Amani Johnson recalls busy East Allegheny athletics career

By: Don Rebel
Thursday, June 11, 2020 | 11:55 AM

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Trib HSSN has been fortunate to cover a lot of great athletes the last two decades. While the ‘Best of the Century’ contest continues, HSSN now feature some of these high school stars from the last two decades Mondays and Thursdays on the Rebel Yell podcast.

She is 5-foot-6, but she carries a big punch. In everything she does.

Amani Johnson was named the Trib HSSN Female Athlete of the Year in 2018 after a standout senior season and remarkable scholastic career at East Allegheny.

A lot of athletes, especially at smaller schools, participate in multiple sports over the course of the three seasons of fall, winter and spring.

Even fewer excel at more than one sport.

How about playing in and starring or doing well in five different sports?

“I was just so used to going and I loved doing everything all the time,” Johnson said. “But now that I only play basketball, I’m like, how did I do five different things.

“I was really involved in school too, so I was in Spanish club and National Honor Society. It was a lot. I don’t know how I did it.”

In the fall, she played both soccer and volleyball and scored 77 career goals on the pitch. In the winter, her focus was all basketball. Come spring time, she played softball her first three years before switching to track and field her senior season.

Basketball was her true love.

Johnson finished her high school basketball career with 2,345 points. She averaged nearly 29 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals a game her senior year.

In that 2017-2018 season, the Wildcats finished 27-2 and reached the WPIAL finals and the PIAA semifinals, losing both times to Bishop Canevin.

“That was definitely a season I will not forget,” Johnson said. “We really wanted to get to The Pete, but things didn’t go our way (in the finals). We had some foul trouble, and we just couldn’t get it done.

“Bishop Canevin was our enemy,” Johnson said laughing. “They beat us the year before and twice that year. They were the only team to get us, but they were an awesome team.”

She now plays college basketball at Kennesaw State.

She was one of 32 athletes in HSSN’s Best of the Century contest and took time to talk to HSSN about her scholastic career.

Click to watch Don Rebel and James Dotson chat with Amani Johnson.

Tags: East Allegheny