A Rock-Solid Netminder

Rick Dempsey, the veteran catcher for the Baltimore Orioles, first met Krickett Johnson at a Baltimore-New York game during the summer of 1980.

Earlier that season he had tried to reach Johnson at home during a rain-delayed game at Memorial Stadium, but only her mom was there.

"She's a real big baseball fan," Dempsey was told over the phone.

"So am I," he responded.

The veteran catcher made the call after receiving a postcard a day from Johnson all season, who made it a point to write to her hero after each Oriole outing--win or lose.

Johnson now has his picture hanging on her Cabet House wall, along with an article lauding his hard-working attitude. "Scrappy Dempsey Personifies Baltimore," the headline roads.

"He personifies everything I admire in an athlete," Johnson says of her favorite professional sports player. "He always plays 100 percent and he enjoys what he does."

Johnson, Harvard's star women's lacrosse goalie for the last three years, has learned a lot from Dempacy. She began playing lacrosse at the Friends School in Baltimore when she was 10, and has never quit.

She became the number-one goalie for the Crimson her-sophomore year, and led the team to three Ivy titles with a goals-against average of less than five.

Like Dempsey, the three-time All-Ivy goalie became a star with hard work and determination. "She uses all her ability," says her coach, Carole Kleinfelder. "She has a persistence in a way I haven't seen in others."

That dogged determination paid off as Johnson matured from a freshman reserve with a goals-against average of 10.25 to an Honorable Mention All-American junior with a 4.45 g.a.a.

"She approached the position so technically and professionally," says Tri-Captain Ellen O'Neill. "She always maintained a high standard of what to expect from herself. She's slight of size, so what she locked in size, she made up for in quickness. She's such a technician."

As an honors Geology concentrator, Johnson has had her hands full with her academic work and her commitment to lacrosse. "There were times trying to fit it in around a science major, especially with a thesis this year," Johnson says. "I only stuck it out because I enjoy the team so much."

Inga Parsons, her roommate for four years, explained how at one point Johnson's thesis advisor suggested she quit the team so she could put more time into her studies. "She responded by putting 150 percent into both, and it showed."

Johnson's thesis was presented to the Lunar and Planetary Conference in Houston earlier this spring.

"She approached the game so seriously, but still knew how to have a good time." O'Neill added.

Which is something that Dempsey--famous for his rain-delay wet-tarp antics--undoubtedly knows how to do.