More Girls BB Players of the Year

Jerzy Robinson (left) has gained a tough call for Senior of the Year in California girls basketball for the 2025-26 season. At right is State D2 Player of the Year Jhai Johnson of Oakland Tech. Photos: Scott Kurtz / Cal-Hi Sports & OTLadyBulldawgs / X.com.

For official writeup on the 2026 Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year, CLICK HERE.

We hope you like this free post on CalHiSports.com. Please help us out today by becoming a member of our Gold Club so you can see all of our great content, including some of our upcoming all-state girls basketball teams. For more on special offer to get signed up for $4.99 for one month, CLICK HERE.

CHECK OUT CALGAMESWANTED.COM
CHECK OUT CALGAMESWANTED.COM
Created for Coaches by Coaches for California Varsity High School Head Coaches and Athletic Directors, Start building your schedule with CalGamesWanted.com.
User friendly to take the stress out of scheduling.

Congratulations to these girls players for being selected as a Cal-Hi Sports State Player of the Year. Associate editor Harold Abend contributed to the writeups (he did the one on sophomores) and participated in each of the player of the year voting. Stay tuned for the upcoming release of the 47th annual Cal-Hi Sports All-State Teams. Here is a complete list of all of the California girls basketball individual players of the year for the 2026 season:

JUNIORS & OPEN DIVISION/DIVISION 1
Kaleena Smith (Ontario Christian)

In those years in which it’s a junior who is selected as Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year, the usual progression of state honors from senior to junior to sophomore to freshman is broken up. Like this one with Kaleena at the very top spot being a junior, a senior of the year then has to be added (see below). Smith also will go on to our all-time list of players of the year for Southern California (the NorCal honoree will be added when the first 30 players on the annual all-state teams are announced).

Recent State Juniors of the Year: 2025 Jerzy Robinson (Chatsworth Sierra Canyon); 2024 Aliyahna “Puff” Morris (Etiwanda); 2023 Kennedy Smith (Etiwanda); 2022 Juju Watkins (Chatsworth Sierra Canyon); 2021 Isuneh “Ice” Brady (San Diego Cathedral Catholic); 2020 Kiki Iriafen (Studio City Harvard-Westlake); 2019 Vanessa DeJesus (Chatsworth Sierra Canyon); 2018 Charisma Osborne (Los Angeles Windward); 2017 Aquira DeCosta (Stockton St. Mary’s); 2016 Destiny Littleton (La Jolla Bishop’s); 2015 Sabrina Ionescu (Orinda Miramonte). For full list of every year, CLICK HERE.

STATE SENIOR OF THE YEAR:
Jerzy Robinson (Sierra Canyon, Chatsworth) 6-1 SG

For having a statement game performance in the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship, Robinson was able to squeek out a close call for State Senior of the Year over San Jose Archbishop Mitty’s McKenna Woliczko, another player we’ve been very high on since she came onto the scene, which for her was as a freshman.

It’s no fault of her own, but McKenna didn’t have the type of game in any that she played this year that was similar to what Jerzy was able to do when Sierra Canyon topped eventual CIF Open Division state champion Ontario Christian, 69-62, in that CIFSS title game. At the time, Robinson’s outing of 32 points plus 12 rebounds actually put her in contention to be Ms. Basketball along with Ontario Christian’s Kaleena Smith. It didn’t work out that way as Robinson and the Trailblazers would be upset in the CIF SoCal Open Division playoffs by Sage Hill of Newport Beach and Kaleena went on to have big outings in the regional and state finals.

Still, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Robinson had the best game against Ontario Christian among any players that the Knights faced during the season. And it’s not like Jerzy didn’t have other big outings throughout her senior season. She became Sierra Canyon’s all-time leading scorer when she scored 33 points in a loss to nationally ranked Long Island Lutheran on MLK weekend at the Hoophall Classic, breaking the record of 2,322 held by JuJu Watkins. Ironically, both JuJu and Jerzy didn’t play at Sierra Canyon as freshmen and while JuJu’s scoring totals from her freshman season at Windward of Los Angeles have counted toward our state career scoring records the totals that Jerzy had at Desert Vista High in Arizona will not count since that school obviously is not in California.

For the overall season, Robinson averaged 21.7 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

At the recent McDonald’s All-American Game, neither Robinson or Woliczko were among the scoring leaders, but at last week’s Nike Hoop Summit Robinson led the USA team with 19 points along with McDonald’s MVP Saniyah Hall of Ohio. Woliczko had 10 points and 13 rebounds.

International play isn’t technically supposed to matter that much for a state high school award, but in both the FIBA U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2024 and the FIBA U-16 Women’s World Cup in 2023 it was Jerzy who was the MVP for the gold-medal winning USA squad.

Robinson committed to South Carolina and head coach Dawn Staley early in the season and is expected to become an immediate contributor.

“Jerzy is an all-level scorer who can shoot it from outside, get to her spots and be physical in the paint,” Staley said. “Beyond that, she has a winning mentality that she brings to every possession and every matchup she faces. Her competitive spirit and confidence will elevate our program. We can’t wait to get Jerzy to campus and for the FAMS to embrace her and her family.”

The last senior of the year that had to be chosen before this year was Londynn Jones of Corona Centennial in 2022 when then junior Juju Watkins of Sierra Canyon was Ms. Basketball. The two previous before that were Aquira De Costa of Stockton St. Mary’s in 2018 and Brooke Smith from Marin Catholic of Kentfield in 2002.

Ontario Christian state sophomore of the year Tati Griffin stands with Ms. Basketball Kaleena Smith after the duo starred during early season tourney. Photo: Harold Abend.

Back in early July of 2025 when Tatiana “Tati” Griffin was playing alongside seniors Amalia Holquin of Sage Hill (Newport Beach) and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman standout Aaliah “Lizzy” Spaight on the What Not team at the Cali Cup in Mission Viejo, she sparkled. It was not about how many points she scored or rebounds she grabbed, but for an incoming sophomore she exhibited grit, physicality and toughness that most top level seniors do not have. We felt in evaluating her for the Cal-Hi Sports Girls of Summer Player Rankings, she was the top player at that event.

Now, nine months later, Tati has been named the 2026 Cal-Hi Sports State Sophomore of the Year to go with being honored as the 2025 State Freshman of the Year, but the road has been anything but easy.

The day after we evaluated her, we got word that Griffin had gone down with a knee injury that some thought might possibly end her season. The injury was serious but turned out to not be season ending. She rehabbed until the end of September and in early November when we contacted Ontario Christian head coach Dru Cummings about the coaches questionaries we had sent him and inquired about Tati he responded, “Yes, Tati is back and has returned and has been practicing all week.”

Despite showing signs of the injury in several games we saw her play in, Griffin played in all 36 games for the Lady Knights, and even on three-plus wheels Tati is like a bulldozer compared to other girls her age. In the CIF Open Division state championship 56-49 victory over Archbishop Mitty of San Jose her defense and physicality were a bit of a reason Mitty was held to a season low on offense. Tati only had 12 points but eight rebounds and clogged the paint despite only being right around 6-feet tall.

For the season, Tati was second on the team in scoring at 21.3 points per game, second in rebounds at 7.9 per game plus 3.2 assists and 1.6 steals a contest. He high water mark and career-high came in a win over Cal-Hi Sports state Top 20 Fairmont Prep of Anaheim when she went for 44 points and 10 rebounds with four assists. That was one of nine double-doubles she registered with one triple double last season. The triple-double came against State Top 20 Rancho Christian (Temecula) when she had 24 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists. Another outstanding performance came in the first win over Archbishop Mitty when Tati had a very solid 20 points and 16 rebounds in a 96-87 double-overtime victory.

According to ESPN, Griffin is the top sophomore in the nation. Now, Griffin has earned top honors in California for sophomores and will return to an Ontario Christian team that if they can keep things intact, will have all its top players returning.

Recent State Sophomores of the Year: 2025 Kaleena Smith (Ontario Christian); 2024 McKenna Woliczko (San Jose Archbishop Mitty); 2023 Aliyanah “Puff” Morris (Etiwanda); 2022 Kennedy Smith (Etiwanda); 2021 Juju Watkins (Los Angeles Windward); 2020 Isuneh “Ice” Brady (San Diego Cathedral Catholic); 2019 Brooke Demetre (Santa Ana Mater Dei); 2018 Rowan Hein (Fresno Clovis North); 2017 Haley Jones (San Jose Archbishop Mitty); 2016 Aquira DeCosta (Stockton St. Mary’s); 2015 Destiny Littleton (La Jolla Bishop’s). For full list of every year, CLICK HERE.

Addison Archer from Rancho Christian of Temecula ranks as one of the top freshman players in the nation. Photo: Harold Abend / Cal-Hi Sports.

Don’t look know, but our 2026 State Coach of the Year Marlon Wells at Rancho Christian has yet another very prolific scorer. Wells, who previously had former state career scoring leader Charde Houston at San Diego High and current state career scoring leader (and his adopted daughter) Destiny Littleton at Bishop’s of La Jolla, now may have Archer for the next three years.

And with the way she has begun, Addison may be headed to a top five spot on the all-time state list with Littleton and Houston by the time she is done.

“She’s a bad girl,” said Wells of Archer emphasizing bad in a positive way. “She’s the latest in the pipeline of bucket-getters despite not yet developing a consistent three-point shot.”

Archer scored 905 points in 34 games for the Eagles this season for a 26.6 per game average. She helped them to a 26-9 season record and a final No. 11 state ranking. The team also played for the CIF D1 SoCal regional title (lost to Corona Centennial) and was in the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs.

A 50-point outing in a league win vs Heritage of Menifee was Addison’s season high. She had 36 points in a regional playoff win vs Bakersfield Christian and had 44 points when Rancho Christian got a win in the regional playoffs against CIF San Diego Section Open Division champ Francis Parker (which is a game that Wells with all of his years coaching in that bracket probably got a real kick out of).

Archer also averaged 6.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.9 steals per game. She hasn’t yet had a triple-double but her single game highs of 12 rebounds and 14 assists show that those could be coming real soon.

With Archer’s selection, the Inland Empire region of the CIFSS has now had the state freshman of the year five times since 2017 and three times in the past four years.

Recent State Freshmen of the Year: 2025 Tati Griffin (Ontario Christian); 2024 Kaleena Smith (Ontario Christian); 2023 McKenna Woliczko (Archbishop Mitty, San Jose); 2022 Aliyahna “Puff” Morris (Etiwanda); 2021 Kennedy Smith (Etiwanda); 2020 Breya Cunningham (La Jolla Country Day); 2019 Isuneh “Ice” Brady (San Diego Cathedral Catholic); 2018 Kiki Iriafen (Studio City Harvard-Westlake); 2017 Breanne Ha (Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos); 2016 Charisma Osborne (Los Angeles Windward); 2015 Aquira De Costa (Stockton St. Mary’s). For full list of every year, CLICK HERE.

DIVISION II
Jhai Johnson (Oakland Tech, Oakland) 6-3 Sr. F

Not all of the great Oakland Tech girls basketball players have been able to say they are a state player of the year because many of them, such as school Hall of Famer Dr. Alexis Gray-Lawson, starred for the Bulldogs when they were in CIF D1 playoff divisions. But the Bulldogs were D2 this year and Jhai has been selected as the state honoree (with four-year teammate Terri’A Russell also on the short list of others considered).

Johnson, who has signed with Vanderbilt and is a Jordan Brand All-American selection, missed some games for the Bulldogs in her senior season with an injury, but not enough to make her ineligible for top all-state honors.

One of the best games that Jhai had during the season came against Salesian of Richmond in the CIF NorCal D2 semifinals. She racked up 32 points and had 14 rebounds in a 68-46 triumph. She had 23 in the NorCal D2 title game loss to eventual state champion Sierra Pacific of Hanford, which had a balanced scoring attack during the season. Russell had 28 points in that game.

In two previous NorCal playoff games, Johnson had 18 points, 22 rebounds and six blocks in a win vs Del Oro of Loomis plus 23 points, 24 rebounds, four assists and four blocks in a win vs Moreau Catholic of Hayward. In a lopsided loss to final state No. 2 Archbishop Mitty of San Jose, Jhai had 16 points, 19 rebounds and five blocks.

For her four-year career playing for head coach LeRoy Hurt, Johnson had 1,487 points with 984 rebounds plus 192 blocked shots. Hurt also had the 2020 State D2 player of the year in Stephanie Okowi.

Jhai has added flag football to her resume in the past year and that makes sense. She’s the daughter of Oakland Tech grad and longtime NFL quarterback Josh Johnson. Josh recently signed a contract to play in the upcoming NFL season with the Cincinnati Bengals, which will be the 14th different team he’s played for and that is the most among any player in NFL history.

Recent State D2 Players of the Year: 2025 Emmi Almeida (Caruthers); 2024 A.J. Gambol (Chico Pleasant Valley); 2023 Talia Maxwell (Fresno Central); 2022 Angie Robles (La Jolla Bishop’s); 2021 Kayanna Spriggs (Chula Vista Mater Dei Catholic); 2020 Stephanie Okowi (Oakland Tech); 2019 Jadyn Matthews (Redding Enterprise); 2018 Serena Tuitele (Chico Pleasant Valley); 2017 Julia Blackshell-Fair (Fairfield Vanden); 2016 Kayla Washington (San Bernardino Cajon); 2015 Sydney Raggio (San Francisco St. Ignatius). For full list of every year, CLICK HERE.

Delany Shiring made plays for El Dorado of Placentia throughout the course of the CIF D3 regional playoffs. Photo: Mark Tennis.

It wasn’t just the 15 points, six rebounds, three blocks and big plays down the stretch in El Dorado’s 42-40 win against Valley Christian of San Jose in the CIF D3 state championship that is why Shiring wound up on top of the heap as the D3 player of the year.

The senior, who has committed to Pomona-Pitzer for college, had 26 points to lead the Golden Hawks in their 61-56 win over Leuzinger of Lawndale in the CIF SoCal D3 regional final. She also had 19 points with four 3-pointers plus five rebounds and five assists when El Dorado beat La Canada, 41-27, to win the CIF Southern Section D4 championship.

For the season, Shiring averaged 16.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.9 blocks and was recently named to the Orange County Register All-County first team. There’s only 10 players on that team and that includes schools of all sizes and strength, including Sage Hill, Mater Dei, JSerra, San Clemente and many more. Delaney was not the Player of the Year in the Crestview League, but she was all-league and league MVP Charlotte Muller of Anaheim Esperanza played for a team that was in the CIFSS D1A playoffs and wouldn’t be D3 for these honors.

The last D3 state player of the year from Orange County was Anna Lembke from Ocean View of Huntington Beach for 1999. There were several from Brea Olinda before that in early 1990s when the Ladycats were D3 in the days when enrollments were more important for divisions.

El Dorado also has already captured the D3 coach of the year selection with head coach Matt Raya, but Shiring clearly did enough to make it impossible not to give the state champs both honors.

Recent State D3 Players of the Year: 2025 Izzy McFadden (Kentfield Marin Catholic); 2024 Gabriella Kelley (San Francisco University); 2023 Morgan Triguiero (Caruthers); 2022 Erin Sellers (Oakland Tech); 2021 D’Arrah Allen (Lawndale Leuzinger); 2020 Natalia Ackerman (Aptos); 2019 Ila Lane (Portola Valley Woodside Priory); 2018 Nia Johnson (Sacramento West Campus); 2017 Haley Van Dyke (Moraga Campolindo); 2016 Sabrina Ionescu (Orinda Miramonte); 2015 Sabrina Ionescu (Orinda Miramonte). For full list of every year, CLICK HERE.

Lauren Harris of Faith Christian plays at Golden1 Center during CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championships. Photo: Jose Luis Villegas / Sacramento Bee.

A year ago, Lauren made history in our annual player of the year selections by becoming the first player from a D6 school to be named as our first-ever D5/D6 combined state player of the year. We had not ever selected a player from the D6 NorCal playoffs before, but felt the time was right to include those players as a possibility to be a D5/D6 combined selection.

Harris just made a ton of other history during the 2025-26 season and now gets a divisional honor for the state in the one in which her team played. She is the second straight D4 state player of the year from the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section following Haley Smith from Liberty Ranch of Galt from last year.

One of the big questions surrounding Harris’ postseason accolades was whether her small school status would impact her being either the Sacramento Bee’s Metro Player of the Year or the MaxPreps Sac-Joaquin Section Player of the Year. It did not. Lauren has gained both honors. Now, we’ll wait to see if she’s in the first 10 or second 10 or third 10 of our own prestigious Cal-Hi Sports All-State Teams.

In the CIF D4 state finals, Harris capped her career with 26 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and three blocks in a 51-37 triumph over Palisades of Pacific Palisades. She earlier had a 47-point outing in the regional playoffs vs Liberty Ranch (which still had Haley Smith on its team). She had two 50-point games earlier in the season and averaged 31.1 for the season.

Speaking of scoring, Harris, who has signed with Long Beach State, ended her four-year career with 3,578 points, which trails only two others on our all-time state list and is a record for Northern California. Her career scoring average of 28.4 also will go into the state records, but was just short of the 28.5 career mark of older sister Audrey Harris.

For three-point shooting, Lauren also completely destroyed our state record listings. She made a career best 242 three-pointers as a senior, which broke the single-season state record she set of 191 as a junior. Harris also ended her career with 742 three-pointers over the last four seasons, which is more than 250 higher than the previous state record and it is an all-time national record.

Recent State D4 Players of the Year: 2025 Haley Smith (Galt Liberty Ranch); 2024 Laila Florvilus (Eureka St. Bernard’s); 2023 Yalee Schwartz (Los Angeles Shalhevet); 2022 Hannah Golan (Ross Branson); 2021 Dami Sule (Bakersfield Christian); 2020 Celeste Lewis (Hanford Sierra Pacific); 2019 Stephanie Okowi (Oakland Tech); 2018 Destiny McAllister (Los Angeles Brentwood); 2017 Kiara Jefferson (Sacramento West Campus); 2016 Minyon Moore (Richmond Salesian); 2015 Kennedy Burke (Chatsworth Sierra Canyon). For full list of every year, CLICK HERE.

Naomi Durrah of Silver Valley (Yermo) went from 29 ppg as a freshman to 33 ppg as a sophomore. Photo: X.com.

With the junior honoree from last year in this division moving up along with her team to D4, that opened it up for a different player to gain the state honor this year for D5. It was not as easy to select for sure as Lauren Harris for D4.

In the end, the nod went to Durrah, who was all-state D5/D6 as a freshman last year when she averaged 29.9 points per game. She was even more prolific as a sophomore with 33.0 ppg, the third-highest scoring average in the state (MaxPreps) and played against what we viewed as better competition than the top two reported scoring leaders (who also played at the D5/D6 level).

In a final regular season game against a Twentynine Palms team that won a league title, Durrah led the Trojans with 49 points in a 61-59 victory. She then scored 35 points in a CIF Southern Section D6 playoff win vs Valley Christian of Cerritos before getting slowed down in her team’s loss to Warren of Downey (which has more than 3,000 students) in the next round.

Self-described as “just a military kid,” Naomi has been traveling 40 miles to train this spring from Fort Irwin to Barstow and has been playing for the Vegas Elite 16-under club team. She was recently named to an all-tourney team with some girls we’ve heard of from bigger schools. Durrah also showed up on a list of top 10 recruits in the state at No. 10 for the Class of 2028 by Prep Girls Hoops.

Durrah also averaged 5.5 rebounds and 6.5 steals per game this season and she is on track to get on to the all-time state career steals leader list if she keeps up her pace in that category. On top of all that, Naomi has already become the leading scorer in Silver Valley school history.

The last D5 player of the year from the CIFSS was Vanessa Smart of Oxnard Hueneme in 2018. There also has been just one other D5 player of the year from the high desert area of Southern California and that was Kim Fairchild of Boron way back in 1985.

Recent State D5/D6 Players of the Year: 2025 Lauren Harris (Yuba City Faith Christian); 2024 Daijha Teague (Oakland); 2023 Christelle Williams (Roseville Valley Christian); 2022 Summer Jenkins (San Anselmo San Domenico); 2021 Jazmine Soto (Strathmore); 2020 Jazmine Soto (Strathmore); 2019 Serena Ybarra (Coalinga); 2018 Vanessa Smart (Oxnard Hueneme); 2017 Kayla Tahaafe (E. Palo Alto Eastside College Prep); 2016 Kayla Tahaafe (E. Palo Alto Eastside College Prep); 2015 Destiny Littleton (La Jolla Bishop’s). For full list of every year, CLICK HERE.

Mark Tennis is the editor and publisher of Cal-Hi Sports. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports