Recruiting Report: Charles Johnson (2019)
The Stars of Holy Angles are one of the best stories of the year sitting at 17-3 on the season. Leading the way is senior point guard Charles Johnson, one of the elite on-ball defenders in Minnesota. “I learned how…
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Continue ReadingThe Stars of Holy Angles are one of the best stories of the year sitting at 17-3 on the season. Leading the way is senior point guard Charles Johnson, one of the elite on-ball defenders in Minnesota.
“I learned how to become a good defender at a young age just playing with older guys and knowing that defense is how you win games,” Charles said. “What separates me from others is that I know the better defense I play the better the offense will come and that my teammates will feed off of that defensive energy. Playing good defense makes it easy to play with anyone.”
Johnson’s defense has helped the Stars have one of the more balanced offenses in the metro. Senior bigs Thor Holien and Matt Banowetz are scoring between 14 and 15 a game while Charles and senior backcourt mate Max Gerstner score 11 a contest. Then you have Emmett Johnson, the ninth grade brother of Charles who has had a wonderful varsity season.
“He’s just always been playing and competing with me and older guys since he was really young,” Charles said of brother Emmett who is scoring 12.5 a game. “He learned a lot his 8th grade year playing varsity (at Washburn) so he knows how the game is played. He’s a great finisher and quick defender and can shoot the three also. Just a great competitor.”
The Stars are coming off a 74-71 victory over Cristo Rey Jesuit last night where the Johnson scored 25 while Banowetz had a team high 22. It was another unselfish effort for a top ten Class AAA team.
“Being unselfish and just knowing that it can be anyone’s night separates us,” Charles said. “We’re 17-3 so that’s good. I’d say we’re meeting our goals slowly. We wanted to win the conference but we lost to DeLaSalle twice. Our main goal is to get to state and win the championship so we’re getting there slowly just getting better day by day.”
AHA has by far the best record in 3AAA but they will have to unseat two time section champ St. Thomas plus St. Croix Lutheran is coming on strong. Johnson has become the type of player that can lead this team to state.
“I’d say it’s been going good personally because my main focus is just to do anything that night to help the team win. Rebounding, scoring , assisting, taking charges anything.”
All the things Johnson is doing has led to colleges in contact as well.
“RCTC juco texts me a lot and in the past Lake Region State used to but that’s kind of it right now (for interest),” Charles said. “Also St. John’s does text a lot.
“I’m open to any location really, just trying to find somewhere that I can play good basketball get better and that will push me in the classroom just as much as on the court.”