UNSCRIPTED: Beginning of Something SPECIAL!
Unscripted
By Keith Edmonds
FWIS Contributing Writer
Fort Wayne, Indiana has been known for quite a while as a hotbed for girls’ basketball in this state with Homestead, Snider, Canterbury, Bishop Luers and Elmhurst High schools reaching the pinnacle of success, by winning state championships throughout the years. If we had to produce a slogan for many of the girls programs in our city it would be “Winning is our business, and business is GOOD”(Yes, I stole that from Southside HS). Along with the talented programs, we’ve been truly fortunate to see so many of our young ladies recognized and awarded Division 1 scholarships that there’s not enough room for me to mention them all in this piece. From Tiffany Gooden to Leslie Johnson, from Darby Maggard to Kendall Fincher, from Jordan Poole to Nae Nae Donohue and all of the players, and their legacies in between, we’ve seen some folks with outright... GAME in this city! Now here comes our latest gem in the Class of 2026, Homestead High School guard Myah Epps who after a standout sophomore season at Homestead High School moved right into the Miss Basketball conversation this past spring/summer with a summer for the ages! Doing her due diligence, the past 3 months have seen Epps recruitment pick up with intensity! Multiple high major programs are courting Epps as Clemson, Miami University (Florida), Marquette, and Purdue being among the over 30 schools that have expressed an interest in having her become a part of their programs.
Prep Girls Hoops (National Publication) has ranked Epps as the No. 4 2026 recruit in the state of Indiana, but after seeing her continued growth and commitment to working on her game and improved court savvy, it will not be surprising to see Epps become the third player from Homestead High School to emerge as Miss Basketball (Ayanna Patterson 2022, Carissa McLaughlin 2017,) under Coach Rod Parker. Now, you would think that a player that has attracted as much attention as Myah has would relax, and rest on her accomplishments but I recently saw her quoted as saying “I appreciate all of the attention that schools have shown me. It’s very gratifying to know that schools that have placed players in the WNBA would think enough of me to extend a scholarship offer to me, but I still have things to work on, and improvements to make in my game.”
That statement really impressed me. I have seen so many young people “peak” early in their development and “plateau” in their skill level after receiving their desired collegiate offers, but not this young lady! I see her working almost daily on improving her shot or getting stronger in the weight room or working on staying balanced physically (and mentally) in her early morning workouts with her trainer Vernard Hollins from Always100. Now my knowledge of Myah Epps is not through publications or stories that I’ve read, I’m truly fortunate to be one of her coaches for our Always100 Elite 2026 team so I can recall firsthand her rise to prominence in the state and national rankings. I saw her completely dominate some of the nation’s top AAU teams and accept the challenges of competing against the country’s top players, many of whom were ranked ahead of her nationally! Myah Epps is a player that always stresses “team first” when you hear her speak and is very humble with the applause and adoration that has come her way. Myah understands that for her to be successful, she has to make others around her be successful, which is a trait of talented players that have TEAM goals in mind!
This upcoming season will be fun to watch as our city will once again have some incredibly talented young ladies running the courts all over Northeast Indiana! I’ll be previewing this season soon in an upcoming FWIS story so keep an eye out! One person who you should definitely plan to see is Homestead High School’s Myah Epps 2026 candidate for Indiana’s Miss Basketball!