High School On SI Reveals The 2025-26 Missouri Girls Basketball Award Winners

2025-26 Missouri Girls Basketball End of Season Awards

With the Missouri girls basketball season officially in the books, we're proud to announce our end of season awards. These honors are based on overall performance with a heavy emphasis on postseason production, combined with total team impact and individual growth from the opening tip of the season to the final buzzer.

Missouri Girls Basketball Player of the Year

Addison Bjorn, Park Hill South

For most of the season, the question was never whether Addison Bjorn would win this award — it was simply a matter of by how wide a margin. She was, by every measurable standard, the best player in the state of Missouri, and her senior campaign served as the defining chapter of one of the most decorated careers the Show Me State has ever produced.

Bjorn finished the season averaging 25.7 points, 14.3 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game — numbers that translate directly to the next level and signal why the University of Texas landed one of the most coveted recruits in the country. She doesn't just fill a stat sheet; she controls the game on both ends of the floor, a rare quality that separates good players from generational ones.

Her accolades speak for themselves. Bjorn earned a McDonald's All-American game selection, placing her among the best high school players in the entire nation regardless of gender. She is a contender for multiple national Player of the Year honors and leaves behind a legacy that will be discussed for years in Missouri basketball circles. When the full history of girls basketball in the Show Me State is written, Addison Bjorn will have a prominent chapter.

Missouri Girls Basketball Large School Coach of the Year

Chris Porter, Lift for Life

On the surface, winning a championship with a team that entered the season as a favorite might not seem like the most remarkable story. But context changes everything — and the context surrounding Chris Porter's 2025-26 season makes this one of the most impressive coaching performances in recent Missouri girls basketball history.

His leading scorer from the previous season, Amaya Manuel, along with her sister — also a starter — missed all or nearly all of 2025-26 due to injury. Losing that kind of production and experience would derail most programs. Porter refused to let it derail his. He retooled his roster mid-stream, made in-season adjustments with remarkable precision, and guided his Lady Hawks to the Class 5 state championship with a commanding 60-41 victory.

That margin of victory is worth sitting with. This wasn't a team surviving and advancing — it was a team dominating, despite operating under circumstances that would have been a legitimate excuse for falling short. Porter's ability to adapt, develop depth, and keep his program performing at an elite level without its most important returning contributors makes him a runaway winner for this award and one of the best coaches in the state.

Missouri Girls Basketball Small School Coach of the Year

Josh Spuhl, Principia

If you weren't paying close attention to Principia girls basketball over the past few seasons, now is the time to start. Josh Spuhl has engineered one of the most surprising and sustained program transformations in Missouri high school basketball — boys or girls — over the last five years.

Principia is a small Christian Science school tucked into Creve Coeur, Missouri, with a student body that represents a fraction of most of its competition. Not long ago, the Panthers were an underachieving Class 2 program with little postseason relevance. Today, they are a perennial contender and a program that opposing coaches circle on their schedule. That shift doesn't happen by accident.

Yes, having elite talent like Dasia Scott changes the ceiling of any program. But talent alone doesn't produce the culture, discipline, and competitive consistency that Principia has demonstrated. Spuhl built a demanding schedule designed to prepare his team for the biggest moments, and the results were extraordinary. The Panthers finished 30-2 overall and went completely undefeated during the second semester of the season — meaning they entered the postseason on a dominant, unbroken run of success that carried them all the way to a championship.

Missouri Girls Basketball Freshman of the Year

Daylin Douglas, John Burroughs

Daylin Douglas edged out a talented field of candidates to claim this award, and when you look at what she accomplished as a first-year varsity player, the choice becomes clear quickly.

Douglas was a co-leader on a John Burroughs team that finished 16-9 and made a notable run during stretches of the season — meaningful production in a context where she wasn't being handed opportunities, she was earning them. She averaged 14.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.9 steals per game, numbers that would be impressive for an upperclassman and are genuinely exceptional for a freshman making her varsity debut.

Perhaps the most eye-opening element of her season was her shooting. Douglas shot 44.2% from beyond the arc and connected on 57 three-pointers — a combination of volume and efficiency that most players never achieve at any point in their high school careers. Her ability to create off the dribble, defend at a high level, and shoot with consistency from distance marks her as one of the most complete young players in the state. Missouri girls basketball has a new name to watch, and Douglas is just getting started.

Missouri Girls Basketball Defensive Player of the Year

Jordyn Haywood, MICDS

Trying to make a list of things Jordyn Haywood doesn't do on a basketball floor would be a much shorter exercise than cataloging what she does. She is, first and foremost, a two-way player in the truest sense — and as a sophomore, she's already operating at a level that most players never reach.

Haywood averaged 2.2 steals and 2.0 blocks per game this season. At 6-foot-1 with exceptional athleticism and instincts, she alters the entire offensive approach of opposing teams. Coaches game-plan around her. Guards reroute their drives. Post players think twice about catching the ball in her zip code. That kind of effect on the game doesn't always show up in a box score, but it is felt on every possession.

What makes the defensive award slightly ironic is that it almost undersells her. Haywood is already drawing scholarship offers from some of the best programs in the country — programs that recruit on both ends of the floor and don't hand out offers to one-dimensional players. As she continues to develop physically and refine her offensive game, the sky is genuinely the limit. Heading into next season, Haywood enters as the clear favorite to win Missouri Girls Basketball Player of the Year — and it won't be a surprise if she makes a national case as well.

Missouri Girls Basketball Sixth Man of the Year

Aniyah Poniewaz, Principia

There is coming off the bench, and then there is what Aniyah Poniewaz did this season. The two are not the same thing.

Poniewaz served as a reserve all season long for Principia — a program already loaded with talent at every position. Despite never cracking the starting lineup, she earned all-state recognition, a distinction that is almost unheard of for a non-starter at the high school level. The selection wasn't a courtesy nod. It was a reflection of just how impactful she was every time she stepped on the floor.

As a scorer, she averaged 8.5 points per game out of the bench role — efficient, timely production that consistently shifted the game's momentum in Principia's favor. Her defensive instincts are advanced well beyond her experience level, and she brings an energy and edge to the game that coaches love in reserve players. She was a true spark plug in every sense of the phrase.

Now for the detail that makes all of this even more remarkable: Poniewaz is a freshman. She accomplished everything listed above in her very first season of varsity basketball. The ceiling on her career is difficult to project because it is so far from where she already stands. Principia has another cornerstone in place, and the rest of Missouri girls basketball will be hearing the name Aniyah Poniewaz for a long time.

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