- November 4, 2024
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There is no question that lacrosse blood runs in her veins. LeAnn Johnston’s recent induction into the New York 2015 Athletic Hall of Fame for Lacrosse serves only as a reminder of the life she has led for decades long.
After she fell in love with the fastest growing sport in the nation as a kid , Johnston attended a Penn Yan Academy. The school that didn’t have a girls’ lacrosse team, so she and a few other girls, who played on the boys’ team, went door to door, getting people’s signatures for support. Their perseverance birthed the city’s first girls’ lacrosse team in 1994, and, four years later, they won the New York State Championship, where she won Most Value Player. While at Penn Yan, she was selected as a two-time All-American.
From there, Johnston would go on to college, where she played Division I lacrosse as a scholarship player.
On getting inducted into the HOF, Johnston said, “It was fantastic! There were a lot of people there to support me, and that was really cool.”
In her post-playing days, Johnston has devoted her life, along with her husband, Oliver, who also played lacrosse, to promoting, teaching and coaching the sport she’s in love with.
In 2008, they founded Blue Skies Lacrosse, the only local lacrosse city league in the area. Blue Skies recently held its annual Pumpkin Shootout Tournament, which welcomed teams from various regions. The tournament hosted nearly 50 different teams that were broken up into six divisions. Three Blue Skies teams represented for the organization, along with other local programs, such as the Palm Coast Sparrows, who became the first men’s local team to win the tournament (go to palmcoastobserver.com to read the article).
As long as the Johnstons are in Flagler, expect the heart of lacrosse to not only beat, but to beat emphatically.
