Raven Johnson's one goal: Win

This story was written three years ago after Raven Johnson had just completed a spectacular high school career.

Some things don’t change …

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The postseason banquet after Raven Johnson’s first season was a celebration of a state championship for Westlake High School.

As part of the festivities, a representative from the company that was going to make the championship rings was there to measure everyone for their new jewelry.

“What finger do you want your rings on?” he asked. “You might win another one, so choose carefully.”

Raven Johnson, the freshman point guard who had to be coaxed to say much during the season, held up her hand.

“She was dead serious,” says coach Hilda Hankerson. “There was no smile.”

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” says Johnson. “I held up all four fingers and said “You might as well get the other three sizes too because I’m going to win four state titles’.”

Which, of course, she and Westlake did.

“I wouldn’t call that cocky,” says the MaxPreps’ Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year. “I’d call that confident.”

And Johnson credits that confidence for much of her success. “If you have confidence, it will carry you a long way,” she says.

It didn’t take long for Hankerson to recognize that Johnson was going to carry Westlake a long way. She first saw her at the local middle school which feeds Westlake. “She was head and shoulders above the others,” says Hankerson. “She really stood out.”

And Hankerson, who’s been running the show at Westlake for 26 years and played Division I basketball at Mercer, knew exactly what she was looking at.

“Raven was my point guard from day one,” she says. “The summer before she started ninth grade, I called my senior point guard over and said ‘You’re getting ready to be my two guard’.”

And though Johnson obviously had the skills and the confidence, she also understood that basketball is a team game. “As players get older, they sometimes get cliquish,” Hankerson says. “The seniors just sit with the seniors, or the starters are always together. But Raven probably sat with more people than anyone I’ve ever coached, no matter how good they were.”

At the same time, though, Johnson is ferociously competitive. She’s always played with boys because “they challenge me every day. I like to compete,” she says, and then pauses. “But most of all, I like to win.”

She hopes to keep on winning at South Carolina, where the coach is Dawn Staley, who’s one of the greatest point guards in women’s basketball history. “She showed me videos of her playing, and I was like ‘Wow’,” says Johnson, but at the same time she knows Staley is a demanding taskmaster.

That’s OK with Johnson. “I don’t like a coach who would kiss my butt. When you’re screaming at me, I like that.”

Of course, there’s one thing she likes better. “I like to win,” she says, and her goal at South Carolina is simple. “I just want to win a national championship.”

And get another ring.

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Which she did.

Twice.

Some things don’t change.

Photo byUniversity of South Carolina