Quin Price Snyder was born October 30, 1966, and grew up on Mercer Island, Washington — an affluent community in Lake Washington, east of Seattle. His father, Gary Snyder, was the athletic director at Mercer Island High School. His mother was Tonette. Basketball ran in the family DNA, but so did academics: this was a household where education wasn’t negotiable.
At Mercer Island High, Snyder became the most decorated basketball player in Washington state history. Two-time state Player of the Year. Led the Islanders to the 1985 state championship. Mercer Island achieved a No. 1 national ranking in USA Today’s high school polls. And Snyder became the first McDonald’s All-American ever chosen from the state of Washington. One hundred schools recruited him. He trimmed the list to Washington, Virginia, Stanford, Arizona, and Kansas before choosing Duke.
The recruiting process consumed him. He moved out of his family home for a week, staying with friends to escape the pressure. His father coordinated with Mercer Island coach Ed Pepple to manage the flood of phone calls and campus visits. When he finally announced for Duke on November 5, 1984, the Seattle Times ran the story as a lead sports item. He arrived in Durham in the fall of 1985 as part of a class that included Danny Ferry and John Smith.