KJ Johnson's Homecoming to Texas State
For anyone looking at the 2023 Texas State Volleyball roster, there’s a lot of new names to pay attention to this season.
The team of 17 has seven newcomers.
Only one, though, is in her fifth season of college volleyball, has been a two-time All American, and made a final four appearance. All with one more year of eligibility.
For graduate transfer KJ Johnson though, playing a season at Texas State is about a lot more than volleyball. It’s a chance to come home.
Johnson is a native of Pearland, Texas, a town just outside of Houston. For her family, this means a little under a three-hour drive to San Marcos. A three-hour drive to see Johnson play in her fifth and final season of college volleyball.
It’s been a long time coming for Johnson to get to this final chapter of her career. She started playing volleyball as a kid, something she wasn’t even too keen on in the beginning.
“I didn’t even want to try out for volleyball,” Johnson said. “I thought it was too girly.”
The now outside hitter had been tall since she was a kid. Johnson’s mother had put her and her brother into all the sports she could, knowing they were tall and athletic.
“Once I went to volleyball tryouts,” Johnson said. “I absolutely loved it.”
From there, Johnson continued to play for junior league teams until she was 13. Then, she joined Houston Skyline until she was 17 when she ended up enrolling at Baylor a semester early, before turning 18.
When initially looking for a school to commit to, Johnson didn’t want to stay in Texas. She was looking at out of state options, but Baylor felt right.
“I wanted to go away at first,” Johnson said. “I loved home, but I wanted to experience something different.”
After playing her freshman and sophomore season at Baylor, things just didn’t feel right staying in Waco. Despite finishing her sophomore season with an appearance in the NCAA Championship second round where her team beat Pepperdine, she decided to take a chance and put her name in the transfer portal.
Head coach Sean Huiet and his staff had known about Johnson when she went in the portal in 2021, but the timing didn’t work out with Huiet unable to offer her a scholarship.
Eventually, Johnson committed to Fairfield after good conversations with their coaching staff.
Johnson stepped foot on Fairfield University campus for the first time on report day for her 2021 season. She was never able to take an official visit to the campus prior to committing, but from the beginning she knew that it felt right.
“I was skeptical because it was so far from home,” she said. “I went headfirst into it though and things worked out.”
Johnson had two stellar seasons at Fairfield. She was a two-time MAAC Player of the Year, a two-time All-American, she was named Fairfield’s Women’s Co-Athlete of the Year, she was one of two players in the nation in the 2021 season to have a .300 hitting percentage in over 1,000 attempts.
She was a key in the Stags 24-7 record in the 2022 season as well as the NCAA Championship tournament appearance made in 2021. Johnson has made an NCAA tournament appearance in three of her four seasons as a college volleyball player.
After two years of volleyball in Connecticut, though, she was ready to return home.
“I just kind of said like, it’s my last year, I want to be closer to home,” Johnson said. “I wanted to pick at least one or two things that I wanted for my last year, and I wanted to be back in Texas.”
Once again, Johnson took to the transfer portal.
“I just started looking at all the schools in Texas and emailing coaches,” she said. “At first I emailed [former Texas State volleyball assistant coach] Tori [Plugge], but they weren’t looking for anybody.”
Plugge and the rest of Huiet’s coaching staff had been looking to add someone in the spring to help add some leadership to a young team, but due to Johnson’s credit requirements with Fairfield she was unable to join the Bobcats that soon.
Eventually, though, it worked out that Huiet and his coaching staff were able to offer Johnson a scholarship, and a spot to join in the fall of 2023.
“I was just impressed by my visit, it felt right,” Johnson said. “I felt like they wanted me to be at this school. It was a two hour and 45 minute drive from Houston. My brother went to UTSA and his friends were like ‘you’ll love the school it’s really fun the area is great.’”
Johnson didn’t have to think too much about whether she wanted to become a Bobcat. Once she got to San Marcos, it all felt right. Her family was close enough, she had connections to the town, and it was an opportunity to play a lot of sets in her final season.
“If I went all the way to Connecticut I can go to San Marcos,” Johnson said.
Now, as Johnson gets into San Marcos and starts the first week of being a Bobcat, it’s just about learning her new program and being a leader for a young team.
“Something we need this season is we are pretty young,” Huiet said. “So we were looking for a grad transfer that could come in and bring some experience, and that’s what KJ is. She’s used to being someone who gets a lot of sets. She’s been an All-American, she’s played in the final four. All that experience is going to help our young team. That was instantly why we thought she would be a great fit.”
It was a perfect fit, both sides were able to get things they wanted out of Johnson coming to Texas State. Johnson gets to see her family in the stands each week, Huiet’s staff gets a player who has been in the biggest moments and knows how to handle them.
“She’s played in a lot of matches, she’s taken a lot of big swings,” Huiet said. “She’s in a position where she gets to play these last four months of volleyball and what she makes of it is up to her. We’re on the same page with that, she knows what we need and she knows what she wants.”
Another thing about Johnson that Huiet loves is her leadership style.
“She’s not a yeller, she’s someone who is going to just work hard and lead by example,” Huiet said. “She may not know our program just yet, but we’re going to rely heavily on her still.”
For Johnson, this last season is about making her family proud and enjoying playing in front of her support system again. Her parents are already plan on being at every home game, and even some of the road games.
Her self-proclaimed “grandma season” is an opportunity to leaving a lasting impression on the program and make her family proud.
“[My family] know I try and do my best to work as hard as I can,” Johnson said. “But especially in this last year, no one else in my family is a student-athlete, I’m the first to go to grad school. It’d be cool finish that for them and not just for me, to be the first in my family.”
