Brown, Matias named top high school athletes
Emily Matias and Jalen Brown exemplified individual excellence in their primary sports this year.
Matias was such an excellent volleyball player that she earned Miami-Dade County Player of the Year honors in both girls’ volleyball and beach volleyball.
Brown was such an excellent football player that he’s now the top-ranked recruit in Dade County for the Class of 2023.
They’re now also the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Athletes of the Year for Classes 4A-2A.
Matias, a junior, led Westminster Christian to its third straight Class 3A title game in girls’ volleyball and reached the state quarterfinals in beach volleyball as part of the county’s top performing pair. She was the Herald’s Miami-Dade County Girls’ Volleyball Player of the Year for Classes 4A-2A and one half of the Miami-Dade County Beach Volleyball Duo of the Year, alongside younger sister Zoey Matias.
“It’s just fun,” she said. “I get to play with the same girls.”
Matias, whose parents both were athletes for the FIU Panthers, was mostly a basketball player when she was young — like her father — and made the switch to volleyball in middle school because she was tall and “kind of like awkward.”
Back then, she harnessed her size and learned the type of body control, which has helped
her as other girls have caught up. Now she’s actually something of an undersized player at 5-foot-10, and the foundation has helped as she has had to put in extra work to keep up with larger opponents.
“I’ve had to work a little harder than most people,” Matias said.
Brown, also a junior, similarly relies on his technical prowess as a 6-1, 170-pound wide receiver. He was a first-team all-county selection in football last season after catching 56 passes for 1,033 yards and 11 touchdowns for Gulliver Prep, and is now a five-star recruit in the 247Sports.com composite rankings.
Part of his success can be
credited to track and field. Brown has been running track since sixth grade, and qualified for the Class 2A championship in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes this year, winning a bronze medal in the 200.
“It was just another outlet I had, not being involved in the streets too much, just being able to go out there, run around, lose some energy,” Brown said. “Going into my fifth-grade year, fourth-grade year — somewhere around that time — I actually started taking track serious.”
His future, however, is in football and it appears to be a bright one. He was a first-team junior All-American, according to MaxPreps, and is being heavily recruited by the Miami Hurricanes,
Florida State Seminoles, Texas A&M Aggies, LSU Tigers, Michigan Wolverines and about a half dozen other schools.
He got his first scholarship offer from Miami before he even started high school and he hasn’t slowed down since.
“It was basically a breath of fresh air coming into high school,” Brown said. “Don’t get me wrong: I had to grind to get where I’m at today, but it’s a little less pressure to get a scholarship.”
OTHER FINALISTS
BOYS
Central’s Wesley Bissainthe, a senior, was the Herald’s Miami-Dade County Football CoDefensive Player of the Year for Classes 5A-Independent and a first-team All-American, according to MaxPreps. The linebacker led the Rockets to their third straight state championship. He’s now playing for the Miami Hurricanes.
St. Brendan’s Alex Rodriguez, a senior, was the Herald’s Miami-Dade County Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year for Classes 4A-2A after leading the
Sabres to their first boys’ soccer state title.
Westminster Christian’s Sal Stewart, a senior, was one of the Herald’s Miami-Dade County Baseball Players of the Year for the second straight season. He was a three-time first-team all-county selection — and there was no all-county team when he was a sophomore in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic — and has signed with the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Central’s Rueben Bain ,a junior, was the Herald’s MiamiDade County Football Co-Defensive Player of the Year for Classes 5A-Independent and a first-team All-American. He set the Rockets’ single-season record with 29 1⁄2 sacks to help Central win a third straight state title.
GIRLS
Miami Christian’s Enjuliana Gonzalez, a senior, was the Miami-Dade County Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year for Classes 4A-2A and led the Victors to their second straight 2A championship.
Florida Christian’s Mikaela King, a senior, was a three-sport athlete in girls’ volleyball, girls’ basketball and softball. She was a first-team all-county selection in volleyball and an honorable mention in softball.
Ransom Everglades’ Sabrina Shipley, a senior, was the Miami-Dade County Girls’ Water Polo Player of the Year, and a second-team all-county selection in swimming and diving for her role in the 200-meter medley relay. She also won a state title in water polo in 2019 and was the Miami-Dade County Girls’ Scholar Athlete of the Year. She’ll play water polo for the Brown Bears.
St. Brendan’s Emma Hencock, a junior, was a first-team all-county selection in both cross country and track and field. She finished fifth in 2A in cross country, and won a 2A silver medal in the 3,200-meter run.