Riley Johnson started playing softball at 7 years old. At 11, she dislocated her right shoulder for the first time while playing and three years later, softball caused the same dislocation and the labrum to tear.

“I was told that year I would need surgery right away,” she said. But she asked her doctors if she could damage it any further if she kept playing.

“He was like, ‘No,’” Johnson said. “And I was like, ‘OK, well, I’m going to play.’”

Now 22 years old, Johnson has had three shoulder surgeries and more shoulder dislocations than she can count. After her last surgery at the end of last season, Johnson hoped her shoulders would hold out for her final two years at Syracuse.

But in the fifth game this season, Johnson’s right arm over-extended during an at-bat and her shoulder popped out of place, again.

“I just started crying. I was like, ‘No, no, no, no,’ and then just very disappointed and frustrated,” she said. “… I was in a position to help our team this year with my bat, with my glove at first base, and now putting people in difficult positions.”

Through the pain, which she rated as a 10 out of 10, the rehab and the surgeries, Johnson refused to stop playing. She was born with loose joints in her whole body, causing her shoulder and socket to not rotate together properly, leading to the rampant dislocations. A coach’s kid, Johnson is doing everything she can to help Syracuse (12-14), even if she’ll be playing in a limited capacity.

“I remember watching the University of Michigan win the first national championship east of the Mississippi and that feeling I had, I looked at my dad and I was like, ‘That’s going to be me someday. That’s going to be me,’” she said.

Her father, Curt Johnson, coached high school softball for more than 20 years and he coached his daughter’s travel teams.

Johnson’s parents, while always supportive no matter her decision, told her she doesn’t need to play anymore.

“I could just picture her having that injury and that pain and it’s tough as a parent knowing your child is going through that,” Curt Johnson said.

Now, when her shoulder pops out, the physical pain is negligible. She’s used to it.

Johnson’s first position on the softball field was pitcher before her first dislocation. Then, she moved to the middle infield before outfield. Coming into this year, head coach Leigh Ross planned for her to play first. Since her injury, she’s been a designated hitter and pinch runner.

“She’s used (her time on the sideline) to help her team which is a sign of maturity and selflessness,” Ross said. “Instead of going into ‘poor me’ mentality, she knows how important her eyes are, her input and she makes herself so valuable.”

Ross said she knew what happened before she made it to Johnson on the field after this year’s injury. She walked, crying, toward her crumpled player.

When Johnson’s parents saw her calling when she was supposed to playing, they knew too. The frequency of injury is haunting.

“Every time she would call you’d be like, ‘Everything all right?’” Colleen Johnson, Riley’s mother, said. “Every conversation I have with her, usually the first or the second question … it’s, ‘How’s your shoulder? Are you being smart? Give yourself rest, do what you need to do.’”

Colleen Johnson worries for her daughter’s future beyond softball. She said she wants Riley to be able to use her arms when she’s 50 — or even 30.

That concern led doctors to tell Johnson to quit softball when she was as young as 11. They knew, and she knew, that the injury would keep coming back even with conservative rehab.

At the beginning of the season, Ross had each player on the team write down why she plays softball for her teammates to read.

Johnson was able to write about the uncertainty that comes with every time she plays the game, but also the gratitude she has for her ability to still participate.

“Going through the dislocations,” Johnson said, “going through the injuries and knowing that, you know, with one swing of the bat, the game could be taken from me … just don’t play with regrets.”

Published on March 17, 2015 at 12:10 am