Janet Karvonen was born and raised in New York Mills, Minnesota, where she became a pioneer for girls basketball in Minnesota. Karvonen scored over 3,000 points in her high school career and led New York Mills to state championships in 1977, 1978, and 1979 and a third-place finish in 1980. Karvonen earned a scholarship to play at Old Dominion University, but finished her college career at Louisiana Tech.