Kansas City is a hotbed for girls basketball. These recruits lead the 2026 class
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas City produces elite girls talent; Addison Bjorn ranks top‑10 nationally in 2026.
- Bjorn committed to Texas from 40+ Division I offers and targets a national championship.
- Local programs show pipeline growth; area could supply more college and pro players.
The Kansas City metro has produced a long line of men’s and women’s basketball stars through the years.
Among the men, the 2000s saw the rise of NBA ballers Tyronn Lue and Earl Watson. Current NBA standouts include Christian Braun, Ochai Agbaji and Spencer Jones.
KC has also produced countless college stars in the women’s game, such as Danielle Adams, Jada Williams, Jaliya Davis and S’Mya Nichols. Women from Kansas City have played professionally, too, mainly in leagues overseas.
WNBA careers have been harder to come by. But with the crop of talent now emerging from the area, that may be changing soon.
One of the highest-rated girls high school hoops prospects in the country, and possibly in Kansas City basketball history, is Park Hill South senior Addison Bjorn. The lengthy 6-foot-2 forward signed to play for the University of Texas in November, choosing the Longhorns from more than 40 Division I offers.
Ranked in the top 10 by most recruiting outlets, Bjorn is the highest-rated local prospect since Oklahoma guard and Bishop Miege alum Payton Verhulst in 2021.
And Bjorn is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the immense pool of talent that’s set to emerge from greater KC in the next several years.
To the north, Staley has a starting five of Division I talent. The Falcons are led by Bjorn’s old Park Hill South teammate and Nebraska signee Ava Miles, a forward, and Arizona State signee Londyn Parker, a guard. Juniors Brielle Mays, Remi Grant and highly rated post Destiny Manyawu are also drawing Division I interest — Manyawu is a four-star prospect who is ranked among the top 50 nationally.
There are more. Many more.
Olathe North four-star senior Asia Lee has signed with Florida State. Olathe South junior center Eve Long is a five-star, already ranked among the top eight players in next year’s class on several boards. She could end up being ranked higher than Bjorn.
Even freshman phenoms Harper Winter of Blue Valley North and Eyani Mills of Liberty North are drawing recruiting buzz.
The Kansas City metro has had its fair share of talented players, but this set of prospects and current college underclassmen have made the area a hotbed for girls basketball.
“It’s a crazy class ... one of the strongest classes that I’ve seen in the metro area,” said sixth-year Staley head coach Michael Bennett. “It speaks to, one, the attention to women’s basketball, it’s increasing. You’ve got more and more kids playing earlier. You’ve got more and more kids playing outside of high school, outside of middle school, to playing in club circuits, AAU circuits.
“I think it’s, it’s really, really neat to see. And hope it just continues that you get the attention that it deserves.”
Staley’s All-Star lineup
Walk into nearly any girls high school basketball game across the metro and there’s a good chance you’ll see several college-bound players on the court.
A lot of them play on the same team, like Staley’s current lineup.
The Falcons have one of the most talented teams in the state. Many helped the program to its first state-championship appearance last year — Staley lost to St. Louis-area powerhouse Incarnate Word, suffering just its second defeat of a 32-game season.
The players still describe that journey as surreal. They reminisce about the Class 6, District 8 championship game, in which they beat Park Hill South 51-43 inside the sold-out Staley gymnasium, ending the visiting team’s undefeated season.
“There were people all over. People couldn’t even get in the gym,” Mays told The Star. “And it was against another public Kansas City school. So to have that feeling that we have people with us, that is really nice. And going to state, (at) Mizzou, that’s a cool atmosphere. Playing at that college court was nice.”
Staley’s practices are run like one might expect for a team eyeing a return to the state championship game. They’re fun and full of laughs. But these high schoolers are also focused in preparation for what they hope will be another extended postseason run.
Each girl in the Falcons’ starting five can score. Mays, Grant and Parker alternate turns for who runs point in the offense. At 6-foot-1, Miles can take over a game in all phases. Manyawu, whose 6-foot-9 brother Stanley helped the Staley boys team win a state title three years ago and is currently playing at Iowa, can dominate the paint at 6-3 and has the fluidity to get up and down the court with ease.
And everyone on the court plays tenacious defense.
“I think we’re still such an underrated team. I think there’s a lot of people doubting us,” Miles said. Staley is currently first in the district standings with a 16-2 record.
“A lot of people that just are like, ‘Yeah, they’re good, but they’re second-place good.’ And I think that’s been our biggest chip on our shoulder,” Miles added. “Like, ‘All right, you guys can look at us, look at us how you want, but we’re gonna prove you wrong.’”
The group of Staley upperclassmen is an amalgamation of talent that has played together since they were freshman, Bennett said. And now that talent has combined to become one of the best teams that he has coached.
“We’ve just been able to get better and better and better... been able to build on the season previously,” he said. “It’s kind of a culmination of what we do every day and how we approach practice and games.”
With that approach, and all the winning it produces, comes additional college recruiting. Not that Bennett seems to mind.
“It’s a luxury to have,” he said. “I think it’s kind of a unique situation here that we have at Staley is that we have the ability, because of the talent that we have, is for other players, younger players, players that maybe aren’t seen on the circuit as much, to be seen and to have those opportunities to be seen.”
Bjorn leads Park Hill South
At Park Hill South, Bjorn leads her team both on and off the court.
Similar to a five-tool baseball player, Bjorn is involved in every sequence of the game. Gliding up and down the court in long strides, Bjorn uses her size to defend, blocking and stealing the ball at will.
She routinely rebounds the ball and takes it all the way back up the court to the basket. She’ll finish such drives with a layup or dish-out to a teammate, sometimes in no-look fashion. She extends the floor with her shooting, often opting for a mid-range jumper because she can take advantage of inferior opponents with her drives.
Bjorn has been a highly rated prospect since middle school and was happy to end her years-long recruiting process by signing with Texas. She feels the pressure of being a top recruit, she said, but believes that she has navigated it well.
“Having that side to just perform every game, and having those eyes on you, it can be a lot at times,” Bjorn said. “I feel like I end up pretty well just with my friends, my family, they help me out. I’m a lot more than just a basketball player, so just staying even with all that keeps me grounded.”
Bjorn’s older brother, Jack, is a senior tight end at Iowa State. He has helped her sift through the process of evaluating potential college destinations. Her twin brother, Carson, plays basketball and baseball for Park Hill South.
“I believe I wouldn’t be the athlete I am without my brothers,” she said. “Jack ... he just led the way. He set the bar really high. Played about every sport, and that kind of flowed down into what Carson and I did, and just having my dad as a coach as well was really important. But at the end of the day, playing with the boys is different.”
Park Hill South coach Josh Dorr, in his 10th season, remembers Bjorn and Miles growing up on the same youth teams, begging for guidance in order to improve. Miles transferred to Staley after her freshman year.
Now, they’re two of the top prospects produced by the metro in recent years.
Dorr believes Bjorn is the best Park Hill South hoops product since Alecia Westbrook, an all-state performer for the Panthers. Westbrook enjoyed a decorated college career at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi alongside Oak Park alum Paige Allen.
“(Westbrook) broke the school scoring record, and every time I turned around, there’s Addi and her dad sitting two rows behind me, behind the bench,” Dorr said.
Dorr believes Bjorn’s leadership and loyalty are her best qualities. Bjorn has been on talented teams throughout her career, but Dorr has seen how she has embraced being the best and most-relied upon player in her senior season.
“We graduated eight seniors last year, had a team that was really good,” Dorr said. “And she’s, like, ‘We can still be good, we’ve gotta be positive with stuff. I want to do that, so that’s what I want to learn.’
“I think there’s a lot of things like that, too. So it’s been really cool to see.”
Like the Falcons at Staley, the Panthers have dreams of making a state-title run. And that’s a path that could see them run into Staley in the district playoffs again. Park Hill South is currently third in the district at 11-5.
While her high school career will soon come to an end, Bjorn has told each college team recruiting her that her goal is to win a national championship. She’s ready to put in the work to make it happen while also staying consistent and having fun, she said.
“I feel like sometimes, especially in our world today, that’s not really seen with other aspects of college and NIL,” Bjorn said.
Name, image and likeness — money — did not play a role in that recruitment process, Bjorn said.
“I want to win national championship,” she said. “I want to do whatever I can to win. I want to just (say), ‘Coaches, keep leaning on me.’”
