In sports, it is common knowledge that whenever you play against someone more skilled, or extremely competitive, it will likely make you better. It makes sense, the more you play, the better you get. Imagine playing against someone that is just as competitive and skilled as you are, and you compete against them in everything you do.

Now, imagine that the person is your sister.

This is life for Courtney and Jennifer Johnson. Courtney, a senior forward and captain of the women’s basketball team, and Jennifer, a freshman on the rugby team, have been competing with and against each other for as long as both can remember.

Growing up, both sisters say they played every sport possible.

“We played T-ball, soccer, basketball… if you name a sport, we played it growing up,” Courtney said.

Growing up in a house full of competitive athletes helped both sisters develop into the athletes and individuals they are today. Being the youngest of three sisters didn’t make Jennifer have any less of a competitive edge growing up, and she acknowledges her sisters as the ones who always pushed her to be better.

“I definitely feel like being the younger sibling they made me strong. I had to grow up fast in order to guard them and keep up,” Jennifer said.

Although there is a gap of a few years between Courtney and Jennifer, they never let that affect their competitiveness or desire to beat their siblings.

Game night in the Johnson household is where their real competitiveness comes out.

“We play a lot of board games and card games… Speed is our favorite. We would sit on the living room floor and play for houirs and just go at each other again and again,” Courtney said. Jennifer added, “We couldn’t stop because neither of us wanted to stop playing after we lost. It went on forever.”

After Jennifer was offered a scholarship to play basketball at Central, it was one of the first times that both sisters could have played on the same team. Jennifer made a difficult decision to turn down the scholarship to play rugby instead.

“I started playing rugby in March and I just fell in love with it. Then at Central it became a varsity sport and I knew I wanted to join. It was hard to turn down playing with my sister but I couldn’t be happier with my decision,” Jennifer said.

Courtney admits that she tried to convince her sister to choose basketball instead, but realized that rugby is what made her most happy. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters to either sister.

After playing soccer and basketball for all of her life, Courtney knew that she wanted to continue he career into college.

She decided to play basketball instead of soccer in college, but was unsure of where she wanted to play after high school.

Courtney’s coach at the time, former Wildcat men’s basketball player Keith Hennig, advised her to look at Central. Her visit to campus sealed the deal and she was invited to walk onto the women’s basketball team.

After not knowing what sport she would play, or where she would play it, Courtney is now in her fourth season with the Wildcats and is currently their leading scorer at 20 points per game, while also adding seven rebounds and 1.5 assists.

She says that growing up in a house with multiple sisters, that each eventually went on to play collegiate athletics, helped develop her competitiveness to the level that it is today.

Athletics and competition have always been a part of both of their lives, both sisters make sure that family comes first before anything else.

Both Courtney and Jennifer always try to make time to watch the other play.

“We’re both usually pretty quiet on the sidelines whenever we watch each other play,” Jennifer said. Courtney added, “Unless there’s a play that gets us really fired up on the sidelines, then we’ll be heard.”

Although both sisters have taken different paths with their collegiate sports careers, it is obvious what is most important to them.

“Athletics has always just brought us all closer as a family,” Courtney said. “I think that’s probably the reason we have grown to love it so much and continue doing it today.”