Next Phase: With Two State Titles and a School Record, Parkview Baptist’s Faith Johnston ready to tackle Kansas Career

by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

Faith Johnston’s seemingly been on an accelerated path her entire athletic life.

Whether she played up several age groups in youth or club soccer or relished a two-year stay at the prestigious IMG Academy, Johnston tried to remain a step ahead of the competition.

Johnston, an all-state selection and part of the school’s back-to-back Division III state championship teams, is beginning her collegiate career and departs for the University of Kansas where she begins classes next Tuesday.

Parkview Baptist (19-0-1) is the state’s No. 1 ranked team by MaxPreps.com and is also ranked No. 3 nationally by MaxPreps. The Lady Eagles have GeauxPreps.com and LHSAA top power ranking in Division III and host Plaquemine in District 5-III play on Thursday at 5 p.m.

“That’s going to be the hardest part for the girls, just her presence,” Parkview Baptist coach Raphael Nunes said. “Even when she was injured (last season), she came to every practice. She was there for the games. Now she’s going to be gone. It’s going to be a huge loss for us, but I’m still going to be in contact with her.”

Johnston completed her requirements for graduation and received permission from the LHSAA to play in the team’s Senior Night on Jan. 11 which coincided with Johnston’s graduation.

“We’re going to miss her,” Nunes said, “but she’s going to be successful.”

Johnston, a striker with a school-record 117 goals, explained the rationale behind fast-tracking her collegiate career.

“I wanted to graduate early to go and be with my college team,” she said. “To get some really good training in before all of the freshmen get there, and the season started.”

Finding a home in Kansas

Johnston believed she had found her college home four months earlier when she committed to North Carolina State. 

Sadly, Johnston’s plans were turned upside down when N.C. State fired head coach Tom Santoro after 13 years at the school along with his entire staff on Nov. 8. 

With less than a week before the NCAA’s fall signing period, Johnston fielded a call the same afternoon from second-year Kansas head coach Nate Lie (pronounced Lee) who had unsuccessfully tried recruiting her when he was the coach at Xavier (Ohio). 

He reiterated to Johnson that Kansas was interested in having her a part of its program and wanted to gauge her interest.

Johnston was able to talk to some of the team’s players a couple of days before the Jayhawks upset No. 7 TCU 2-1 to win the Big 12 Conference tournament title and qualified for the NCAA tournament where they lost in the first round 1-0 at St. Louis.

In between, Johnston remained composed on the field and had a hat trick in a scrimmage victory, committed a day later to Kansas (13-6-4), and then led the Lady Eagles to a 3-2 victory in the season opener against Division I power St. Joseph’s Academy.

Photo Courtesy: Parkview Baptist School on Facebook

A day later, she signed with Kansas – sight unseen – before later taking an official visit to the campus in Lawrence, Kansas and came away confident in her decision.

“It was a sign from God the way the timing worked out,” Johnston said. “I just trusted that’s what I was meant to do. I loved the coaching staff and the girls. This is where I wanted to go. I went on the visit and the place was absolutely gorgeous and the soccer stadium was top class.”

Gravitating toward soccer

Johnston was born into an athletic family where her mother Shelly Ripple Rogers was a 7-time NCAA champion and 24-time All-American in swimming at Stanford. She also represented the United States on its national team for nine years.

The younger Johnston ran the gamut athletically. She ran track and cross country, participated in triathlon where she was a two-time national champion, and was also a swimmer.

Johnston’s love of soccer began on the youth fields in Baton Rouge where in 5 vs. 5 games, as a 7-year-old, she scored goals in bunches, thus fostering a passion for the game that’s remained ever since.

“We aren’t really a soccer family which is shocking,” Johnston said. “Our whole family is super athletic and competitive. We started sports at a very young age, and nothing really spoke to me, and I tried soccer. Me and my sister (Parkview sophomore Ella Kate) started around the same time and just absolutely loved it. I remember running around scoring 20 goals and it spoke to me. It really did.”

Nunes, who moved to the United States from Brazil in 2016, recalled seeing Johnston and her younger sister creating plenty of havoc from a close vantage point as an opposing coach in those formative years.

“It was incredible,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult for us for sure losing Faith. I think everybody’s happy to see her accomplishments. We are going to be sad not having her, but at the same time, we’re happy for her. We’re going to play for her.”

Leaving home with a purpose

The talented Johnston’s soccer path usually meant finding increased competition, where she was forced to play above her age group. That also resulted in her having to find matches against boys, anything to help her reach another rung up the ladder.

She began her career at Episcopal High as a seventh grader where she encountered a great deal of success, leading her to assess her future.

Would she remain in Baton Rouge and face the same competition or extend herself with more training options against elite competition?

The answer became clear that Johnston wanted to push herself, leading her to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. – a boarding school – for two years.

“We discussed, was I really good or not playing against the best competition? Johnston said. “My family said we can see how good you are if we send you to Florida.”

The college-style environment that brought some of the world’s most talented teenage athletes together provided the perfect step in Johnston’s development. The multi-training sessions augmented the team’s games against stringent competition, but after two years away from home, Johnston was ready to return home and enrolled at Parkview Baptist for her sophomore year.

Photo Courtesy: Glenn Eymard Photography

“I really grew as a player and my independence was sky high,” Johnston said. “We trained as a team and individually.  It was preparing me for college. I lived in a dorm with a roommate.”

With Nunes having positioned Parkview Baptist as an emerging power in Division III, Johnston scored 47 goals with 30 assists and helped the Lady Eagles to their first state title in 2023. During the team’s run to the state crown, she scored 11 goals over a six-game span.

She was the Most Valuable Player of both District 5-III, Baton Rouge Advocate’s All-Metro team, and was a member of the Division III All-State team.

The Gatorade Player of the Year was the first for the school in girls’ soccer.

“She led the team in assists,” Nunes said. “The great part was that she would drive away two or three defenders because they man-marked her. She floats so well from side to side; she has so much endurance. She creates space for other girls on the field and serves them a pass. But they can put two, three, or four girls on her and they’re still not stopping her. She finds a way. She’s very creative to beat a defender. 

“She brings joy to the field with her feet,” Nunes said. “All of a sudden, she may be in a tight space and there’s no way to go with three defenders around her. Where does she go? She’ll start juggling and going over people and has done that multiple times to find space. She’s a selfless player. I wish she was more selfish. She wants to serve. The team comes first. That is something you can’t teach. Her aggressiveness on the field, you can’t teach that.”

One of the attractions in returning home was that Johnston would be afforded the opportunity to play in the Girls Academy – representing the exact level of competition she had at IMG.

The league created a team in Louisiana for the first time when the state put together a collection of the state’s best players that included Johnston after her terrific sophomore season. 

Again, it was a step up in competition for Johnston, a U15 player, to battle U19 players who were already ticketed for the college ranks.

“She and her sister played against my team,” Nunes said. “She was playing 2-3 years up and she dominated. We had girls going to college and she was still a sophomore and still dominated.”

Dealing with her first setback

Johnston’s summer continued with her participation in a semipro league, regarded as another step to sharpen and improve her skills.

She tracked back and stepped in front of a player trying to regain possession during a match and felt the weight of the player crashing against her knee, sending her to the ground.

“The trainer said I just sprained it, and I would be fine by next week,” Johnston said. “I went home for a couple of days, and it wasn’t getting better. I thought, ‘What should we do?’ I went to the doctor and said it’s your ACL.”

The first significant injury of her career meant Johnston would spend more time rehabilitating her knee instead of taking part in college ID camps which are considered an important part of the recruiting process for rising juniors.

“All of these colleges that had been talking to me just stopped,” she said. “I had to wait and train when I got better. When I got better, I went to as many ID camps as possible and they started talking to me again. They wondered if what I was going was in a healthy way.”

Seven months after surgery Johnston was going through non-contact drills and went to a heralded ID camp believed to unlock the door for talented players looking to play in college.

Johnston, eight months removed from surgery, enjoyed a solid showing and caught the attention of coaches from both N.C. State and Kansas. 

“Whatever the doctor said, I doubled that in a healthy way,” Johnston said of her rehab. “I wanted to get back as soon as possible. It was pretty hard. I had such a good support team. 

“I’m still around the game and thing that I loved, still around the people that I loved,” Johnston said. “It was a good break to reset my mind, think about what’s really important and what my priorities are, how to get better when I got back.”

Nunes said Johnston was going through non-contact practices with some cutting at Parkview Baptist 5 ½ months after surgery. 

“She was coming back so much faster than I had ever seen,” he said. “It was something amazing. Her recovery was very quick.”

The expectation from doctors was to limit Johnston to only penalty kicks during her junior season. 

For the second straight game in the playoffs Parkview Baptist was pushed to penalty kicks and the Lady Eagles responded with a 5-4 victory over St. Louis Catholic in the state final – including a successful attempt from Johnston. 

“The goalkeeper knew where she was going, but she put so much power she couldn’t get to it,” Nunes said.

Ella Kate named her team’s Outstanding Player, also had one of her team’s five penalty kicks that helped the Lady Eagles complete a 27-0-1 season.

“Contributing to the team winning is amazing,” Faith Johnston said. “I could not have scored the PK and have been just as happy as if I did playing and just being part of this team. I went up to my sister at halftime and gave her whatever I thought I had, but she doesn’t take my advice. Sitting and watching from the sidelines how our team plays is really a cool thing.”

Johnston was involved in the molding of Parkview’s program, taking Nunes’ suggestion to coach the school’s middle school team. She relied on her coach to run practices and take the lead in games before becoming increasingly comfortable with doing both.

It’s something that provided her with a rewarding experience. 

“I got to see those girls play the game that I love,” Johnston said. “What better thing is there to do? I learned a lot and it did help me.”

Great player, even better teammate

There were a myriad of reasons Nunes welcomed the return of Johnston this season. None of them, though, had to do with her high-volume scoring prowess.
 
“Last year she impacted those girls on the bench with her leadership,” he said. “Just her work ethic was uplifting. She wants excellence in everything she does. Even when she doesn’t have to say anything, her work ethic impacts the girls around her and that’s something that’s contagious. It lifts the other girls to do the same. She gives it her all in everything and she’s a role model. The girls want to be like her.”
 
There was little acclimation time for Johnston when she rejoined this year’s team. The time away from competition gave her a mental respite while strengthening both of her knees.
 
“I feel like I was in a better spot than I was,” Johnston said. “I’m stronger and I feel like I’m faster than I was. I know the game better. I think I’m more prepared than I was before.”
 
Parkview reeled off four straight wins to start the season, including a 1-0 home win over reigning seven-time Division II state champion St. Thomas More. The game-winner was courtesy of Karis Phillipe in the 14th minute – courtesy of an assist from Johnston.
 
The Lady Eagles suffered their first loss since the 2023 season – a 2-1 defeat against Vandebilt Catholic in the Central Lafourche tournament on Nov. 22 – before going on a tear.
 
Parkview’s won its last 15 matches, including 11 by shutout, and witnessed a personal milestone on Dec. 3 in a 2-1 road win over Northshore when Johnston registered her 100th career goal.

Photo Courtesy: Parkview Baptist School on Facebook

“I was told after the fact,” Johnston said. “After the game coach said in our huddle, good game and that was Faith’s 100th goal. It shows how good this team is because of every assist, every pass to me to get those goals. It shows how good we are as a team.”
 
Johnston, this week’s LHSSCA statewide Player of the Week after six goals and two assists, led the team with 23 goals and 14 assists – including a brace (the other goal from Macey Theriot) in a come-from-behind 3-2 win over E.D. White.
 
Turns out that was Johnston’s final high school match.
 
“It’s sad,” Johnston said. “I’m going to miss all of the girls. They can do anything they set their minds to. I absolutely believe 100% they’re going to go win state. Maybe I’ll fly back and watch them. You never know.”