Tom Markowski / The Detroit News

Wixom -- What Alysha Johnson of Walled Lake Western has accomplished before her 18th birthday can take one's breath away.

A state champion in the shot put, the student council president, African-American club president, a participant in science fairs and a member of the marching band, Johnson is a gifted, hard-working, three-sport athlete who is equally as conscientious with her school work and social interactions.

Johnson played volleyball for three years and this is the fourth spring she has competed in track and softball in the same season.

Johnson has a 4.06 grade-point average, scored a 31 on the ACT and last Saturday was one of three selected to the prom court. Johnson was one of six finalists for the Detroit Athletic Club athlete of the year award.

The pace she has set amazes those close to her.

"She's one of the busiest kids I've ever known," said her father, Greg Johnson. "Before she got her driver's license her mother and I would have to drive her everywhere. Now she's pretty much doing her own thing."

The shot put is Johnson's specialty but she also qualified for the state finals as a junior in the discus. Johnson, whose favorite class is advanced placement (AP) English, hopes to one day find cures for diseases.

And her passion for music remains close to her heart. Johnson is proud of the state title she earned last season in the shot put and she screamed with excitement upon receiving the telephone call informing her she had been accepted to Harvard. But there are moments when she plays her alto sax that are unsurpassed.

"The sax is cool," she said. "The sound it makes is the best. It can be jazzy or symphonic. We do a saxophone quartet at school sometimes and we go to festivals and everything. I played in a jazz band last year. I didn't do it this year. They meet at 6:15 in the morning and, I really like it, but I needed a break."

Few high school students maintain as hectic a schedule as Johnson and she knows her limitations.

Johnson's future doesn't have any limits. When she settles into her favorite tune, John Coltrane's "Afro-Blue," Johnson is able to briefly remove herself from her hectic schedule. In life she speeds seemingly nonstop from one day to the next, practicing and preparing for her next endeavor, whatever it may be.

Johnson's typical day begins at 6:20 a.m. and ends with her closing a school book at 11 p.m. or later. Her first class is AP physics at 7:15. Her AP calculus class ends the school day at 2:25 p.m. Then it's off to practice, a game or a meet.

"She's hard to keep up with," her father said.

Johnson started playing softball when she was 6. It's fun for her, plus it offers a different challenge than her field events. Western has struggled and is 3-25, but that doesn't matter to Johnson. She loves the game.

"Losing doesn't matter to me," she said. "As long as I'm having fun I'll still play. If I'm able to make a great catch or something, it's worth it to me.

"The workload is a lot but I couldn't choose between the two. It pays off. We have this camaraderie in softball.

"I love the shot. I want to win when I compete there. It's my favorite."

It was her father's favorite, too. Greg Johnson was a state champion in the shot put his junior year at New Haven. His personal best was a put of 57 feet, 10 1/2 inches. Even after he graduated from Michigan in 1982, Johnson kept practicing the shot put. It was on one of those trips, on a field in Battle Creek where he and his family lived, that he introduced his daughter to the field event.

"I went to the shot put circle and Alysha tagged along that day," he said. "She was about 10. She watched me and wanted to try it.

"Shot putters are a different breed. You have to have a certain mentality. What I told her was you have to have a form that's repeatable. You might be distracted by other things but you have your routine. It's kind of subconscious."

It didn't take long for his daughter to catch on. In the seventh grade Johnson set the Wixom Sarah Banks Middle School record with a put of 32 feet, 7 inches. The next year she topped that with a put of 34 feet, 8 inches. That would have been good enough to qualify her for the Division 1 state finals.

At last year's finals, Johnson came through with her personal best to take first. Whitney Turner of Okemos had moved ahead of Johnson with a put of 41 feet, 11 1/4 inches and, on her last try, Johnson reached deep down and won with a put of 42 feet, 5 3/4 inches.

Johnson has since set another personal best. At the National Scholastic Indoor Championship held in New York City March 12-14 Johnson placed third with a put of 43 feet, 8 inches.

One of her goals, and she has many, is to set the state record. That's currently held by Mary Angell of Byron Center (48 feet, 9 3/4 inches).

"She's surprisingly powerful," Greg Johnson said. "There are girls a lot bigger than her. She has a lot of strength."

At 5-foot-6 1/2 , Alysha Johnson is about average in height. She weight trains two or three times a week in season and increases that time in the gym in preparation.

Johnson thrives on work and is determined to become better in all aspects of her life.

Her mother, Janice Cook-Johnson, knew early on that her daughter would excel in whatever activities she chose.

"From the womb on she's been dedicated and focused," she said. "I just try not to mess her up. She's always been kindhearted. When I look at the character of a person, I look at their peers and what they say. I was at a track meet and I overheard some of her peers say nice things about her. That's what I'm most proud of. That's the most important part to me."

From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100518/SPORTS05/5180323/1265/SPORTS08/Doing-it-all--Walled-Lake-Western-girl-is-star-athlete--student-and-sax-player#ixzz0oJ7hoqDN

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1314777&forum_id=1#15022573)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ztf3xvNj0

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1314777&forum_id=1#15053085)