Park Hill South senior Addison Bjorn officially became a back-to-back Missouri Girls Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year on March 13.
The honor recognizes Bjorn as the best girls high school basketball player in the state for the second consecutive season. She finished the season averaging a double-double for a third straight season, scoring 25.7 points and 14.3 rebounds per game.
“Addison’s talent is undeniable – her skillset, her high IQ, court vision and leadership,” Oak Park head coach Delischa Anderson said in a press release. “She makes her teammates that much better. Her type of greatness is rare to see at this level.”
Bjorn has shown her versatility throughout her time at Park Hill South, shining both as a guard and as a forward. She can shoot the ball. She can handle the ball. She can play defense, even altering her game to still be effective when in foul trouble.
More than anything else, Bjorn, who ESPN ranked as the No. 10-ranked recruit in the Class of 2026, increasingly got to the free-throw line. That is where she scored nearly a third of her points this season.
Bjorn took her game to yet another level from her junior to senior year, setting career highs in points, rebounds and blocks. Perhaps her greatest improvement came from the charity stripe, where she shot 78.9% after shooting less than 65% in each of her first three seasons.
It was evident right from the get-go that Bjorn was in for a special senior year. She opened the season with a 48-point performance in the Panthers’ comeback victory against Liberty North on Nov. 24 — setting a career and school single-game scoring record.
Park Hill South senior Addison Bjorn has been tabbed as the best high school basketball in the state of Missouri for the second consecutive year.
Bjorn also recorded single-game career-highs in rebounds (21 on Jan. 27), assists (9 on Feb. 6) and blocks (7 on Jan. 23) throughout her senior campaign. She tallied a double-double in 27 of the Panthers’ 29 games.
The University of Texas signee helped Park Hill South to back-to-back conference titles and district championship game appearances all four years.
South went 91-24 in the four years Bjorn was on the team. The team won a district title in Bjorn’s freshman season, finishing 26-4, and Bjorn led the Panthers to the program’s first-ever undefeated regular season before losing its 28-game winning streak in the district finals last year.
Bjorn concluded her Park Hill South career with 2,380 points, ranking in the top 80 in state history. She is also the program’s all-time leading rebounder, recording 1,192 boards throughout her career as she became just the second girl in state history to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
Before moving on to SEC basketball, Bjorn will participate in the 2026 McDonald’s All-American Game on March 31 in Glendale, Ariz. She will also report to camp on April 11 for the 2026 NIKE Hoops Team USA Summit in Portland, Ore.
As a result of the statistical domination in Missouri’s highest classification, Bjorn has also been rewarded with many accolades, which include being named a DiRenna Award co-winner last year. She is also a three-time gold medalist representing Team USA across the globe.
While Bjorn continues her journey at the collegiate level next, she leaves behind a legacy that will be difficult to replicate.