Ja’Shelle Johnson is a guard for the UTRGV Women’s Basketball program. Johnson is an integrated health science freshman, who plans on becoming an anesthesiologist. She moved to the Rio Grande Valley from San Antonio this past summer for her first year with the Vaqueros basketball program.
Q: What do you do for fun outside of basketball?
A: “I’m really big on movies. I love hanging out and watching movies. My favorite kind are mysteries or romance. I also play video games. I play ‘2K,’ ‘Fortnite’ and I also like to read a lot as well. I’m reading ‘It Ends With Us’ and it’s a romance book.”
Q: What do you like about the Rio Grande Valley?
A: “I moved here in the summer, I think it was around June, for the summer workouts. I think it’s a really homey feeling. Most of the schools that I visited didn’t really have this kind of atmosphere. I like that most people are kind. Whenever I leave the apartment, there’s always people who I feel are kind and welcoming. It felt like home.”
Q: What kind of music do you like?
A: “R&B, I also listen to gospel. My favorite artist is probably Drake. I listen to a lot of gospel before games and after. Bryson Tiller is one of my favorites. She’s not really R&B but I like SZA a lot, or Kehlani. By Bryson Tiller, I have ‘Right My Wrongs’ or ‘Let ’Em Know’ and then by Drake it’s probably ‘Slime You Out’ with him and SZA or ‘Trust Issues.’”
Q: What movies or shows do you like?
A: “My favorite romance [movie] is probably the ‘Notebook.’ Mysterywise, I don’t really have a favorite at the moment. I’m not really big on watching shows. I watch a lot of movies.”
Q: Who is one of your role models?
A: “I say one of my role models is probably Serena Williams, although I’ve never played tennis in my life. I really like her work ethic and the fact that she has persevered through a lot. One of my favorite movies is the one that stars her and Venus and kind of their background and [the livelihood] they had to go through in order to get to where she is now. I think her perseverance is really what makes her my role model.”
Q: What motivates you?
A: “I think what motivates me the most is the fact that I’m an undersized guard. It’s something that I’ve had to deal with my entire life, but to be able to show that I can overcome that and I’m able to play at the level with everybody else. I think that’s just something that does really motivate me. I guess being underestimated is really a factor that motivates me to become who I was.”
Q: Would you want to keep playing or do something with your degree?
A: “My goal has always been to pursue my dream in the medical field, but if it does come to that point where I get the opportunity to play overseas or anything of that kind, I always thought about considering that first, and then going into my dream kind of after that if that doesn’t work out.”
Q: Do you have a fun fact about yourself?
A: “Mine would be, I have this, I guess like, secret desire to want to do skateboarding. When I was younger, I would go and get one and I’ve kind of been banned by my parents to get one for now. It was just something that kind of interested me I guess a lot. So, skateboarding or kind of hoverboarding is something that I kind of keep to myself because I’m not really good at it. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to try and do. … I tried doing different tricks and stuff, but that didn’t really work out.”
Q: What are some of your goals?
A: “My goal I guess right now as a freshman is kind of establish my goal in the team to really see how I fit in and how I’ll be able to work on that and kind of build for the years to come. Outside of basketball, my goal is to really just succeed, to use this opportunity that I got coming here to UTRGV to kind of help pursue my dream as I grow up.”
–Compiled by Jose Medina
