Esko’s Megan Johnson Receives First Team Honors

June 23

Wes Vork-NSO

Megan Johnson of Esko, a sophomore this past season for the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College women’s softball team, was named to the Region 13 First Team recently.

“It is quite a tribute to Megan to receive this honor,” said Thunder coach Kerry Rodd. “Megan worked extremely hard to make herself into a good player and she has come a long way in the past two years.”

Johnson finished the season with a team leading .464 batting average and also stole 32 bases, which was 6th in the nation.

“Megan came to us as a great athlete with a lot of talent, but she worked hard to improve on that talent,” Rodd commented. “I give credit to Megan and to our assistant coach Katie Rodd who made the decision to turn Megan around and make her a left-handed slap hitter.”

The move by Katie Rodd to get Johnson to the left side of the plate provided huge dividends for the Thunder this season. As the teams leadoff hitter, Johnson used her speed to beat out ground balls and then stole bases to put herself in scoring position.

“If Megan got on base she was pretty much going to end up on second base unless something unusual happened,” Coach Kerry Rodd stated. “She went 32-of-33 in stolen bases and she stole home seven times and she did so against good teams. I think the biggest asset is she is a fierce competitor and she would not back down from anyone.”

As the Thunder centerfielder, Johnson used her speed to run balls down in the gap and turn potential hits into outs.

“We’ll miss the pure speed she has,” explained Rodd. “You can’t coach speed and you can’t coach anticipation; Megan has both.”

Johnson becomes the second player in FDLTCC history to be named to the Region 13 First Team, with the other being Stacie Miller. Miller was a 2009 graduate who was also a First Team All-American. Ironically both came from the same high school program in Esko.

“Brad Emanuel does a great job as a coach over in Esko,” Rodd remarked. “It is a tribute to his hard work and efforts that we’ve only had two kids reach this level and they both came out of his program.”

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com