May 12, 2022
After playing lacrosse for four years, in eighth grade, senior Grace Johnson decided to join her teammates in a new sport: field hockey. Now, four years into playing with ETHS, Johnson has watched the program grow and expand, as she will continue her athletic ambitions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute this fall.
“I started playing field hockey, because all the girls on my lacrosse team were playing field hockey. I was kind of scared to start because that was a little bit late to be picking up a new sport at that point, and, so, I got one of my friends and we were like, ‘yeah, we’ll both start and we’ll both be bad together,’” Johnson explains. “And then I got to high school, and I realized that this was something that I could actually be really good at if I worked hard and tried to take the advantage of the opportunities that I had.”
Later, when starting the recruitment process, Johnson considered her academic interests above all else—even field hockey.
“It was always school first and field hockey second. They have exactly what I want to study, [and] I want to study architecture, which is kind of hard to come by. It’s a very good school academically, and I think they’re going to give me the opportunities that I want,” Johnson elaborates. “And, then, obviously, the field hockey team was super nice when I met them, and I really like the idea of, if I’m going far away from home, to have a support system of people there that I can be on a team with and be close with.”
But, despite the difficulties of leaving Evanston behind, Johnson also has a lot to anticipate in the coming years of her life.
“In some ways, it’s the little things like hanging out at the hotel when we have an away game, and going out to eat together after practice [that I’m looking forward to],” Johnson concludes. “Going to college is really scary, and going in a couple of weeks early for preseason, and knowing everyone on your team that quickly is very appealing. I’m just kind of looking forward to that community, that you get to do things that I don’t get to do with my other friends.”
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