Waubonsie Valley senior guard Danyella Mporokoso has all of the qualities to be an elite athlete.
Talent, athleticism and a will to win have driven Mporokoso to become one of the best players in Illinois and the best player in program history. But she could have done that elsewhere.
“That’s huge,” Waubonsie Valley coach Brett Moore said, noting he has trained Mporokoso since she was in fifth grade. “She and her family believe in respect and loyalty.
“She had an opportunity to go to Benet before she came here. We’d been working together, and I told her, ‘Hey, you do what’s best for you.’”
Mporokoso, the 2025-26 Beacon-News/Courier-News/Naperville Sun Girls Basketball Player of the Year, chose to attend Waubonsie Valley, where she shattered multiple records during her four-year career. She scored 2,979 points, which broke Ashley Luke’s school and DuPage County career mark of 2,885 that had stood since 1999.
“She didn’t want to play for anybody else, and I appreciate that, but I only want the best for her,” Love said. “So if the best was for her to go to Benet, that would have been on her. But she chose to stay loyal to me and build the program here.”
Mporokoso led the Warriors to unprecedented heights during her four-year career, including a 119-19 record, two DuPage Valley Conference titles, three sectional titles and their first state trophy, a fourth-place finish in 2024. They beat Benet in three straight sectional championship games. She increased her scoring every season, tallying a program-record 1,007 points to average 28.0 as a senior.
Mporokoso, a three-time player of the year and four-time all-conference pick, had offers from Power Four programs, including several in the Big Ten. She surprised many people when she committed to Illinois State, which was the first to recruit her.
“I think the thing that is really most important in high school, AAU and college is loyalty and going somewhere where I had true connections,” she said. “Coach Love is so committed and connected to me, and then with everyone over at M14, and that’s how I felt with everyone at ISU.”
Mporokoso’s teammates feel the same way about her.
“She’s always been a leader on our team,” Waubonsie Valley senior guard Maya Cobb said. “She’s helped all of us with building confidence in ourselves.
“She has a very high IQ for the game. She explains it and helps everybody understand it to her level.”
Waubonsie Valley junior guard Maya Pereda said Mporokoso’s influence goes beyond X’s and O’s.
“I can’t explain about how much Dany has impacted me as a player but also as a person,” Pereda said. “Being able to play with her and the IQ she has that she’s willing to share with everybody is just incredible.
“There’s not a lot of players that you meet like that. Her work ethic has taught me so much. I’m just so fortunate to have played with Dany the last three years.”
Cobb agreed that Mporokoso sets an example for everyone.
“She holds everybody accountable,” Cobb said. “She has a very high standard for herself, and she holds us to that standard. We always look up to her and want to be like that.”
Love said that will be Mporokoso’s lasting legacy.
“She has meant so much,” Love said. “She’s an amazing player but greater person outside of that. She has driven this program to new heights. The standard we have now is set because of her.
“Everybody wants to do the things that she does, and all that does is drive everyone else to be better. She leaves a mark of work ethic and toughness and drive.”
Mporokoso, though, won’t take all the credit for the Warriors’ success.
“Honestly, it isn’t because of me but the culture of change,” she said. “We get here early. On the weekends, we train in the morning.
“It’s so much more than coming out and winning games. It’s the culture that was created, not just by me but by all the hardworking people on the team that I happened to just be with.”
Illinois State assistant Scott Gillespie loves Mporokoso’s humility.
“She’s an impressive young woman already in just how she interacts with her teammates and coach,” Gillespie said. “The more we got to know her in the recruiting, it was very evident she just has a vision.”
That vision included prioritizing fit over size when it came to choosing a college.
“She and her support group believed in that vision of what’s best for her might not be what outside people think, and I think sometimes that gets lost in today’s game,” Gillespie said. “It is where are you going to feel at home and where can you become the player that you can become.
“She’s so good already. She has so much potential to continue to grow, and she has the work ethic, so we’re definitely really excited that she believes in us just as much as we believe in her.”
Mporokoso is eager to get started at Illinois State.
“I just really look forward to be able to work with all the coaches there,” she said. “I’m excited to be able to get so much better and be able to put so much more into basketball. I just can’t wait.”
Mporokoso is thinking of majoring in sports communication. But she’d like to delay utilizing whatever degree she gets.
“I want to play basketball as long as I can,” she said. “Being able to play professionally, have basketball be my job, that would be the ultimate dream for me.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
