Girls basketball: Jennah Johnson’s return home paying dividends for Woodbridge
Jennah Johnson is relishing her decision to wear a Woodbridge High School basketball uniform in her senior season.
After three years of following a strict dress code and a challenging commute to the Gill St. Bernard’s in Peapack-Gladstone, Johnson is enjoying “a two-minute” trip to school and playing for her hometown team.
“This was really the easiest decision and the best decision,” Johnson said. “I’ve known Coach Bobby (Timinski) forever. I think I started going to workouts at his basketball warehouse when I was 7 years old. I wanted to come home and play for him and Woodbridge basketball.”
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Johnson has played, and played well, for the Barrons since returning to the hardwood following a mandatory stint on the sideline, per NJSIAA rules and regulations for transfers. In her season debut, Jan. 6 vs. Middlesex, Johnson poured in 31 points and added seven rebounds, seven assists, three blocked shots and three steals in an 82-57 Woodbridge victory.
Through her first three games with the Barrons, all victories against White Division foes, Johnson averaged 29 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and one blocked shot per game.
“Jennah is as good a kid as I have coached and as good a basketball player as anybody around,” Timinski said. “She’s made a seamless transition to Woodbridge High School. She never missed a practice — even when she couldn’t play in games — and has emerged as one of our team’s leaders in a short amount of time. Our girls welcomed her with open arms.
“She’ll draw a lot of attention from opposing defenses. Jennah’s presence and her skills have allowed everyone else on our team to relax a little bit and do what they do best.”
“Even when I wasn’t eligible to play, I wanted to be around my teammates and I wanted my voice to always be heard,” said Johnson, who totaled 198 points, 53 assists, 47 rebounds and 38 steals in 27 games for Gill St. Bernard’s last season. “My teammates have made me feel welcomed from the start.”
The Barrons had a four-game winning streak snapped on Monday when they absorbed a 42-36 setback to fellow GMC White Division member J.P. Stevens. Johnson finished with 15 points, six rebounds, one blocked shot and one steal in the loss.
Johnson is headed to Division 1 UMass-Lowell in the fall, where she’ll continue her basketball career, about a four to five-hour car ride from Woodridge. Johnson said her commute to Gill St. Bernard’s would sometimes take a couple of hours because a bus picked her up in Newark, where her father works.
“I was sometimes getting up at 4:30 in the morning, and I would be waiting at 5:30, 5:45 for the bus,” Johnson said. “I don’t miss that at all.”
The senior also enjoys the wardrobe freedom she has at Woodbridge High School. She didn’t have to wear a uniform at Gill, but there was a strict dress code with no jeans and no sweats, Johnson said, and she definitely likes that better at Woodbridge.
And she likes the outlook for the Barrons girls basketball team.
“I think we’re going to put it all together and it’s going to look real good, hopefully before the start of the tournaments,” Johnson said. “I just want to have a positive impact on my teammates and the program.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Girls basketball: Jennah Johnson back for Woodbridge
