Buckfield’s Emily Johnson bounces back after serious leg injury.
BUCKFIELD-Emily Johnson started thinking about this softball season long before last year’s state championship campaign was even over.
The Buckfield senior had a shortened season last spring. She injured her leg in the opening game and was forced to watch the rest of the year. From the moment she reinjured the leg she initially broke in soccer season, Johnson looked ahead to this year.
“As long as I can play next season, that’s okay,” Johnson told herself. “If I’d been a senior last year, it would have been really hard. So as soon as I broke it, I said, ‘It’s okay. I can still come back next year.'”
Johnson is making good on her second chance. She’s part of Buckfield’s top-seeded and unbeaten squad, determined to repeat as regional and state champions.
“I’m definitely enjoying this season a lot more than I would have,” said Johnson.
Just in case the Bucks feel the urge to get complacent, Johnson is there, motivated to help win the championship she could only watch last year.
“Emily’s a good one,” said Buckfield coach Dan Jack. “She wants to win because she didn’t really win it last year.”
Johnson broke her leg in a soccer playoff game early in her junior year, colliding with the opposing goaltender. She was in a cast for just under three months. She can even recite the exact dates it went on and came off. She was in a walking cast right up until softball season. She had been given the go-ahead to play softball but was cautioned.
“My physical therapist said, ‘You can play but just be careful and don’t do any running until you’re completely comfortable with it,'” said Johnson. “I was all set. I thought I was going to be fine.”
Then in the season opener, she tried to race home. There was a play at the plate, a collision and Johnson was taken out in an ambulance.
“If I had slid like I should have, I probably wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” said Johnson. “I just kind of tripped and fell. She kind of hit me, I guess, and I just went down. I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to get up.'”
This time the recovery was much shorter. She was out of a cast completely by the end of June but it was enough to wipe out her entire softball season.
“It didn’t really break again,” said Johnson. “It just bent where it broke before. My doctor said that it hadn’t snapped like it did the first time. The bone tissue just wasn’t hard enough.”
So while she looked on last season, she thought about this year.
“I knew I had this season. So that was okay,” said Johnson.
Still it was a bit difficult to watch her friends and teammates win a championship. She accompanied the team as much as she could. She avoided some road trips because the bus rides were uncomfortable.
“Toward the end of the season, when we got to the playoffs, I got really excited,” said Johnson, who will be attending Boston University in the fall. “We ended up winning the state championship. That was an awesome game. It was so much fun, but I really wish I could have played in it.”
She’s not watching now. She’s firmly planted in the outfield, providing some fine defense and a potent bat.
“She just an unbelievable hitter,” said Jack. “Because she didn’t play all year, she’s now just starting to get back to where she was last year. Maybe she’s not there, but she’s still a viable hitter, but she could crack the ball. She’s got wicked wrist action.”
With another playoff year approaching, Johnson and her teammates are focused on another title. It is the chance Johnson has hoped for since last spring.
“We have eight seniors, and we’re all great friends,” said Johnson. “So I hope we can end the year on a good note. It would be such an awesome end of high school for all of us.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
