The University of Idaho Women’s Soccer team has a vast cast of personalities who take the pitch, but Claire Johnson is a player who stands on her own with intensity and pure passion for soccer.
From a young age, soccer has always been an outlet for Johnson.
“I’ve been playing soccer since I was about five years old, so honestly I think my mom just put me in it to help burn some energy,” Johnson said. “I tried basketball and I tried other sports, but from the age of five, soccer has been with me for 15 years now. It’s been a big part and I just don’t think I’ve ever lost the love for it.”
While growing up, Johnson went to Seattle Sounders games and followed the pros such as Messi and Ronaldo, but she didn’t idolize or want to follow in anyone’s footsteps. Rather, Johnson looked at the surrounding girls who she played with and against, learning different aspects of the game as she continued to grow up.
“I was never really an avid soccer watcher. I never had a team that I loved,” Johnson said. “In my surrounding environments, I took keys away from people that were better at certain things as I was, rather than have more role models.”
Johnson said she knew she wanted to play soccer in college during high school when her teammates began signing with programs. It was her mother who mentioned Idaho to her first.
“It’s funny ‘cause when I was looking at schools, there was one on the East Coast and I was thinking that, ‘I have to commit, it’s time.’ I know I need to and it’s not ideal, but it’s time,” Johnson said. “But my dad said to give it a month, to find something around here you are going to like.”
Despite some hesitation and with the encouragement from her mother and father, Johnson emailed the Idaho coach.
“I emailed her and she responded saying ‘It’s funny you emailed me because we are interested in you as well’ and this was the first mutual acknowledgement I had gotten,” Johnson said.
Idaho Head Coach Derek Pittman said he first heard her name through a good friend, who also happened to be Johnson’s club coach.
“She reached out to me and said that this is a girl that you need to consider,” Pittman said.
A visit was scheduled within a month and it was a quick connection. The location, the small-town feel and the coaching staff won Johnson over, she said.
“(Johnson) was one of the first, if not the first, commitment that I got,” Pittman said. “CJ is an extremely emotional, passionate, vigorous individual. You see that in how she plays, how she lives her life, from motivating her teammates to always walking around with a smile of enthusiasm on her face, but also her grit and toughness when she needs to layout for her teammates as a defender. That’s who CJ is and that’s what I love about her.”
One of the first teammates Johnson met when she arrived on campus was Kelly Dopke, a center-back out of California. Johnson and Dopke came to Idaho in the same class in 2015, and knew right away that they would work well together.
“When I first met Claire, she just had such a spunky personality and I could tell right away that we would be friends,” Dopke said. “Her enthusiasm and tenacity on the field is what I truly admire in her and she will fight 100 percent, give it her all because she is so passionate.”
Johnson said one of her favorite traditions with the team are the pre-game dance parties that the team partakes in before almost every home game.
“We show up almost two hours before game time to do treatment and heat up, to pre-game rituals and scouting reports. We let everyone do their own thing for like the first hour and a half, then we get about 15 minutes before the game time, and then we do the dance party,” Johnson said. “It shows how we are as a team and we are serious and get down to business, but we also do it because we love it and we enjoy being with each other. I think those 10 minutes before each game give us the, ‘OK, it’s good to be nervous, but we are here for a reason, it is supposed to be fun.’”
Senior Anna Rose Wiencek said Johnson is always a good spirit both on and off the field. Several years ago, the two were practicing with the non-starting team when Johnson lost her footing during a game.
“It was a scrimmage and there were probably 200 people there,” Wiencek said. (Johnson) was running and she tripped over her shoelaces and just face plants right in front of me. I stopped and just started laughing so hard and everyone in the crowd was laughing, but I had never seen anyone get up so fast and just keep running.”
Along with a list of accomplishments on the field, Johnson finished this season with Big Sky academic honors and she also scored the first goal of her career.
Dopke said Johnson is a hard worker both on and off the field, contributing more to the team than just her talents.
“Passionate, hardworking and loving,” Dopke said. “(Johnson) is someone who will really work hard just because that’s who she is as a person. And she is just so loving. She plays with a lot of emotions and wears her heart on her sleeve, but I think for her, it works well and you can just tell how much she truly cares about every person in the locker room. Even the support staff, our fans, her family, and our coaches, you can just tell how much she cares and I think that’s what really describes (her).”
Zack Kellogg can be reached at [email protected]