All-time scoring leaders, school records, championships, a legacy of excellence, determination, and hard work -- the Johnson family has made a lasting impression of Pembroke girls basketball.
That's the impression you get when you look at the legend of Top 10 scorers in girls basketball on the Pembroke gym, which contains three Johnson names: Breanna, with 814 points, Mackenna, 678 points, and Aralyse, 618 points.
Then there are the two championship basketballs in the trophy case, both with the name "Johnson" on them.
Finally, there is the current roster with senior Sydney on the team that is coached by father Jamie, along with Breanna and Aralyse.
Breanna is no longer the school's all-time scoring leader (Serene Calderon surpassed her last season when she finished her career with 831 points), and Aralyse is still the school's all-time rebound leader with 639, and Mackenna leads all-time in assists with 308 points.
At one time, Breanna, the oldest of the sisters, held all but one of the key girls basketball records and she also helped lead the team to its first Section V title challenge. Her mom Shannon said that was one of her proudest moments in the family's sports history.
"She did anything that (then-coach) Mike Wilson asked her to do," Shannon said. "Just watching her do that -- and I think easily she could have broken 1,000 (points) -- but every game she wanted to make sure every person scored. She could have been somebody who could have walked around with her head high and just bragging but the day that Serene broke her record, (she was) here and taking pictures with (Serene), I think for me, just watching her walk around as somebody who could have just been a snot and she was just so humble, I think for me, that was a proud moment."
All the girls, mom said, have that kind of character, and that means more to her than the athletic accomplishments.
Breanna may have led the way for the girls to make their marks in basketball -- a legacy that eventually helped Pembroke win back-to-back Section V titles in 2019 and 2020 when Mackenna was a junior and a senior -- but the athletic pace of the family was set by father Jamie, a 1991 graduate who excelled as a Dragon in football, baseball, and basketball.
He started coaching youth baseball in high school and as his girls came of age for sports, he naturally fell into coaching them in Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball and other travel leagues.
For the past few seasons, he's been the Dragons football coach, and last year he took over the girls varsity program in basketball.
Both Breanna and Aralyse said they love coaching and that dad set the example.
"When I finished college, I came home and I started coaching with an offseason AAU team and I just loved helping the girls learn to play," Breanna said. "I started out with a sixth-grade team. They were younger and still learning so I've stayed with them. I love teaching and helping the girls learn to play the game."
Aralyse said her father definitely inspired her as a player and coach.
"So many people hate being coached by their parents," Aralyse said. "I had my dad for one year when I played travel basketball and I couldn't imagine a better coach at that point. I think his consistency, and just seeing his determination and his hard work and everything he does is really inspiring.
"He's always been constant in support whether we have a bad game or a good game, he's always there to either congratulate us or tell us what we could have done better or different."
Breanna is 25 and majored in biology at Clarkson University. Aralyse is 24 and is an event coordinator after attending Johnson & Wales University.
It's watching young athletes grow that drew Jamie to coaching, he said.
"I like the connections you make with the kids and the improvement that you get to see," Jamie said. "They come in sometimes with raw skills and you get to watch them develop, and watch them gain confidence in the skills and the new skills that they're learning."
Basketball has always been part of the Johnson household, the girls said, especially after Breanna took up the sport as a young girl. She led the way, her younger sisters said, and Jamie was an immediate inspiration with his deep knowledge of the game.
"It definitely gave me something to look up to with both my older sisters playing before me and my dad (coaching)," said Mackenna, who has continued her basketball career at GCC, where she's in a natural sciences program in environmental biology with hopes of becoming a park ranger or DEC officer. "They all really helped me set goals and helped me work towards those goals, and it brings us a lot closer together. It's our whole life."
Sydney, of course, had three older sisters to guide her toward the game.
"Since the time I was three years old, I'd be going to basketball games and going to my sister's tournaments or even just the high school games. I was always here," Sydney said. "I started just going to my sisters' open gyms or practices and just shooting on the side while they were actually practicing. Ever since then I fell in love (with the game)."
In the Johnson household, Shannon said, post-game film review among the girls and their father has been a regular undertaking.
"I guess (it means a lot to me) just watching them take after their father, seeing the things that he loved, and we've all let them try," Shannon said. "They have tried everything from gymnastics to competitive dance to softball, everything. They take after their dad, like coming home after a game and wanting to watch the game again and go through it with Dad what we did wrong, what we did well. Watching them strive to be like him and be dedicated like him; I think that's one thing that means a lot to me."
As a dad and coach, Jamie gives his girls most of the credit for what they've accomplished on and off the court.
"They have, I don't know what to call it, an inner drive that, you know, they want to be the best of everything," Jamie said. "So they put in the work, they put in the time, and they really just have that inner drive, I don't know how else to explain it."
Jamie said he is the proud coach and father. His girls have set records, won titles, set a good example for their friends and classmates, and set themselves on solid career paths. But he's most proud, he said, that his girls have good character.
"I'm proud of how the girls carry themselves in all the things that they do, whether it be at work or at school or in sports," he said.
Top photo: The Johnson basketball family of Pembroke: Sydney, Shannon, Aralyse, Breanna, Jamie, and Mackenna.
Mackenna with her mother Shannon while Shannon tracks team statistics during a game at Pembroke.
Sydney Johnson
Pembroke Head Coach Jamie Johnson along with his assistants, daughters Aralyse and Breanna, during a recent game.
Mackenna Johnson taking a shot during the Shooting for a Cure game in 2017. This year's Shooting for a Cure game is Friday. Photos by Howard Owens.
