NU volleyball star Johnson hopes to school the Big Ten
There are no cupcake classes on Naomi Johnson's schedule.
The Northwestern volleyball star is majoring in math, minoring in business and is determined to get into medical school.
Despite the heavy load, and all the time she has to spend at the gym, Johnson's grades are top-notch. The senior is a two-time academic all-Big Ten honoree.
"Northwestern is very challenging, obviously, but I feel like I'm doing pretty well," Johnson said. "I was very prepared for college."
And yet, Johnson didn't even spend a day in high school.
Not technically, anyway.
Johnson was home-schooled through high school by her mother Karin, who home-schooled all four of the Johnson children in their Bloomington, Minn., home.
"My parents really wanted to be able to dictate the content and the speed of their children's education. It was their decision to home-school us," Johnson said. "But I liked it and I plan to home-school my own kids. I think it has a lot of benefits. I was a good reader and math came fairly easily, so I was able to move ahead quickly. I also enjoyed the independence of being taught from home.
"When I was old enough for high school, my parents gave me the option to actually go to high school. But I didn't want to."
The only time Johnson did step foot in her local high school was for volleyball, which she has mastered as well as her schoolwork.
Johnson, a 6-foot-3 middle blocker, is the leader in kills (3.17 per set) for Northwestern, which is off to one of its best starts in school history at 11-1. The Wildcats open Big Ten play this weekend with a four-set win against Indiana on Friday night (18 kills and 4 blocks by Johnson) and hosted Purdue (7 p.m. Saturday) at Welsh-Ryan Arena).
"I'd just show up for the practices and the games," Johnson said of her experience with the Kennedy High School volleyball team. "But considering I didn't go to class with those girls and considering I was never around school, they were very accepting of me and I had a very good experience."
But Johnson's volleyball experiences didn't end with the local girls.
With her size and skills, she stood out immediately and was asked to join Minnesota's premiere club volleyball team, Northern Lights.
She was with the same group of club girls for four years. Not only did she develop some of the tight friendships that were missing from her home-school experience, she also improved her stock with college recruiters.
During Johnson's junior year, Northern Lights was on top of the club volleyball world, rolling up an astounding 52-0 record and winning the United States Junior Olympics national championship.
The next year, Northern Lights finished third in the nation and Johnson found herself with all kinds of options for college.
"I wanted to play in the Big Ten and I was looking for a really good academic school," Johnson said. "Northwestern was perfect."
Johnson's career at Northwestern hasn't always been so perfect.
The Wildcats haven't been to the NCAA tournament since she arrived. But she's confident that will change.
She became convinced of that when Northwestern showed remarkable determination in a recent match against nationally ranked Tennessee, which was No. 14 at the time.
Down 2-0 in the best-of-five match, the Wildcats rallied to get a 3-2 victory.
"To take a team of that caliber and beat them after a deficit like that, that's when I realized we had a legitimately good team," Johnson said. "I think this is kind of the year for us."
She had plenty of help against Indiana on Friday. Contributing to the victory were two former suburban stars, Stephanie Holthus (Burlington Central) with 9 kills and 13 digs, and Julie Chen (Naperville North) with 24 digs.
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