Jessi Emery-Gibson was a gifted basketball and softball player during NHS years. Despite fighting Hirschsprung’s disease which required over thirty surgeries, Emery-Gibson played at Napa High with great passion and determination.
Her basketball coach Darci Lewis Ward said, “I was truly stunned! How could someone who dove on the floor for every loose ball, aggressively and consistently went against bigger girls for the rebound, and worked tirelessly when we did our conditioning, have major medical issues?”
As a softball player Emery-Gibson was named first-team All Monticello Empire League and first-team All Napa County at catcher in 2003 for Napa, the League Division II Champion. She was team captain in 2004. Emery-Gibson played three years on the varsity team at Napa where she won the team’s offensive/slugger of the year as a junior and set a school record of five home runs with a slugging percentage of over .600.
As a basketball player Emery-Gibson played all four years in the Napa High program. She was a varsity captain during the 2003-04 season when Napa won the Monticello Empire League. She was named as the Most Valuable Player at the Cal Jam Fest Tournament in 2002.
Emery-Gibson continued her athletic career in softball earning a scholarship to Chattanooga State Technical Community College. At Chattanooga Emery-Gibson was named as a team captain and won All American honors. She finished her college softball career at the University of Georgia.
Emery-Gibson and her husband Mike Gibson, fellow member into our Hall of Fame, live in San Diego. She continues to play competitive slow-pitch softball in Southern California.