CHICAGO – An Illinois State women's basketball signee has won the top individual honor a player can receive in the state of Illinois, as Gatorade announced today that Danyella Mporokoso of Waubonsie Valley High School has been selected as the 2025-26 Gatorade Illinois Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
In its 41st year celebrating the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports celebrating the nation's best high school athletes for their excellence in sport, academics and community. The award recognizes Mporokoso as Illinois' best high school girls' basketball player, and she joins an elite legacy that spans professional athletes and coaches to CEOs, such as Candace Parker (2002-03 & 2003-04, Naperville Central High School, Ill.) Paige Bueckers (2020-21, Hopkins High School, Minn.) and Aaliyah Chavez (2024-25, Monterey High School, Texas).
"Danyella earning Gatorade Player of the Year is an incredible honor and a testament to the record-breaking high school career she put together," ISU head coach Kristen Gillespie said. "She's an exceptional talent, but even more importantly, she's a competitor and leader who represents everything you want in a student-athlete. We couldn't be prouder of her and thrilled that the first Gatorade Player of the Year in our program's history is a Redbird."
The 5-foot-7 senior guard averaged 28.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game this past season, leading the Warriors (32-4) to the IHSA Class 4A Tournament Super-Sectional round. Mporokoso also averaged 3.3 assists and 2.0 steals per game, totalling 1,007 points for the season. The 2025 Naperville Sun Player of the Year, Mporokoso is ranked as the nation's No. 66 recruit in the Class of 2025 by ESPN and concluded her prep basketball career with 2,979 points.
Mporokoso has maintained a weighted 3.93 GPA in the classroom and has volunteered locally with Feed My Starving Children and as a youth basketball coach.Â
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one state winner from each of the 50 states and Washington D.C., in 12 different sports: football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, baseball, softball, boys and girls soccer, and boys and girls track & field. In total, 610 high school athletes are honored each year, and from the pool of state winners one national winner is selected in each of the 12 sports. The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the winners in each sport.
As part of Gatorade's commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $6.4 million in grants to winners across more than 2,200 organizations.
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