Latest / CBN Sports 1-ON-1 / Ep. 1 South Carolina's Tessa Johnson
Transcript
- Will Dawson: At first when it happened, I thought I hyperextended my knee and then like I'm on the ground this way and I look up and my leg is like here and like it wasn't bent at my knee. It was bent literally like in the middle of my femur. And then I just welcome to the CBN Sports Podcast. Earlier this season, before the twenty-five to twenty-six basketball season, I had the chance to sit down with South Carolina superstar guard Tessa Johnson. Now Tessa talked about overcoming injuries. She talked about defeating Caitlin Clark in the 24 national championship game and her relationship with Hall of Fame coach Don Staley. So let's pick it up where it all started, and that's growing up in a faith-filled home. Yes, I was raised in a Christian home. My whole extended family, we all live in Minnesota. And we went to church together every Sunday. ⁓ we would do Bible studies, do when we were growing up, we were in the youth groups at the Christchurch that we were at. So it sounds like it was pretty. serious thing in your friend in your household. So we're very religious. So what then did your parents do to encourage you in your faith? Was it just going to church or did they have you kind of live in a certain way or what was it about your family? It was a little bit of everything. ⁓ I feel like my grandparents set the tone for my whole family on my mom's side because that's where everyone is from on my mom's side. And when we would go to church, my mom would ask us like what we learned. She would ask each of us what we learned. And we would have to tell her the message and how we would apply it in our lifestyle because we just had to translate what we learned. It wasn't just a Sunday thing going to church and then you live however you want. It was you have to apply what you learn and how you take the message and what you learn in the Bible to your everyday life. A lot of times our trials kind of help us put our faith in focus or it becomes real to us at when when we go through hard times. Were there any hard times in your life? Maybe not even in high school or college, whenever it was, but were there hard times or trials in your life that you've had to go through? Yes, of course. One specific one. There's two actual ones that one I haven't really told any anyone about, but there was this one person who was very close to me and this is when I was younger. So I was kinda going off like the relationship my parents had with God instead of my own relationship 'cause I didn't kind of understand that in that aspect yet. But There was one person really close to me who I trusted a lot and their their view of God was like they believed certain things in the Bible and not everything in the Bible. So they were making me question things that I learned and that I would hear from like my grandparents or my mom. I was just praying hard about it because I just didn't have that understanding. And I was like, God, please give me a sign, like help me understand like, is this actually real or is this real what some this person that I trusted was telling me about? And then the next day I see this guy who I haven't seen before for a long time and he told me he was like, Tessa, trust God. And like that just gave me everything that I need to know. Like I went home, I started crying. I think I told my mom actually. And that was just like everything I needed to know. And then another another time where I went through something hard was when ⁓ I was a sophomore in high school and basketball, I've been playing basketball my whole life. Basketball is literally everything, everything to me. And it at one point it was starting to become like not more important than God, but I was spending less time on my relationship with God. And I feel like at that time he was trying to tell like show me a sign. And I actually broke broke my femur when in the game. And I could have used that as a bad thing, but I used it to get closer to God because I feel like he kinda took that away from me to show me something more, that there's more in life and I'm more than just a basketball player. That's incredible. Yeah, the broken femur. That doesn't sound I mean, that's gotta be a painful injury. Yeah, but luckily it was just it snapped in half and there's a rod through my leg now. But normally well one, it was very rare 'cause I was sixteen, I was an athlete, I was healthy, my bones were healthy, like it was just very rare. But ⁓ they rushed me to the hospital because normally there'll be there'd be internal bleeding or sometimes it like pops out of the your leg and stuff. But luckily None of that happened. It was just a clean a clean break. How afraid were you when that happened? At first when it happened, I thought I hyperextended my knee and then like I'm on the ground this way and I look up and my leg is like here and like it wasn't bent at my knee. It was bent literally like in the middle of my femur. And then I just I looked at my dad 'cause he was coaching at the time 'cause it we were at like a breakdown tournament and I looked at my dad and like I saw his face and he was scared for me and then I just like broke down. But I had all the whatever the word is, adrenaline in my body. So I didn't feel it until they kind of moved my leg. And I could I like w if I would try to move my leg, it would literally be the just the upper part of my leg and like this part wouldn't move because the bone wasn't attached. So it was yeah, it was mm-hmm. Did you know at that time or I guess over the next several months as you're reflecting about, you know, I I can't play basketball. There's nothing that I can do. Did you did you doubt? being able to come back from that or were you kind of determined that you would? Both. I think my mindset went like up and down a lot through the whole journey. ⁓ the good thing is I did have like I was talking about my family earlier and just how religious and the foundation we have. Like I did have that in my ear. I had me building my own relationship, like actually building my own relationship with God. And I had like a whole support system. But sometimes there were just doubts in my head like, is this really what I'm supposed to do or like will I actually come back stronger or just what will happen? And then when I got back on the court, of course I was scared like what if it happens again? And then someone told me, you know, if you break it, you break it. Like it's all in God's hands, like just go out there and play. And then that like kind of turned it on. So that was sophomore season in high school. You were able to come back for your junior season? Yes. And then your senior season, you were the Gatorade national or the Gatorade player of the year in Minnesota, is that correct? Yeah, what was that like, that experience of of going through your senior season? But did you win a a state title that year as well? Okay. We did my senior my senior season. We were we fell short my junior. We won we lost at a state championship, but it was okay because my best friend actually won. So that was her senior year and then my senior year we won. But looking back at it, I really didn't think of much about like what happened my sophomore year. It was more so just like what just happened. Like I was thinking about it and I'm like, wow. I posted obviously on Instagram and stuff about like the state championship and my caption was like it was all God's journey. It was just it was a long journey that I wasn't expecting and he got me through it. Yeah. And so I'm sure you were recruited by a lot of schools. The fact that you ended up here at South Carolina at this program, Coach Don Staley. What was that like when she reached out to you for the first time? It was crazy, but I think the ⁓ the most special part was when we had a conversation for the first time, it was all like it was like I knew her from when I was way younger. Like I'm huge on relationships and that was obviously one of the biggest reasons I committed here, but when I was on the phone with her, I could have I could have talked to her for hours and I just felt so comfortable and I could just trust her with how I'm gonna go throughout life. She also is is strong in her faith. Have you found that she is able to encourage you? Or is that something that she just kind of says, you know, if that's what you're into, you're you're on your own. I know you're at a public university. And so is that something that she encourages the other players or or maybe not? She goes based off like where we're at. Like she meets us where we're at. And while recruiting me, she knew how strong and how much faith meant to me. So she talks to me about it. Like my freshman year, I don't know, not a lot of people know, but like I had ankle problems like in the beginning of the summer and it was just hard for me because I I was a freshman. I wasn't able to practice as much as everyone else. I didn't know where what it was gonna look like. I didn't know when I was gonna come back. I just kept spraining this ankle, this ankle, this ankle and stuff and she just kept she was just always in my ear like, you know how, you know your faith, like you're okay. Like you're in God's hands. It was always that. So that's very helpful for me and like just keeps me on the right track, especially when I'm away from my family. I mean, I still talk to them about everything and it's just different not having them here, but it's very helpful having her here. ⁓ to have somebody like her who's who's a a legend, you know, in her own time to be able to encourage you that way. That's that's really special for you. Colossians three twenty three talks about ⁓ doing everything with with all your might. do you think about that? verse maybe or maybe maybe not even a Bible verse but what what does motivate you when you're on the court playing? Actually there's not that specific Bible verse but before I get on the court my grandpa sends me a text message and it's he's he sends me text messages. It's either a verse or just something to do with the Bible and he always ⁓ ends the text message with Remember. And that means like remember who I am, who I'm actually playing for. Like yes I'm playing for South Carolina and I'm playing for just women's college basketball and stuff. But like at the end of the day, I'm playing for the man above. Like God. So that that's what I think of out there. And that's my motivation out there. I I re I represent more than just myself out there. What does your relationship with God, with Jesus mean to you? on the court and off the court? I mean it literally means everything to me. Like I live through him, like he lives through me. And I just hope that like I can meet someone or plant seeds in other people. I use my platform and just plant seeds, whether that's introducing them to God or like reintroducing them to God. And I think that like my goal kind of I think my grandma was the one who brought it to my attention, just being able to not even have to say something about God, but then being like like wanting to question my lifestyle or how I move and like them correlating it with God. Great words there from Tessa. Sometimes the way we live speaks louder than the actual words that we use. Now let's get back to it as Tessa talks about that brilliant performance against Caitlin Clark in the national championship game and her goals as she wraps up this season. So take me back to twenty three, the national championship game. How special was that moment? The moment like people ask me that question and I just I don't even know how to answer it because it's just a feeling you have. when you're there and the feeling you have specifically with your teammates and everyone that got you there. And like, I really don't have a word for it. There's plenty of words you can use. It just doesn't describe the feeling. But it was more so like we really in the beginning of the season, we really didn't know where we stood as a team because we were so new. We had so many people leave. There was transfers. There was the new incoming freshmen. And we just didn't know where we were. So it was kind of like We're going to it, we were going into the season blindly and then we realized how good we were and then we took that and ran with it. And it like not a miracle because we worked for it, but like it was a miracle at the same time. Yeah. Well, you told me that you were struggling with injuries that year. And then that championship game, the whole world is watching. You had I mean, you broke out. Why do you think that moment specifically was the right time for you to do so? I couldn't even I couldn't even tell you. Like I I don't understand it fully. But it was just a moment like I prayed I prayed before the I pray before every game. I sit on the fourth chair of of our side of the bench, pray before the game, and then go back into the locker room, do whatever we have to do. But I always have to pray before the game. That's something I've my sister did when she was playing. That's something that I've done and that's something that my younger brother does to this day. And like before I was praying in the hotel, my mom ⁓ we my whole family was at the final forum. We were in the hotel room and we all just held hands. We just prayed because at the end of the day it's more than just a game. Like I was explaining earlier, it's like it's more than just basketball. That way I represent someone and I represent something more than myself out there. But we were praying and then I kinda like visualized and my sister told me to visualize like my f like my favorite game. And the word that came to my mind was fearless. And so like I felt like when I stepped on the court, like I was just playing with Nel Fear out there. All right. So let me ask you about that. The fourth chair, why specifically the fourth chair? Because okay, yes, I'm number five now, but my number ⁓ in high school and literally my whole life, my sister's it was my sister's number, it was my number, and it was my younger brother's number. We were all number four. And for me, one, I l I looked up to my sister a lot and I just wanted to do things that she's never been able to do, like win a state championship or a national championship or things like that. But I looked up to my older sister and that's why I wore number four. It was like four and then Johnson. Like that's just what it well that's just what it was. It doesn't they go together yes. Yeah. And also I'm my dad's fourth child, my fourth fourth daughter fourth child. And so like four is just the number and then I just sit on the fourth one every single time. So family is obviously very important to you. And your faith is very important to you. Some people might say, It's great if it's for you. I think that's just superstition. What would you say to that? I disagree. I don't think it's superstition. I think it's just like a way of life. Like, I don't see any other way to live like without God in my life. Like, I don't know how I would be like I can't even picture it like I've never even got asked that. I never even got asked that kind of question because everyone that I know, like they know how important my faith and just religion is to me. Last question. What would a successful season look like this season to you? On the court. ⁓ I think just leading, like being able to have my teammates trust me, ⁓ them looking up to me. Like I don't even know why I said on the court, but both like on the court, off the court, like being a role model for my teammates, being a role model for the younger generations, and just being that kind of inspiration that I was looking up to when I was at their age. That that's my goal and obviously the national championship. I'm not being