“Are they good at Rugby?” This was the immediate reaction of Juwan Johnson when told Dartmouth College might be a good fit for him. Little did he know that he was on the way to playing rugby for one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. This renowned school in Hanover, N.H., finished first at 7-0 in their division in rugby – and certainly aren’t lacking on the academic front. Johnson, likely attending Dartmouth in the fall, has experienced the change of a lifetime through his introduction to rugby.
Having gone from not knowing what rugby is to one of the best players in the nation’s class, Johnson has catapulted onto the radar of… just about everyone. New friends, coaches and advisers. New college representatives, admissions officers and scouts. The life of Juwan Johnson doesn’t end on the pitch, where he can constantly be seen tackling opponents ruthlessly, running the ball through any defense and pushing himself to new limits. That’s just where his life starts.
Johnson’s excellence in the classroom is part of the reason he’ll likely be flying to New Hampshire this upcoming fall. He has a passion for physics-based science – nuclear engineering, to be exact. Johnson is the prototype, and more, for countless universities and colleges: academically driven, yearning to make change and athletically dominant. Add the unwavering attitude for improvement, and Juwan Johnson is the result. A young man who has risen from the streets of Crenshaw to be a prospective nuclear engineer with a double major at a college three thousand miles away from home – while becoming one of the world’s best rugby players when he’s not studying.
– Connor Layden and Jimmy Shaw
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