{"id":219511,"date":"2026-04-05T11:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T11:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/219511\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T11:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T11:33:11","slug":"vega-miami-dade-7a-4a-girls-basketball-player-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/219511\/","title":{"rendered":"Vega: Miami-Dade 7A-4A Girls\u2019 Basketball Player of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Stephanie<\/p>\n

Stephanie Vega, Doral Academy Preparatory High School, Basketball. All-Dade players photographed at Southwest High School on Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Miami, Fla.<\/p>\n

Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n

mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

Stephanie Vega, a senior at Doral Academy, had spent years working towards becoming a state champion.<\/p>\n

Last month, she and her Firebirds\u2019 teammates finally felt what that was like when she helped them secure that elusive first state championship for their program.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Vega became one of the most versatile guard\/forwards in the state.<\/p>\n

And so, Vega is the Miami Herald\u2019s Girls\u2019 Basketball Player of the Year for Miami-Dade County in Classes 7A-4A.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still processing this (championship) and I\u2019m like (dang), we did that,\u201d Vega said. \u201cWalking around the school, they\u2019re so proud of us. It\u2019s still an amazing feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vega had been waiting to experience this since the fifth grade, playing basketball with some of her future teammates like guard Ashley Martinez.<\/p>\n

Vega had experienced the pain of losing at state each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

But this season, when the time came to deliver, Vega didn\u2019t let the opportunity slip away.<\/p>\n

\"Stephanie Stephanie Vega, Doral Academy Preparatory High School, Basketball. All-Dade players photographed at Southwest High School on Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Miami, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Vega scored 24 points in the Class 7A state semifinals to lead Doral over Port St. Lucie Centennial and to its first ever win at the state final four.<\/p>\n

Vega then dropped another 22 points in the state final to help the Firebirds dethrone defending state champion Winter Haven.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Vega, a 5-7 guard who is being projected by some as a small forward at the next level, averaged 18 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played as a guard before, but I feel like I improved a lot more handling the ball and shooting the ball this past season,\u201d Vega said.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Andre C. Fernandez<\/a><\/p>\n

Miami Herald<\/p>\n

Andre Fernandez is the Deputy Sports Editor of the Miami Herald and has covered a wide variety of sports during his career including the Miami Marlins, Miami Heat, Miami Dolphins, University of Miami athletics, and high school sports.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephanie Vega, Doral Academy Preparatory High School, Basketball. All-Dade players photographed at Southwest High School on Thursday, March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-219511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}