Marissa Johnson’s senior season at Tigard looked fairly different from the three previous years, but the year ended, yet again, with a spot atop a podium at the state championship meet.
Johnson dislocated her left shoulder and tore her left labrum in a lifting session over the winter. She had surgery on the shoulder in February, with doctors telling her it was a five- or six-month recovery period.
Instead, just about three months after her surgery, Johnson suited up for Tigard in a meet against Lake Oswego. She finished first in the shot put and first in the discus. Her next time taking the field was at the Three Rivers League meet, where she finished first in both events again.
“I wasn’t supposed to be here,” she said after the Three Rivers League meet. “The surgeon said it would be six months before I’d be able to throw again, so any opportunity to throw, I’m thankful for and happy to be here.”
Johnson then went to the Oregon State Track and Field Championship meet at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon and finished first in both the shot put and discus.
It’s her fourth straight state title in the shot put, making her the first girl in state history to win four shot put state titles. It’s also her third straight state title in discus.
She said she was happy to get to compete even a little bit in her senior season for Tigard before she heads off to college. Johnson had a lot of interest from some major programs and decided to throw for the University of Iowa.
“The thing that sold me is that they are just one big family,” Johnson said. “On my visit, we went and played hide and seek and then sand volleyball. That’s the kind of fun I like to have with people who are competitive like me.”
It was that competitive nature that led Johnson to give the early comeback a try this year.
Her rehab was going well a few months in, and her club coach said she should give throwing a try just to see how it felt.
“I told him that it was a bad idea, but he planted the seed,” she said. “I’m too competitive to let anything lay, and then it was a surprise that it didn’t hurt. After that, I thought, ‘Why can’t I try?’”
It took some coordinating to get her physical therapist and surgeon on board, but they eventually cleared her to give it a try.
The day after her coach dropped the idea of throwing, Johnson was outside giving things a go. She was pretty rusty, but stuck with it. She called a coach from Tigard to come help her get back into the swing of things. A month or so later, she’s leaving Tigard with a combined seven state titles.
“I’m competitive, and I want to win,” she said. “But at the end of the day, I was telling myself, I couldn’t move my shoulder three months ago. Nothing’s a given. All I can do is just try my hardest.”
