An eventful offseason became more eventful for the Palisades High girls basketball program when former Windward School star Chelsey Gipson attended a workout Saturday on campus and confirmed she has enrolled at Pali High with the intention of playing for the Dolphins in the winter.
Gipson’s arrival, coupled with the return of All-City selections Bianca King and Kayla Merrill-Gillett, makes the Dolphins one of the favorites to win the City Section Division I crown.
Photo: Steve Galluzzo
“I’m very excited to be here,” Gipson said. “I know [head coach] Torino Johnson well, I’ve been looking around since the beginning of summer and a lot of my friends have told me Palisades is a good school. They have really good players. I played with Chaniya Pickett and Bianca King on my travel team.”
Gipson, a sophomore guard, helped Windward win the CIF Southern Section Open Division championship in March and she should feel right at home in the Dolphins’ gym. After all, that’s where she made her prep debut last November when she scored 15 points in the Wildcats’ 64-22 rout of Woodland Hills Taft in the first round of the Palisades Beach Invitational. Windward defeated Palisades on its way to winning the tournament and Gipson was named to Cal-Hi Sports’ All-State Freshman first team in May.
Johnson is determined to take his program to the next level, as he demonstrated in June by adding three assistants to his staff: ex-Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace, former Bishop Montgomery girls assistant Jeremy St. Louis and Dolphins alumna Dominique Scott, who went on to play at Pasadena City College and USC.
Johnson is excited to add a player of Gipson’s caliber to his roster and believes she will make an immediate impact along with two new seniors, Rita Herbstman and Ariana Haghani, and promising freshmen Samantha Spainer and Jillian Archer.
“Our goal is the same as it was last year,” he said. “We want to improve, but we set our goals high on winning a state title and we’re close to accomplishing that.”
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