Miami High’s Janay Quinn is Miami-Dade 7A-5A Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year

Janay Quinn, the Miami Herald’s Class 7A-5A Miami-Dade Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year, had every reason to stop playing basketball mid-season. No one would have blamed her.

Miami High’s scrappy, 5-2 senior point guard missed nearly a month of the regular season after losing a few teeth during the team’s Orange Bowl semifinal against Mooresville (North Carolina) Lake Norman on Dec. 29. She went to the hospital. The contemplation began.

“It was bad,” Quinn said, her voice low. “Really bad. A lot of sacrifices.”

But Quinn didn’t want her high school career to end that way. No chance.

She returned to the lineup for Miami High’s GMAC championship win against Norland and served as the Stingarees’ catalyst en route to the school’s fifth consecutive state title appearance.

Quinn finished the season averaging 11.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 3.4 steals per game and played in a state championship game all four seasons at Miami High.

“She’s dynamic,” Miami High coach Sam Baumgarten said. “And we know when she feels it, we let her go. She gets a little more freedom and she knows that she’s our leader — our little engine that could.”

But the Stingarees had to learn to adapt to without playing with Quinn for that month-long midseason stretch. They went 6-1 in Quinn’s absence.

Watching and waiting as she recovered was tough, but Quinn persevered.

And, ultimately, decided she was going to finish the season.

“A lot of people on our team stepped up,” Quinn said. “It lifted up on the inside. It was like ‘Man, if I could be out for these many games and I see y’all doing this, just imagine when I come back what we all can do as a team.’”

There’s no need to imagine it.

Miami High went 8-1 in its final nine games once Quinn returned.

It started with a 49-20 win over Norland in the GMAC title game. Quinn only scored 3 points in that game but filled the stat sheet in other areas with five rebounds, three assists and three steals. The Stingarees’ regular-season finale against Cardinal Newman, a 58-41 win in which Quinn scored 16 points, served as Quinn’s second and final tune-up before the playoffs began.

Simply put, they dominated on their way back to Lakeland.

The run included two wins apiece against Coral Gables and Doral Academy — once each in the district tournament and then rematches in the regional quarterfinals and semifinals — and then a 16-point win over South Broward for the Region 4-7A title.

Miami High narrowly edged Orlando Colonial 56-53 in the Class 7A semifinals before falling 47-45 to Orlando Dr. Phillips in the title game.

Quinn averaged 13 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 4.1 steals in her final postseason.

This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 11:15 AM.