George Washington University Athletics
Get it to Grandma
4/25/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Water Polo
By Eric Detweiler, GW Athletics Communications
Before she could turn her focus to a return to GW water polo, Maddy Johnson had more immediate concerns.
After surgeries to repair torn labrums in both shoulders in the summer of 2015, the California native measured her progress with everyday tasks.
"At first, I needed help with everything," Johnson said. "I couldn't even put on my socks by myself."
Johnson can chuckle at those frustrating moments these days. Injuries -- first the shoulder surgeries that required her to miss a full season and later a concussion that cost her half of another -- forced her to make a significant detour from the collegiate career she expected, but the memories help her appreciate the journey.
Now a fifth-year senior, Johnson is healthy and a reliable starter on a GW squad that seems to be peaking at the right time.
The Colonials picked up a pair of wins on the final weekend of the regular season to secure the No. 6 seed for the CWPA Championship, which begins Friday at Bucknell's Kinney Natatorium. At 13-13, they enter the conference tournament with the program's first winning season since 2004 within reach.
The attacker proudly nicknamed "Grandma" as the oldest among a veteran bunch is glad she stuck it out.
"I think the program's grown so much, in and out of the pool," Johnson said. "You can see it in the stats, as well as just in the team. I don't remember having as much team morale as we have now, which has really been great. We're all just having a lot of fun."
Johnson once wondered if she'd ever recover the form that helped her pile up 105 points over her first two seasons in Foggy Bottom. The pain in her right (throwing) shoulder began during her freshman season and grew worse during a sophomore campaign in which she finished third on the squad in scoring. She shrugged it off as tendinitis and kept pushing on.
Johnson was slated to spend that summer working in Wyoming, but first, she lined up an appointment with a shoulder specialist.
An MRI revealed a surprise. Yes, the labrum in her right shoulder was damaged. And the left one needed surgery, too. The doctor suspected the second injury was the result of overcompensating for her ailing arm over so many hours in the pool.
The standard recovery time for one such surgery is six months. With both arms affected and a sport that requires constant swimming, there were no guarantees.
"I honestly had no idea what was going to happen," Johnson said.
Johnson canceled her summer plans to focus on recovery from the surgeries, which were performed six weeks apart.
She spent the fall mostly away from her teammates with physical therapy sessions during their practice time.
By the spring, she was back in the pool but still nowhere near ready to play. It was by far her longest break from the sport since she began playing the summer after fifth grade.
"I remember my first time back I did two laps and had to stop," Johnson said. "I couldn't do anything. I wasn't tired, but I couldn't swim because my shoulders didn't want to move."
Around that time, teammate Scarlett Hallahan pulled Johnson aside for a frank conversation. "Don't worry if you can't make it back," she recalled saying. "You'll still be a part of this team."
And yet Johnson kept going, fueled by the belief that she'd be able to help eventually.
"The fact that she kept showing up was probably the most amazing thing to me," Hallahan said. "Because it's really easy to get down on yourself in a situation like that and wonder if it's worth the time and effort to come back."
Nineteen months after her first surgery, Johnson was finally set to return. Then, she wasn't.
A week before the 2017 season, Johnson took an elbow to the face from a teammate in practice and sustained the second concussion of her career.
"That was kind of a bummer," Johnson said.
By the time, Johnson was ready to go again, she'd lost much of the conditioning she'd worked to build back. Her long-awaited return came at the end of a win over the University of Redlands six weeks later. She even scored a goal.
Johnson savored last season after all the hours of rehab and determination that went into her comeback, but she never felt like she caught up, physically. She headed into her final offseason determined to craft a proper ending.
This season has been exactly that. Johnson has been happy to be "Grandma" for a group that features six other seniors and six freshmen. She relishes her role as the organizer and host of most team gatherings and a leader in her own quiet way.
"I want to be there for anything they need because I've been through everything in the last five years," Johnson said. "Three coaches, countless classes, injuries. Kind of everything you could imagine."
Johnson is even happier to be doing it pain-free. She's put up modest numbers with nine goals, 17 assists and 18 steals, but head coach Barry King has been impressed enough with her analytical approach and sound decision-making in his first season to give her a starting spot on a deep squad.
"She has a very good sense of the game and space and what's going to happen next," King said. "I think sometimes she does get limited simply by having not been healthy and not having played meaningful minutes for a couple of years.
"She went through a little bit of a slow start, but if she would have been able to play throughout her career the way she played (in the regular season finale) against Brown, then she'd be going down as one of the top 10 players to ever be here."
Johnson is finishing up a double major in Organizational Sciences and Sociology, and she's already got a job lined up with Marriott after graduation.
Until then, Johnson is simply enjoying the ride. She laughed recounting how this squad incorporated dancing to the Cupid Shuffle into its warmups before going out and beating Brown for just the second time in program history. Her time in Buff and Blue has taught her not to take those kind of moments for granted.
"She wanted all of this," fellow senior Maggie Ball said. "It wasn't easy for her, but she wanted to be here for a fifth year. That says everything you need to know."
