Written by This week Wes and Mike interviewed Californian soccer player, Samantha Johnson, who has been involved in the game since she was five years old.
Samantha came from a culture of team bonding and this she cites as the reason for her positive experiences in sport growing up. Samantha supports the concept of cultivating a network of mentors. She highlights the fact that the astute coach or mentor can recognize the issue brewing inside the athlete and can provoke the discussions that need to happen before the issues grow into massive problems. She goes on to discuss those coaches that disallow conversation after losing a game. This ‘sulking’ is a behavior that is central to an environment that promotes poor sportsmanship and totally wastes the opportunities to learn to accept defeat graciously and learn from mistakes to improve performance.
Samantha reached a point in 2019 where she had the presence of mind to recognise her fatigue and her dissatisfaction with parts of the organizational structure. The maturity that was required to step away from the sport she loved is probably what has allowed her to keep her perspective about her relationship with the actual game. After a 17 month ‘retirement’, Johnson returned to soccer with a renewed mindset and a vision to impart a positive impact on future players. Johnson’s mission is to enhance the education of children particularly those in her hometown Palmvale. She has connected with various organisations while playing in Chicago to focus on minority children with disabilities and behavioural issues. She uses soccer as a vehicle to provoke discussion on the issues and concerns of the young athletes. Her renewed enthusiasm for the game has come mainly from the children she mentors and the energy she derives from having that clear purpose, she found her joy paying forward the good culture she had as a child.