Road leads from Calhoun to Carolina
Calhoun senior, S. Carolina signee stars in two sports
Whether it’s on the softball field or the basketball court, if the Calhoun Lady Jackets are having success, Jana Johns more than likely has something to do with it.
The senior multisport standout has made a huge impact for both teams over the past four years, setting individual records and helping the teams win championships and a whole lot of games in the process.
On the softball diamond, Johns was the star at third base and as a heavy hitter in the middle of the lineup. She has been a key part in the Lady Jackets’ four region titles, three state titles and one state runner-up during her high school career and holds school records for single-season and career home runs, RBIs, doubles and slugging percentage. Her coach Diane Smith, who has been at Calhoun for more than 30 years, recently said Johns was only comes along once in a lifetime and is in a class all by herself.
But the South Carolina softball signee doesn’t take a break once the Fall season is over. That’s when she switches to basketball mode where she’s been the go-to scorer over the last few seasons for Coach Jerry Pruett’s team. She set the single- season scoring record last season, finishing with 520 points.
Incidentally, the record she broke was held by her step-mother Becky Gilbert Johns for many years. And Jana doesn’t seem to be satisfied with that record alone as she is within striking distance of becoming the all-time leading scorer in Calhoun girls basketball history.
Johns, the natural athlete that she is, even tried out track last Spring for the first time and qualified for State Sectionals in the pole vault, which is one of the more difficult events to master in all of track and field.
Recently, the Calhoun Times caught up with Johns to discuss the current basketball season, her current and potential scoring records, her final softball season and her love of the sport itself, her memories as an athlete at Calhoun High, her biggest coaching influences and how excited she is to continue her softball career at South Carolina, among other subjects.
Here’s what she had to say:
CT:
How has basketball season gone so far? What are your expectations and for yourself and the team this season?
We started kind of rough...I guess because we were coming in right from softball and haven’t really had a break. But we’ve gotten a lot better, and we’ve been working hard in practice to perfect our
JOHNS:
weak points. Our goal would be to win Region and get past the first round of State.
CT:
What was it like last year to break the single-season scoring record and, on top of that, for it to be your step-mother’s record that you broke? What would it mean to you to break the career scoring record for Calhoun girls basketball this year which you have a chance to do?
Since the record last year was my step-mom’s, I thought it was kind of funny because she held the record for so long. For me to break it, it was pretty cool. This year, the career scoring record...that’s just my goal. It would be really awesome if I could do that too.
JOHNS: CT:
How good was your last softball season overall this past Fall even though the you came up a little short of the ultimate goal of a state championship and winning four state titles in four years?