
With one milestone still just within reach, Franklin High School Lady Warrior Diamond Miller on Jan. 24 reached another when she was picked to play in the 2019 McDonald’s All-American High School basketball game.
Miller was named to the girl’s All-Star team representing the East and is the only girl picked of 24 nominees from New Jersey.
The All-American game is set for March 27 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Tickets may be purchased here.
The McDonald’s All-American team is “probably one of the most prestigious high school all-star games in the country,” said FHS Athletic Director Ken Margolin. “It’s quite an amazing accomplishment.”
For her part, Miller said being named to the team was “a good accomplishment.”
“I feel good,” she said.
Miller, her teammates and coaches gathered in the team room at FHS to watch the announcement of who made the team on ESPN’s The Jump program.
When she saw her name, Miller said, she let out “a sigh of relief.”
“I really wanted to make the all-American team, so seeing my name was really exciting for me, and it brought a lot of joy,” said Miller, who is averaging more than 22 points per game this season.
Miller, who will play for the University of Maryland next year, has experience playing in big games outside of New Jersey. In 2017 – after the Lady Warriors took home the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions championship – she was on the U16 US National Women’s Basketball team that took gold in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Like she did during her stint on the world stage in 2017, Miller said she’d focus on playing her game in Atlanta.
“I was picked for a reason,” she said. “Don’t try to be extra, that’s not in my character.”
Diamond’s father, Lance, has been her coach since she first picked up a basketball. Lance Miller, himself a collegiate hall of fame basketball player, said he told Diamond that she could revel in her achievement for a couple of days.
“It’s like, OK, we got another feather in our cap, but there’s a lot more out there,” he said. “Enjoy it for a day or two, but let’s get back to work.”
And it’s that work, Lance Miller said, that has propelled his daughter to the heights she has reached in the high school basketball world.
“People don’t realize that Diamond and I and whoever are in the gym till 11 at night,” he said. “It’s not like it happens by accident. What we do when the lights aren’t on shows when the lights are on.”
Miller’s mother, Dreana, said being named as an All-American is one of Diamond’s top 10 accomplishments.
“I just think the sky’s the limit when it comes to Diamond, I really do,” she said.
“I don’t think people realize how good she is,” Margolin said. “She’s a once every 25-30 year type of player.”
“It’s really exciting,” he said. “She’s a very special player. She’s a good kid, not conceited, really innocent.”
Lance Miller noted that unlike other athletes who leave the township to play for other schools, Diamond decided to stay in Franklin “and build her town up, which is impressive.”
“She’s proud to be a Warrior,” Dreana Miller said.
Oh, and that milestone that she’s close to achieving? The gold-medalist, national all-star is just about a dozen points from scoring 2,000 points in her high school career, a feat no other FHS basketball player – boy or girl – has accomplished.
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