Lauren Johnson '24 Recruiting Profile

When I was about 3 years old I watched my older cousin play basketball and I have been dead set on basketball being my life since then. I started playing travel ball in third grade and have not taken a break since. When I started playing basketball I began learning more about the next levels as in high school and college. My dreams as a kid were to make varsity my freshman year as well as play basketball in college. When I reached the first of those goals I was beyond ecstatic; throughout these past three years of playing in high school I have only grown more fond of the idea of playing in college. 

When I was younger my dad was my coach all the way up until I was in 6th grade. Having your dad as your coach can be challenging but it was also very rewarding. My dad taught me so much not only in basketball but also in character. He taught me to always be at LEAST 15 minutes early because "early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable." My dad also taught me to be coachable; being a coachable player is an extremely important quality. I have learned to listen to what my coaches are saying and be able to fix it the next rep I get. I have learned to have great court awareness by knowing where I am knowing where my teammates are, and knowing where the other team is as well. My parents have been a HUGE help throughout this whole process in not only teaching me about basketball and character but also stressing the importance of academics. 

In college I plan to major in Veterinary medicine. Growing up I was always so interested in learning about and helping animals. Obviously I went through many many job interests as any kid would: marine biologist, zoologist, nurse, etc. I noticed something in common about all of those jobs though, they all involved animals or helping living things. Over this last school year I completed an internship at an Animal hospital. This internship taught me so much about being a Vet and what it takes physically, mentally, and emotionally. Everyone thought that after doing this internship it would've made me realize that being a vet is not what I wanted to do but it had quite the opposite effect. 

Basketball can be extremely challenging but putting in hard and dedicated work pays off. Being able to accomplish my dream of playing at the next level as well as complete school simultaneously would be extremely rewarding. I am beyond excited to see where basketball takes me as well as so excited to see how life continues.