ROCKFORD, Mich. — In conjunction with the Detroit Free Press, the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan recognizes the state's top senior with the Miss Basketball award each year. Rockford High School's Anna Wypych was named Miss Basketball 2025 on Monday, but it wasn't just her skills on the court that shot her to the top. Wypych's community service earned her a whopping 444 first-place votes, more than double any other competitor.
With 14 years of playing basketball under her belt, dribbling, passing, and shooting is akin to breathing for 18-year-old Wypych.
"It means a lot. It's kind of like a home outside of my house for me, but I love doing it," said Wypych at Rockford High School Wednesday.
It's a family affair as skill for the sport runs in the Wypych genes.
"My mom played at Michigan Tech. She's in the Hall of Fame up there. My older sister plays at Michigan Tech. She's a sophomore. Her season just ended, so she'll be a junior up there," Wypych said. "And then my little sister is a freshman on varsity [at Rockford]."
However, it was Wypych's talent not only on the court, but off that's earned her the most prestigious award in the state for high school women's basketball.
"It was actually a really cool moment when we won the regional final in the locker room. Coach Wilson broke the news early to everyone, and everyone was just screaming and super happy for me, giving me hugs. That just shows that I have great teammates. I definitely couldn't have gotten this award without them," Wypych said.
Winning Miss Basketball 2025 was a culmination of years of hard work for Wypych.
"It's kind of hard normally during the summers, training even twice a day sometimes," said Wypych. "During school, I have a zero-hour class, which is my strength and conditioning, so I wake up early to try to get a lift in, and then, obviously after we have practice and stuff. But sometimes later at night, we'll come back to the gym around seven and shoot and just get up as many shots as we can."
A four-year player on the Rams varsity team, she helped them get to four conference championships, winning four district titles, four regional titles, and one state championship. She's averaged over 22.5 points per game this season, on top of maintaining a 4.0 GPA.
Wypych holds just about every single Rockford High School record, including career points, points scored in a single game, career assists, assists in a single game, career free throws made, career steals, career made 3-point shots, and 3-point shots made in a single game.
"It's always a challenging thing to do to balance school and sports, but Rockford, you have so many resources here, so I'm super grateful for that. But school is fun. It's my senior year, so I haven't got senioritis yet," Wypych said.
Wypych's community involvement also helped her earn the title.
"Individually and as a team, we go to elementary schools around here and we read books to the little kids, and then we'll take them out to recess and hang out with them and play with them. It's just super cool," said Wypych.
She spends her time volunteering at nonprofits like Feeding America and enjoys sharing her passion for the sport with her young fans.
"She's the kind of girl that will train young players, you know, just out of the kindness of her heart, or she'll make a poster and go to a middle school game and cheer on somebody there," said Rockford High School varsity girls coach and health teacher Brad Wilson.
Wilson said Wypych will be sorely missed both on and off the court.
"She's great in the classroom, you know, obviously in our community. And on the basketball court, she's the full package. And she's, she's definitely a one in a million type player," Wilson said.
Wypych received a full-ride athletic scholarship to Butler University, where she'll start in the fall.
"I'm thinking about studying business and finance. So that's my idea of going in. Who knows if I'll actually stick with it? I mean, there's many other things I can go into. I've always wanted to be a teacher growing up, so that could be my backup plan," said Wypych.
For now, she's focused on attaining one more state championship title before the end of her high-school career. After Wypych led her team to defeat Wayne Memorial at the Breslin Center Friday, they'll head to Michigan State University Saturday afternoon, where they'll play Belleville for the Division 1 state championship title.
"I've always said that even when you think you can't, you can, and no matter how hard you train, everything will pay off, even doing the little things. But in the end, everything will pay off," Wypych added.
Follow FOX 17: Facebook - X (formerly Twitter) - Instagram - YouTube
