it.”

If it’s not Miller’s time now, it should be soon.

“I didn’t really get to start my bowling career until college, and even then it was bowling for a team, which is different than bowling for yourself. This is my first year of really bowling for myself,” she said. “I’ve grown but I’m still the same: innate personality, pretty outgoing, pretty down to earth.

“I’m having fun – I’m enjoying and I’m really grateful for the opportunity,” she concluded. “I really hope the women’s tour continues to grow.”