‘OK, this is where we’re at right now’: Chargers’ Johnson relishes first game as head coach

CARTHAGE, Ill. — The moment hit Sawyer Johnson as soon as she stepped into the gymnasium at Illini West High School on Tuesday.

She was about to coach her first-ever high school volleyball game.

“It was crazy,” Johnson said. “Stepping into that varsity game, seeing everybody and seeing the girls, it was like ‘OK, this is where we’re at right now.’”

The first-game nerves were real for Johnson, who graduated from Iowa State University in May and took the job as Illini West’s head coach in July.

“I was pretty nervous coming into tonight,” Johnson said. “I had the first-game jitters.”

So did her players.

“The girls had a lot of nerves coming into it, especially with all the changes that are happening,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of things to work through and overcome, and I think they definitely felt that in that first set.”

The Chargers dropped that opening set 25-18 to Camp Point Central but rebounded to win the second set 25-12.

“In that second set, they realized, ‘Hey, we can actually do this,'” Johnson said.

The high from the second set wore off quickly in the third however. The Panthers jumped out to a 5-1 lead that never got closer than three points the rest of the set, and Central handed Johnson the first loss on her head coaching record.

Johnson said the Chargers have a psychological hurdle to get over, but she is confident it’s only a matter of time until they clear it.

“Especially with everything else going on with the team, it’s really just getting the girls to realize that they can do it, they are a strong team, and they have talent,” Johnson said. “It’s definitely going to be a hurdle overcoming that doubt. It’s going to be a challenge, but we’re working our way through it.”

The Chargers’ next test comes at home Thursday against Brown County, a team Central beat in straight sets on Monday.

“I’m hoping with Brown County, we can just come out strong in that first set,” Johnson said. “That’ll be the biggest thing.”

Most of the nerves Johnson and her team felt before Tuesday’s game will have subsided by then.

“I think getting rid of the first-game jitters is going to really help,” Johnson said.