Long road teaches valued lesson
Sitting on the bench for a year promoted drastic change in senior
During last season’s 58-49 loss to UNLV, Demarshay Johnson remembers sitting on the bench and just wishing that he could be out on the court helping his team. He could see everything going wrong on the court, all of the little mistakes made by his team, unfolding right in front of him.
In last year’s 28-4 run to the NCAA Tournament, Johnson watched his team fall from the field in the second round from the bench after he was deemed academically ineligible according to the standards that are imposed on athletes at Nevada.
For most of his life, struggling academically has been a problem ,and it has provided a long road to be traveled.
Just recently, however, the senior has changed his attitude and has done some growing up to hopefully create a slightly shorter road than the one he has traveled so far.
“Sometimes you have to face adversity to see who you really are,” Johnson said.
This bout with bad grades in what would have been his senior year of college was not the first time the problem had come up.
After graduating from high school, Johnson went to Christian Faith Academy, a prep school in Creedmoor, North Carolina, to try and turn himself around to the point that his academic standings would be strong enough to play basketball, Diablo Valley College’s basketball coach Steve Coccimiglio said.
After all, he was ranked as the No. 17 power forward in the nation and was a top-100 recruit when he graduated in 2002.
“He’s naturally gifted, but people got into his head and did not emphasize everyday work ethic,” Coccimiglio said.
Johnson had originally signed with Oregon State, but did not qualify academically. After prep school, he enrolled at Nevada, but was not cleared through the NCAA.
After one semester of suffering grades, Johnson went back to Oakland, his hometown, and attended DVC to play basketball.
“He was already 20 when we got him,” Coccimiglio said. “He was just starting his clock. It was clear to me that he didn’t want to be in junior college, but we told him and he knew that getting a degree here was the only way he would be able to play at a four-year school.”
The 6-foot-9-inch power forward graduated from DVC in two years and earned his associates degree in general studies.
He returned to Nevada in 2005, where he played in all 33 games with 16 starts and ranked 10th in the Western Athletic Conference with .97 blocked shots per game.
Johnson attributed many of his problems with grades to a distorted mindset. Because of his publicized talent, he assumed that he would be able to slide by on that alone.
He didn’t work hard in the weight room, let alone in the classroom, and let himself just do what was required on the court.
“It handicapped him,” Coccimiglio said.
Once head coach Mark Fox announced that Johnson was ineligible for the season and that he would be using 2006-07 as a redshirt year, the would-have-been senior decided that a severe change was in order.
“I let a lot of people down,” Johnson said.
Last school year, while he was not traveling with the team, Johnson took time to focus on school and spent more time in the weight room to work on his strength and endurance.
In 2005, he was listed as 210 lb and since then has gained an additional 10, but also increased his overall fitness and, according to Fox, is better conditioned.
He will now be searching for more playing time than the 17 minutes per game he averaged in his junior season.
“He has always been one of my favorites,” Fox said. “He has always been coachable, and now he is disciplined and mature.”
Heading into this season, Johnson said that he is not worried about what anyone says about him. He knows that he has become more responsible, more accountable for his actions and, most importantly, he knows that he has grown up.
“Everything happens for a reason and everyone has their own road,” Johnson said. “I just seemed to take the longest one possible.”
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