Miami Edison's Rakyia Louis is the Miami-Dade Flag Football Player of the Year
Rakyia Louis knew she had enough time.
Miami Edison's junior starting quarterback had two minutes left in a tie game in the state championship, and an array of talented receivers she knew she could count on.
'We had a game-winning drive this season that took 40 seconds,' Louis said. 'We had two minutes left when we started this drive, so I knew there was no way we were going to overtime.'
Louis marched her team past midfield and then executed one of the state's most memorable state title-clinching moments when she fired a Hail Mary touchdown pass to teammate Poetry Auguste as time expired to lift Edison to its first ever state championship.
The play, the drive and the accomplishment are some of the main reasons that Louis is this year's Miami Herald Flag Football Player of the Year for Miami-Dade County.
Louis did more than just throw one clutch pass.
She spent the entire season at the heart of Edison's march to a 19-1 season as one of the most prolific scoring teams in the state.
Louis threw for 4,705 passing yards and threw 78 touchdown passes.
The journey took her and the Red Raiders to Tampa where they made their sixth appearance at the state final four.
But this time, things ended differently than they had in the past.
Louis and her teammates are still a predominantly young team, which graduated only four seniors.
They took pride in being the first to bring home a state championship for Edison, which has been a regular at state since 2017 under longtime coach Vince Hall, but hadn't experienced a breakthrough until this season.
'It took a while to hit me. All I knew is we had to win the game,' Louis said.
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