Jack Nowlin, kitsapsun.com, November 14, 2013
Kaylee Johnson put aside her long-ago dream of playing basketball at Casper College on Wednesday when the Natrona County High School senior signed a national letter of intent to compete for perennial power Stanford University.
Johnson was one of three players who signed with Stanford on Wednesday. She joins Brittany McPhee of Des Moines, Iowa, and Taylor Rooks of Warren, N.J.
"Brittany, Kaylee and Taylor bring a variety of talents as well as a lot of energy that will fit right into our program," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said in a statement.
The Cardinal has made 24 trips to the NCAA tournament and won two national championships under VanDerveer's watch.
On Wednesday, Johnson smiled when recalling her childhood dream.
“I really had the dream of playing at Casper College when I was growing up and going to their games,” Johnson said. “I thought that would be so fun.”
But as Johnson and her game continued to grow, Casper College soon became an afterthought.
“I got my first letter before my freshman year and I thought that was kind of cool,” Johnson said. “And then more and more [letters] came in and I figured I could go to college and play somewhere.”
That somewhere just happens to be Stanford, which is currently ranked No. 3 in The Associated Press Top 25.
Johnson made an immediate impact at Natrona County, leading the state in rebounding and blocked shots as a freshman. And she continued to improve. Johnson averaged 21 points and 13 rebounds as a sophomore, leading the Fillies to the Class 4A state championship game. Last year Johnson, who often faced double-teams and box-and-one defenses designed to stop her, averaged 17.9 points, 14.8 rebounds and 5.2 blocked shots per game.
Johnson earned back-to-back Wyoming Gatorade Player of the Year awards.
“I’ve had kids that were driven and worked hard on developing their game, and then toward the end it fades,” Natrona coach Doug Diehl said. “But Kaylee just keeps getting stronger. She has a mental toughness that is like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
The 6-foot-3 Johnson already holds the program records in points, rebounds and blocked shots and enters this season fourth in steals.
Johnson said her original goal of playing at Casper College began to fade when she started playing AAU basketball with traveling teams in Colorado and Montana.
“At first, it was important to me to stay close to home and not venture out too much,” she said. “But as time went on and especially traveling with AAU basketball during the summer, I realized how fun it would be to go somewhere and get out of Casper, Wyoming. After I took the visit to Stanford I realized I didn’t want to be anywhere else.”
In the end, Johnson had narrowed her choices to Stanford, Colorado, Boston College and Arizona State before finally selecting the Cardinal.
Stanford, in addition to being one of the top academic institutions in the nation, has been a consistent model of success in women’s basketball since VanDerveer took over the program prior to the 1985-86 season.
“It’s the best mix of education and a basketball program I could find in the nation,” Johnson said. “I love the campus and everyone is so friendly and so happy to be there there’s no place better to be.”
The Cardinal like to get up and down the floor, a style of play for which Johnson is perfectly suited.
“She has a motor that you can’t coach,” Diehl said. “She outworks everybody on the floor and I knew she could be a Division I player if that’s what she wanted.
“She wants to play at the highest level. She doesn’t just want to be on the team, she wants to be the real thing.”
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