Olympia’s Kate Johnson is The Olympian’s 2021 All-Area player of the year

Kate Johnson shied away from sports as a little girl.

She didn’t want to be on the playing surface, having people watching her efforts.

“I always said I didn’t want people looking at me, so I didn’t want to play a sport,” she remembers.

In second grade, friends convinced her to try a low-key YMCA volleyball league. Things started to change.

A decade later, shyness doesn’t slow Johnson. After helping lead Olympia High School to an eighth-place finish at 4A state with her strong left arm, she is The Olympian’s fall 2021 All-Area volleyball player of the year.

A team captain, she no longer worries about being noticed on the court.

“I’ve always been a little quieter and tried to lead by example,” she said. “But Coach (Laurie) Creighton says ‘it doesn’t matter if you’re quiet normally, you have to be loud on the court.’ This season, I tried to become more of a vocal leader.”

Johnson poses an unusual problem for opposing defenses, one they don’t normally face and can’t easily practice against: a skilled left-handed hitter sending balls at them from the right side of the court. She’s 6-foot-1 and hits as hard as any high school player, which compounds the challenge.

She upped her hitting efficiency from .257 during the regular season to .310 in state tournament matches against Gonzaga Prep, Kennedy Catholic, North Creek and Lake Stevens.

Creighton, who retired at the end of the fall season after 43 years in charge of the Bears’ program, saw it coming five years ago.

“I went to watch some seventh graders who would be coming to Olympia play for their club team and Kate caught my attention right away,” she said. “Obviously, she had the gift of height. She was left-handed and she could hit the ball pretty dang hard, even at that age.”

Johnson, in turn, had an eye on the Bears. She attended various camps and clinics sponsored by Olympia.

“I went with my dad to watch when they won the state championship at Saint Martin’s in 2011,” she said. “I was definitely aware what a strong program it was before I got anywhere near high school.”

Arriving on campus, she got another taste of state. Not selected for varsity as a freshman, she nonetheless went with the team to the 2018 state tournament, when the Bears finished sixth, as a stat keeper. She couldn’t wait to return as an actual player, but a scary ankle injury robbed her of most of her sophomore and junior seasons.

At first, the injury was treated as a typical orthopedic mishap. Then, a year ago, doctors discovered a benign tumor in the joint that needed to be surgically removed.

Ultimately, Johnson’s senior year would be the only full season she would play for Olympia. She made the most of it.

She totaled 270 kills, 21 solo blocks and 17 assists. When the Bears got “out of system,” the volleyball term for a broken play, sets went to the left side or Johnson’s totals might have been slightly higher.

Having her to run plays through on the right was a distinct advantage for Olympia.

“If they don’t have their own left-hander to work against, it throws a different look at teams trying to defend her,” Creighton said. “To have her be not only left-handed, but have height and power gave us an X factor not a lot of teams can take advantage of.”

Johnson wasn’t always aware of the edge being a southpaw gave her.

“When I was younger, I didn’t know it would turn out to be such a benefit for me,” she said. “People would say, ‘oh, you’re left-handed, that’s kind of weird.’ But when I started playing for Coach Creighton, she was like ‘you do realize not a lot of people are left-handed and as tall as you are?’

“After that, I started noticing I wasn’t just the only left-hander on the team but sometimes I’d be the only one at a camp with sixty girls.”

Creighton refers to Johnson as a “high character” member of a team she said was full of quality individuals.

“Kate’s a really genuine kid who cares about the culture of the program, one of the steadiest performers we had,” Creighton said. “We counted on her at crunch time and she regularly came through.

“She missed so much time because of her ankle, I was super pleased she had a great senior season.”

Johnson isn’t sure if her stellar high school finale marks the end of her volleyball career. She’s been a popular recruiting target of non-Division I schools but plans a nursing major often found at major institutions.

“I’ve talked to my parents and to Coach about it. I’m more open to the idea of continuing to play. It’s an option I’m still considering,” she said.

If the 2021 season marks the end, it leaves Johnson with strong memories. Along with annual retreats Olympia’s volleyball team takes, this year’s trip to Yakima for the state tournament is a favorite.

“When I went with the team in 2018 as a stat taker, I saw how the team was together the whole time,” she said. “I wanted to do that as a player. When we made it to state this year, it was exactly like that. Even though it was the end of the season, we still bonded and grew even more as a team.”

Johnson acknowledged this season’s team, which took Creighton to the final possible day of her final season, will be one remembered fondly by Bears’ fans.

“At our last home game, when a lot of the alumni came back, it was cool to see the impact she had on decades of young women,” Johnson said. “Especially having been injured for so long, being part of her final season was special.”