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N-G's Mihjae Hayes carrying her sister, Ojanae Thompson, in her heart

02/03/2022, 11:30am EST
By Joseph Santoliquito

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

Mihjae Hayes drags it with her. No matter how much the talented Neumann-Goretti senior guard tries to shake it free, run away from it, cup her hands over her ears and shade her eyes, it’s always going to be a part of her.

She’ll always remember being called into the house, moments after a tranquil twilight was pierced by gunshots in the distance on Monday, August 16, 2021. They were shooting again in the Olney section of Philadelphia. Mostly everyone in Olney had grown so accustomed to gunfire that they felt like live spectators in a war.

Hayes thought she would escape it with her mother, when the two went over to visit an aunt. But the sound of those gunshots seemed to follow Hayes, right into the car when she drove to pick up her little sister, right through her cell phone, which exploded with text messages telling her that the very shots she heard killed Khyrie Isaac, right down to the brutal slap across the face that a 19-year-old woman was shot with him and fighting for her life.

The news stamped across local media was a line without meaning to most. To Hayes, the scroll had life, and was all too real. The other person in the car was Ojanae Tamia Thompson, Hayes’ older sister.

Ojanae Tamia Thompson (above), seen here in her graduation photo from High School of the Future, was shot and killed last August while sitting in a car in the Olney section of Philadelphia. (Photo courtesy Hayes family)

Mihjae didn’t want to believe the 19-year-old was her. She called Ojanae. No answer. She called again. No answer. She sent a text. No response. That’s when it dawned on Hayes that it was Ojanae that was shot and in critical condition. Ojanae died two weeks later, on August 31, from gunshot wounds to her head, arms and chest.

Mihjae continues on in her memory.

Some days are good. Others not so good.

What gets lost is that the bullets that struck Ojanae, a beautiful, vivacious girl who swept up a room with her glow, also tore through Mihjae and her family.

Hayes found sanctuary through basketball.

It’s been her one constant escape. She’s been the stable foundation of her mother, Tiffaney Flynn, her dad, Juan Hayes, her precocious little sister Jazirah and the close-knit Neumann-Goretti basketball community.

She knows if she breaks down, they’ll break down. It comes out in her stubborn play. The 5-foot-3 dynamo puts her head down, like a battering ram, gliding through a defense with her magical dribbling skills, and often comes out the other end with a layup. Or, she’ll flash a drive to the basket, pull back and with a feathery touch nail a three-point shot.

She’s the living embodiment of the Disney character Moana, unflappable and ferocious, only with a nasty handle.

She’s probably the most overlooked talent in the area.

Although, she knows how good she is. It’s why her teammates put a lot on her tiny shoulders.

“Mihj is the type of player where the lights are bigger, she plays big,” Saints coach Andrea Peterson said. “I don’t understand why she’s not getting more college looks. She’s dominating top teams and she’s 5-3. She gets it done. Everyone knows her and her game speaks for itself.

“It bothers me, absolutely, that more colleges aren’t interested. She’s scoring over 24 points a game and she’s scoring at will. She scored 30 points in consecutive games—against defenses designed to stop her. She’s facing box-and-ones and hitting NBA-range threes.”

Hayes (above, center) and Neumann-Goretti are right in the thick of the Philadelphia Catholic League race. (Photo courtesy Hayes family)

The way Hayes sees it, being on the free-throw line with seconds to play, down by one before a raucous Palestra crowd is easy compared to last summer.

“It’s the way I have to think that I’m going to make those free throws, for my sister, because I’m doing it for her,” said Hayes, who carries a 3.4 GPA and is waiting on her SAT scores. “I was the one who had to tell my mom and dad that my sister got shot. They didn’t know. It’s the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life.

“I called my mom first, to tell her about Khyrie, and then my dad, and then I called them back about Ojanae. I remember banging on the steering wheel, because I lost it. Everything happened so fast. My brother died six months earlier, and I kept repeating to myself, ‘No, not again. It’s not Oj, it’s not Oj. That can’t be my sister.’

“My poor little sister (Jazirah) didn’t know what was going on. I was crying and was all over the place. Me crying made my little sister cry and I never thought it would happen to Oj. You start screaming ‘Why, and how?’

“I still try and talk to Oj as if she was still here. I try to keep people around me and keep myself busy. I like talking about her, because it keeps a smile on my face. But there are other days, I have a tough time. I had one dream about her when she was still in the hospital and about to come out. She came to the house and ran and jumped on me, yelling ‘Hey bestie.’ Oj was the life of the party.

“You don’t know the pain until you go through it.”

Ojanae was there for everything. The AAU trips. The Neumann-Goretti games. Summer tournaments. Ojanae used to play the cameraman recording Mihjae’s moves. She would yell at Hayes on the court, “Go Mini-Me.”  

Something positive has emerged from this tragedy, which has yet to be solved.

Flynn has been very vocal and out front in bringing awareness that areas of Philadelphia are under protected. Before Ojanae was killed, Flynn had been a beacon of comfort to other grieving mothers who have lost children to gun violence. The day Ojanae was shot, Flynn had dropped off food and an inspirational note to another coping mother, Karen Robinson, enduring the unimaginable pain of a lost child.


Mihjae Hayes (above, bottom), her sister Jazirah (bottom left), and parents Juan Hayes and Tiffaney Flynn. (Photo courtesy Hayes family)

“I don’t want anyone to go through the pain I’m going through,” Flynn said. “I don’t want to go to any more funerals of my neighbors’ kids. This needs to stop. The word needs to be spread to stop this violence.”

In 2021, there were more than 560 murders in Philadelphia, easily surpassing the 499 homicides that happened in 2020 and the previous city record of 503 homicides in 1990. In 2021, at least 2,300 people were shooting victims. Many cases go unsolved. Many go unreported. 

The 2021 figures, according to law enforcement sources, are probably higher than reported.

“It seems like no one really cares until it happens to them,” said Flynn, who organizes peaceful rallies to address the blitz of violence. “As I was speaking out about this, in the same Olney Shopping Center my daughter and Khyrie were shot and killed, you had little kids riding their bikes through there the next few days like nothing happened.

“I used to feel safe in this area. Now I don’t. This is what I need to have strength myself, to speak out and let people know we support the police and safety. I don’t let my kids walk to the corner store, because there are a bunch of thugs out there, and the kids see those thugs, and they grow up wanting to be thugs themselves.

“I don’t want the next mother to go through what I’m going through. I believe the people who killed my daughter will get caught. In the meantime, we rally around Mihjae and support her. The girl is carrying a lot.”

Hayes, who was recently chosen for the second-annual 2022 Philadelphia All-American Senior Showcase, which will take place in May at Neumann University, featuring the area’s top seniors, has scored 1,185 career points. She is averaging 24.7 points a game (272 points over 11 games). However, she’s not received a college offer from a Division I school, although numerous D-II and D-IIIs have inquired about her, and she is talking to schools like Norfolk State and Bethune-Cookman.

Down the middle of Hayes’ back are three Arabic symbols that mean “Sisters Forever.”

“Mihj is an inspiration to everyone. She always cares about everyone else before herself,” Peterson said. “With someone who’s been through what she has, and carry that weight on her every day, I don’t think a lot of adults could do what she continues to do.

“She battles and does it with a smile. She’s the heart of the city.”

At each game Tiffaney, Juan and Jazirah watch Mihjae, they hold an empty space between them.

It’s where Ojanae would sit.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.


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