Budding All-American
Cade van Raaphorst. JT Giles-Harris. Kenny Brower. Duke men’s lacrosse’s recent great close defensemen.
Charlie Johnson. Duke’s next great defenseman? That’s the resumé he is building at the moment.
In his third season with the program, Johnson is finally getting his time to show who he is on the lacrosse field. And he is doing so with an unmatched humility, focus on the details and fierce competitiveness — all traits he carries throughout his everyday life.
Johnson, after playing in only five games in 2024, has started every game for the No. 11 Blue Devils, drawing the matchup against each opponents’ top attackman. In the second game of the season at Jacksonville, Johnson did what no Duke defensemen had done in over a decade by recording five caused turnovers. It was the first time since 2014 when Casey Carroll, a first-team All-American himself, posted five caused turnovers against Stony Brook. Johnson’s 17 this season are the 14th most nationally and are 16 more than he had in his five games last year.
We’re talking about a highest character kid. He doesn’t make the same mistake twice. He’s a budding All-American. That’s what he really is. He is the next great Duke defenseman.Assistant coach and defensive coordinator Ronny Caputo
Johnson smiles shyly at hearing what Caputo said about him and immediately deflects with, “That’s very nice of him to say, but I think the next great Duke defenseman is (freshman) Nik Menendez.” That is Charlie Johnson in a nutshell, but there is so much more to him.
Johnson, a Brunswick School product, arrived on campus in the fall of 2022 after an incredibly successful senior season with the Bruins and on the heels of Duke missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time under head coach John Danowski.
Coming from an athletic family — his mom was a three-time All-American in lacrosse and a three-time All-Ivy pick in field hockey at Princeton, while his grandfather was a running back for the New York Giants — Johnson also had the benefit of prior relationships with Duke team captain and Brunswick product Wilson Stephenson and Keith Boyer, who was a part of the same club program. However, he also was stepping in behind All-American and rising senior Kenny Brower, who had started every game of his career and still had two years left.
Johnson reflects upon those early months in Durham and admits he was far more nervous about the social transition to Duke than adjusting to collegiate lacrosse. He laughs a little now realizing how wrong he was.
I was completely wrong. I should have been nervous about how I wasn’t prepared for lacrosse at all, and I shouldn’t have been nervous about my social situation because these guys are terrific.Charlie Johnson
Physically and mentally strong and a really good on-ball defender, the coaches saw incredible potential in Johnson. Knowing Brower had two more years with the Blue Devils coupled with Johnson’s need to improve his stick skills, the Duke coaches made the decision to approach Johnson about taking a redshirt year.
“The conversation was that the highest end of his abilities was covering the ball, and at the time we had Kenny Brower, who Charlie was going to replace, and (Charlie’s) off-ball abilities as well as his skills in terms of the clearing game weren’t up to par,” Caputo said. “With the guys who were ahead of him it didn’t make sense to give up a year of his playing where we can get rid of the 19-year-old version of him for a year and get the 23-year-old version in return when he wasn’t going to get game time anyways.”
Johnson, upon being approached with the idea the night before the opening game against Bellarmine in 2023, sat down with his own thoughts and talked to teammates and his parents about the option. He knew his time on the field would be limited and understood the opportunity to spend his first year honing his skills in exchange for spending another year at a place like Duke was a no brainer.
I talked to Cole (Krauss) about it, and he was super helpful because he had done the same thing. My parents and I thought it was the best move. Other than five or six times during the year when I probably would have gone in — and it stinks to watch everybody else go in the game — other than that, it was great. You’re trading about 15 minutes of game time for another entire year of your life at this place and that’s definitely worth it.Charlie Johnson
The desire to spend another year at Duke and within the men’s lacrosse program is a testament to the culture head coach John Danowski has created in his 19 seasons at the helm and is one of the many reasons Johnson is flourishing as a Blue Devil.
Mature and methodical — two adjectives to describe the Riverside, Conn., native — is exactly how Johnson approached his redshirt season. Needing to work on his skills off the ground as well as hone his abilities in the clearing game, Johnson knew he was fortunate every practice was going to help him.
“I felt it was super freeing,” Johnson said. “Practice became much less consequence for me, and I am a pretty methodical person and a pretty responsible person so practice becoming no consequence didn’t mean I was going to freak out and do whatever I want. It meant I felt more comfortable working on my game and trying new things. The reason I redshirted was as far as my own skill set — my stick skills (were lacking), and practice is the perfect place, in a no pressure environment…to work on that. So, I pretty much treated every practice like a game.”
Johnson worked quietly in the background through the early months of his first season in Durham. He didn’t say anything during practice or in the locker room. However, he found his voice in a quieter place at the lacrosse program’s weekly “small group” meeting, a time when players come together to talk about their faith but mostly it is a space to be open, honest and vulnerable.
Danowski regularly hosts “small group” at his house and everyone from freshmen to graduate student transfers join for a couple of hours each week to spend time together regardless of their faith but often for the community.
“I didn’t feel that comfortable in my first few weeks (on campus), which is completely normal,” Johnson said. “That freshman fall, small group was the first place I felt really comfortable. I talked a lot. I never talked in the locker room or out on the field and then in small group I would talk all the time. Kenny (Brower), Garrett Leadmon and Bobby Wade, I loved those guys. They were so generous and kind and embraced me. That was where I really felt at home in the first semester.”
Finding his footing off the field, Johnson certainly had his work cut out for him out on the Cohan Practice Fields. He was tasked with guarding Brennan O’Neill, the eventual Tewaaraton Award winner as the nation’s best player in 2023 and what many describe as a unicorn in terms of his combination of size and skill on a lacrosse field.
The phrase of “iron sharpens iron” certainly rang true with Johnson and O’Neill. Standing at 6-2 and 240 pounds and possessing an arsenal of moves, there was no player in college lacrosse like him and Johnson will speak to how O’Neill made him a better defenseman both physically and mentally. He had to learn to play good on-ball defense but also to have that short-term memory and the willingness to sometimes just tip your hat to the opponent.
“I think about Brennan making me better all the time. I remember our first live practice and it was in that first one-on-one period. I played incredible defense. I forced him to his right hand. I was driving him up the field. I got him to a bad spot. I forced him to turn and then I turn around and the ball is in the net. I couldn’t believe it at the time, because before then, if I played perfect defense the guy didn’t score. That was the prologue to our relationship. He definitely made me better.Charlie Johnson
While Caputo agrees O’Neill made Johnson better, he also believes Johnson’s competitive nature challenged Duke’s star attackman and that benefited the Blue Devils greatly as Duke made a run to the 2023 NCAA title game.
“I think Charlie’s intensity level forced Brennan to practice harder, which probably during Charlie’s redshirt year was his greatest benefit to our team because Brennan was so talented things could be easy for him. Charlie was certainly not there for cannon fodder.”
As Johnson’s stick skills progressed on the field throughout his freshman and sophomore seasons, he continued to find his voice off the field not only within the men’s lacrosse program but also in the overall Duke Athletics community as a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Advancing Leaders and taking part in the 2023 ACC Unity Tour in Washington D.C.
The benefit of being active in the student-athlete development spaces is twofold for Johnson. He is fiercely proud to be a part of the Duke men’s lacrosse team and cherishes the opportunity to represent his teammates. He also finds great fulfillment in getting to know other athletes and learn about them and their teams.
“I have pride in being able to represent Duke lacrosse and my coaches and my teammates and the program in those areas,” Johnson said. “The other part of it is meeting other people. I always find it so interesting talking to people from other sports about the way their sport works and the way their Duke team operates. It’s about representing us but also being able to learn about the outside as well.”
Johnson also looks at it as a way to pay it forward to his younger teammates. He admits he likely never would have gotten involved within these student-athlete development spaces, but because he had teammates who exposed him to the opportunities, he wants to return the favor.
“The only reason I joined SAAC in the first place was because (Cameron) Henry was there, and Connor (Drake) and Jake Caputo were on it. I never would have joined SAAC if those three guys weren’t on the team. So, if my teammates are sometimes hesitant to do things like that it’s important for somebody to go and show them that it’s okay.Charlie Johnson
With two years of hard-nosed practice against some of the best attackmen in Duke’s illustrious lacrosse history, a lot of time on the sidelines during games and a host of growth opportunities outside of lacrosse, Johnson is no longer flying under the radar on or off the field.
He took the torch from Brower this year on and off the field as the newest leader of “small group” and as Duke’s best on-ball defenseman, and he’s doing so with the same steely determination, unwavering focus and genuine confidence that have guided him throughout his life.
“I don’t think he’ll ever give in to a score,” Caputo said. “He will compete for as long as there is time on the clock. His effort is as consistent as his personality is. He’s one of the easiest kids in 20 years of coaching to trust.”
Charlie’s 47 teammates would certainly agree.