CHICORA, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Cole Johnston was just weeks away from starting the season-opener at quarterback for the Karns City football team last year.
Then he was blindsided by a bad stroke of luck.
“It was the last few weeks of summer, a week before heat acclamation, and me and a few of my buddies and some of my little brother’s friends were just playing around outside,” Johnston said. “No harm to be done. And I just fell and cut my knee open and had to get a bunch of stitches.”
It was a fluke accident. Johnston tripped and fell on an open storm grate, the edge slicing his right leg open near the knee.
“I wasn’t really expecting that,” Johnston said.
The injury set him back and put Mason Martin in the starting role at quarterback.
On Sept. 1 against Redbank Valley, Martin suffered a traumatic brain injury and spent nine months in the hospital. He is back home now, recovering and making progress each day.
For Johnston, it was just another blow in a what was a difficult season for all involved.
“He is my friend and I was happy for him to get the job,” Johnston said. “To see him go down really took a toll on me.”
Johnston was again the starting quarterback and played well until a broken collarbone against Brookville on Oct. 13 sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
It was another tough break for Johnston.
The recovery was long and lingered into the basketball season. Once Johnston was healthy and cleared to play, he made an immediate impact coming off the bench for the Gremlins.
Johnston hit a buzzer-beating layup to lift Karns City past Otto-Eldred in the District 9 Class 2A semifinals at PennWest Clarion’s Tippin Gymnasium.
“Obviously I would have liked to play the whole season,” Johnston said. “But I felt like closer to the end I started getting more and more comfortable playing. I was kind of getting into the groove and I was feeling confident in myself and just ready to play basketball whenever coach Kepple needed me.”
Johnston, whose parents, Jordan Johnston and Kellie (Kepple) Johnston were standout athletes in their own right, has some big goals for his sporting future.
“I want to play in college,” he said. “Somewhere. Football. Basketball. Anything, really. I just want to play at the next level.”
THE JOHNSTON FILE
NAME: Cole Johnston
SCHOOL: Karns City
YEAR: Sophomore
SPORTS: Football, basketball and he plans on playing baseball again
Q: How would your coaches and teammates describe you?
A: I’d say hard-working. I’m usually in the gym a lot with my teammates. We’re always drilling or shooting. We’re always doing something to get better.
Q: What have you learned about teamwork from your experience playing sports?
A: It’s the most important thing. It’s more important than how good you are. That goes with everything. I’d rather play with somebody who I’m comfortable playing with than the best player because that chemistry makes you way better than just talent.
Q: What would you consider the greatest challenge of being a high school athlete today?
A: Time and trying to be the best version of yourself in each sport possible. Trying to put equal amount of effort into being great in each sport that you do.
Q: When you play as many sports as you do, that must be a challenge. How do you do it?
A: It’s all I do. Practice. Sleep. And repeat.
Q: What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve received from a family member, coach, teammate, etc. about playing sports?
A: Just stay patient and wait for your moment. I’ve had a lot of injuries the past two seasons and it’s just mostly continuing to work hard no matter what you’re dealt.
Q: What are your interests outside of sports?
A: I play video games with my teammates most of the time. It builds chemistry and we have fun. That’s pretty much about it.
Q: What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
A: (Pause.) That’s a good question. (Pause).
Q: That’s a tough one. Let’s go back to that one later. Complete this sentence: In my fridge you will always find (blank)?
A: Gatorade.
Q: What flavor?
A: Grape.
Q: What three famous people would you like to have dinner with and why?
A: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady. I’d like to have dinner with them because they had some of the greatest mindsets in all of sports. They did whatever it took to win and I’d like to get pointers from them on how to have that kind of mindset.
Q: OK. Back to that question. What is something someone would be surprised to know about you?
A: Probably that I like to sleep all the time. Any free moment I have, I’m sleeping, probably.
Q: Are you one of those people who can fall asleep anywhere?
A: Yeah. Just about. I sleep on the bus all the time going to games, especially ones far away. No one gets on me for that. They probably would if I did it on the way home, especially after a big win.
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