Maize’s Brianna Johnson skips basketball season after two ACL tears (+video)

Maize junior Brianna Johnson spent Wednesday afternoon working with her dad, Brian, on basketball drills in the middle-school gym at Collegiate. Dribbling with two balls, dribbling between cones, using a ladder for agility.

The gym at Collegiate, where Brian Johnson coaches, was otherwise empty.

Brianna Johnson doesn’t practice in the afternoons because she chose not to play basketball this season.

After anterior cruciate ligament tears in both knees in her first two seasons, it was an understandable decision. On Jan. 25, she had her fourth surgery to remove scar tissue on her right knee.

“It wasn’t really difficult to decide,” Johnson said. “I needed to get my leg stronger.

“I went to therapy one day and (the physical therapist) said, ‘I don’t think you should play basketball.’ I told him I was thinking the same thing. I talked to my parents about it, and they thought it was the best decision.”

Johnson burst onto the basketball scene as a freshman. She showcased her quickness, ballhandling and passing skills, along with the ability to score from the perimeter or by driving inside.

A starter, she helped lead Maize to the 2014 Class 6A semifinal. But she suffered an ACL tear in her right knee and didn’t play again until January 2015.

She played in 17 games as a sophomore and the Eagles were a favorite to return to the title game. They did, but without Johnson, who tore the ACL in her left knee in the sub-state final.

Johnson didn’t hear the common “pop” when she tore her left ACL. She did, however, once again experience the sensation of two bones rubbing together.

“I kind of knew,” Johnson said. “I was on the ground. I was like, ‘No.’”

There’s no doubt that Maize was a better team with Johnson on the court.

“When it happened the first time, I thought, ‘We’ll be all right. We can overcome this,’ ” Maize coach Jerrod Handy said. “Once you get through that and have time to reflect, you realize that was devastating.

“You take any other state tournament team that is planning on having a chance to win it, and you take one of their best players off that team, that’s just going to tough for anyone to overcome.”

Maize is also without Handy’s daughter, Jacey, a junior guard who tore an ACL in the summer and is missing the season.

“Brianna is such a competitor,” Jerrod Handy said. “Defensively she’s really tough, and then she is relentless as far as pushing the ball up the court, pushing the ball to the basket. She is a constant threat everywhere she is on the court.”

Johnson’s concern with playing this season was tied specifically to her right knee — the first ACL tear — and college scholarships.

Johnson isn’t scared of a third ACL tear, but there’s frustration that her right knee hasn’t healed. She was released to play eight months after that first surgery, but it took until this week to fully straighten her knee.

“She was crying in therapy because she’s working hard and yet she keeps getting news that it’s not right in there,” Brian Johnson said. “They’re thinking she’s not doing any extra work.

“It was hard as a parent watching her do her stretches, working out four times a week, but the knee wouldn’t want to straighten. She’d go to the gym and she’s crying because she’s watching everyone else play.”

Johnson and Brianna’s mom, Danico Standifer, decided to put her in counseling.

“I just knew that if I talked to someone, that they could help me get through it,” Brianna Johnson said. “She talks to me, tells me to take my time and helps me think positive.”

Is she mentally stronger?

“Yes. My parents have helped, too. They put me in counseling and they make sure that I do my stretches and get all the training that I need so I can come back,” Johnson said.

The second ACL tear wasn’t as dramatic, mentally or physically. She was cleared six months after surgery, but the right knee continued to be a problem. She walks with a limp, and while she ran well, she wasn’t as smooth.

Her most recent surgery has finally gotten the needed results — she can completely straighten her knee.

During Wednesday’s workout, she did all the agility drills with her left knee, but her right knee was still sore.

The goal is to regain her quickness before summer basketball starts.

It’s her last chance to land a scholarship and get in front of college coaches.

Brian Johnson said she was offered a scholarship by Pittsburg State and that it has been made clear the offer still stands.

“This is my last year to get college offers,” Brianna Johnson said. “I want to focus on summer because it’s my last year to play summer basketball. That’s more important than school ball as far as college. We go to lots of tournaments in the summer. There are college coaches everywhere. They’re all in one gym.

“I feel I need to have my summer.”

Her timeline is simple, and it includes playing her her senior season.

“Sit out, get it stronger, and then play all summer long — and then go back and play next year,” Johnson said.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Maize’s Brianna Johnson skips basketball season after two ACL tears (+video)."