January 10, 2008 in Sports

Vikings point guard Johnson fought two injuries

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Coeur d’Alene’s Ali Johnson, right, injured her knee a second time when battling for a loose ball in February 2006 against Lake City’s Brittany Bemis, center, and CdA’s Amy Warbrick. It was Johnson’s first game back after her first knee surgery.
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Coming back from one anterior cruciate ligament injury is one thing. Coming back from two on the same knee in a span of six months is something altogether different.

That’s the mountain-sized hurdle Coeur d’Alene senior point guard Ali Johnson faced her sophomore year after she started as a freshman and was named the Inland Empire League’s newcomer of the year.

The 5-foot-5 Johnson was at a camp for point guards in California a month before her sophomore year when she blew out her left knee. She was dribbling on a fast-break drill when she did a jump stop. Her knee buckled.

“I didn’t know anything was wrong when it happened,” she said.

Johnson stood up and tried to walk, but the knee crumpled. An on-site trainer suspected the worst.

She had an MRI when she returned home and it confirmed the ACL was shredded.

Following surgery, she was determined to return before the end of her sophomore season.

Johnson was released to start practicing in late January. Her first game was in the regional championship game when she came in late in the fourth quarter. About three minutes later as she scrambled for a loose ball, the knee buckled again.

“I knew it right away,” she said. “It was similar to the first time.”

An MRI revealed that two of the four strands of the piece of hamstring taken from her leg and grafted in her knee had snapped.

A patella tendon of a cadaver was grafted in the second surgery.

Johnson didn’t rush her comeback the second time. She started shooting five months later, but she didn’t play the first month of the season. It was obvious she wasn’t her old self on the court.

The second comeback, coupled with the fact she wasn’t playing at the level she did as a freshman, took a toll. She doubted at times whether she could play like she wanted to again.

“It was very emotional,” Johnson said.

In her mind, she missed two high school seasons.

“It was a lot of stress for somebody that’s 16 or 17 years old,” CdA coach Dale Poffenroth said. “By the time she was able to play (last year), which was late in the season, we had already established the rotation. If it had been at the start of the season it would have been different. The physical part was probably fine, but the mental part wasn’t there yet.”

Johnson was determined to overcome the mental barriers. She worked on her skills and had some sessions with Spokane Stars director Ron Adams last spring. He put her on his summer elite team.

She was still tentative when the Stars started their season in June. But the doubts finally disappeared. She played in the Stars’ 52 games, averaging 23 minutes a game.

By the end of the summer, Adams saw a new Johnson. Or was it the old Johnson?

“I was there the night she re-injured her knee,” Adams said. “She and her parents have been through hell. I’ve never seen anything like her situation. Her comeback is amazing.

“During the summer she was probably our most valuable player off the bench. She’s the best point guard in Idaho. The reason I know that is the competition level she played against in the summer.”

Johnson shoots the ball with sharp accuracy, averages less than a turnover a game and plays solid defense.

“Her best attribute is her smarts,” Adams said. “She’s flat-out intelligent.”

Poffenroth admires Johnson’s perseverance.

“She battled through adversity to get back,” Poffenroth said. “She had to earn back her time, and she’s earned it back.”

Johnson, who carries a 3.8 grade-point average, discovered through the ordeal what she wants to do with her life after basketball.

“I want to be an orthopedic surgeon,” she said.

By missing most of the past two years, Johnson couldn’t play when others were being seen by college recruiters.

Adams said Johnson will have an opportunity to play at a high level in college.

“She can walk right in and start at any (NCAA) Division II school right now,” Adams said. “There are a lot of schools that need players that didn’t get what they wanted in November (the early signing period).”

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