The Andover High School boys basketball team has a credo it lived by this winter, emblazoned in blue letters on the back of more than 1,000 gold T-shirts, just as they have for every season of coach Dave Fazio's 20-year reign.
Last year's phrase was the catchy - "Not in our house!" referring to domination on their home court.
But this one — "Keep the ship moving," or "KTSM" — unlike the others, was not the product of Fazio's inspiration.
This one was created last March, in the cancer wing at Massachusetts General Hospital.
It was written on a piece of paper and handed to Jimmy Johnson, then an Andover High sophomore and star on the junior varsity team.
It was written by Jimmy's mom, Corinne Johnson, who died a few days later of pancreatic cancer.
"She couldn't talk the last two weeks she was in the hospital because of the tubes in her throat," said Jimmy, now a junior and key player on the highly-regarded Andover boys basketball team. "So she communicated by writing notes. Some of them were funny, like the time my grandmother walked into the hospital room. She wrote, 'Get a new jacket.' That was my mom."
Jimmy saved all of his mom's notes, including the one Andover High basketball glommed onto this winter — "Keep the ship moving."
"Corinne was very happy with the way things were moving along in Jimmy's life," said Julia "Pat" Morris, Jimmy's grandmother and Corinne's mom. "She wanted him to keep everything going. Like her, he is very well-rounded. His life was going in the right direction. She didn't want her death to change that."
A few months before Corinne died, when she realized she might not beat the cancer, she met with Fazio, boys lacrosse coach Wayne Puglisi, and guidance counselor Kyra Bateman.
"She sat us down and said, 'All I'm asking you is that you look over him," recalled Fazio. "She didn't have to say that. Because we all knew we would do everything we could to help him get through it. It showed how much she cared about Jimmy."
'I'm too young to be giving a eulogy'
Among the hardest tasks of Jimmy's young life, there is no doubt what ranks at the top.
His mom's eulogy.
When she died, Jimmy decided that, even at 16, nobody could explain what his mother's life and inspiration meant better than he could.
"I am too young to be giving this eulogy," said Jimmy to the packed church at St. Augustine's in Andover at the funeral last March.
"That was one of the most incredible things I've ever heard," Fazio said. "Not only did he read it, but he wrote it. He got the strength from his mom that morning. No one could have done what he did. I cried like a baby. Everyone in the church that morning cried."
Nobody could empathize with Jimmy better than Fazio. His mother passed away from a brain aneurysm a quarter of a century earlier, while Fazio was a sophomore at Salem State College.
"Their connection is special," said Pat, Jimmy's grandmother. "Coach Fazio has been a really great influence on Jimmy."
Jimmy's grandparents have also stepped up to the plate.
Pat, who raised four children with her husband, James, in Melrose, moved in with Jimmy and Corinne in Andover a few months before she died. Pat and James moved in permanently afterward.
"We felt we had to keep the continuity, for him," Pat said. "We felt it was important to keep him in the Andover public schools, in the same house, where he could bring friends. If he was completely uprooted, it would have been too difficult."
Moving in was one thing. Taking a lead role was another.
"My grandmother has taken over the role of being tough on me," said Jimmy. "My mom used to ride me, especially about school work. My grandmother is exactly the same. Nothing has changed. She gets on me when I need it. I don't know where I'd be without my grandparents."
Jimmy's father, Walter Johnson, has also played a greater role in his life over the past year. After he and Corinne got divorced when Jimmy was only 2, Walter moved away, settling in Derry, N.H. When Corinne passed, he moved to Andover.
"My dad and I get along great," Jimmy said. "We have gotten a lot closer. I split my time between my house and his house. He means a lot to me, especially the fact that he moved to Andover."
Pat says her grandson has a lot of the same virtues as his mom.
"The most outstanding thing about him is his resiliency," she said. "He always bounces back, through so many obstacles, a lot like his mom."
Corinne's resume for comebacks is legendary.
She survived Hodgkin's disease during the summer of her freshman year at the University of Massachusetts and graduated with her class in 1980. While building a flourishing career that saw her become a plant manager at General Electric's manufacturing facilities in Hooksett, N.H., and Lynn, Corinne survived breast cancer in 1998 and heart valve replacement surgery in 2000.
"Because she had survived so much, I thought she was going to make it," Pat said.
On the court, he is always moving
Jimmy, who is listed in the program as 6-foot-1, but is closer to 5-foot-10, is among the first players off the bench for the 12-7 Golden Warriors.
There has never been a time when Fazio has had to tell Jimmy to "keep moving," as the Andover boys basketball credo infers, on the basketball court.
Not once.
While Jimmy's stats as a regular contributor aren't that impressive — he averaged 4.4 points and 3 rebounds per game this season — you have to see him play to understand what he brings to the table.
Fazio likens it to a racing greyhound nervously slamming its nose while waiting for the box to open, and then taking off as soon as the gun fires.
"He's a freak," Fazio said. "I've never had a player, in all of my years in basketball, that plays with more energy, more moxie than Jimmy. It's amazing to watch when he's on the floor. It might be a steal. It might be a block. It might be him going in the middle with the ball against three trees. Something good always seems to happen."
What he lacks in size — he sometimes plays forward, too — he makes up for in strength and speed.
Jimmy says his place on the stat sheet has never mattered to him. Expected to be one of the area's top lacrosse players this spring, as a defender, he prides himself on stopping the opposition.
"I love playing defense," he said, bursting into a big smile. "For me, it shows you're tougher; tougher than the other guy. My biggest high is at the end of a game, covering the best player on the other team."
And that he does.
"I wish I could say I have control over him, but I don't," Fazio said with a laugh. "What he is for us is instant defense. He had to work his way into the lineup from the 10th player to now where he is in the top seven. He's there because of his defense. And his energy."
While he was not among the top five options on offense, he has had a penchant for making big plays on the offensive side of the court, too.
Last year as a JV player, a month before his mom died, he scored the winning basket at the buzzer of overtime against Brockton, preserving Andover's undefeated season.
In one of the most exciting Andover High games this season, a 54-53 win over Lowell, the visitors got a double-whammy from Jimmy. Not only did he help hold Lowell to only 13 second-half points and grab 11 rebounds, but he scored the winning basket, scoring off of an offensive rebound over a 6-foot-4 Lowell player with 45 seconds remaining.
"But the best part was they had three chances to take the lead and we stopped them every time," said Jimmy, who scored 10 points. "That was as exciting as it gets."
A void never to be filled
Spending a night with your mom is one thing. Spending summer vacations with just her is another.
For the five years prior to her death, Jimmy and his mom travelled the country — just the two of them — every summer.
"I know that's probably not normal, but for me it was," Jimmy said. "She loved the National Parks. We went to Yellowstone in Wyoming. We went to parks in Florida, California and Alaska. Alaska was the best. We took a cruise there and saw the glaciers. It was amazing. She was cool to hang around with."
Among the many things he misses about his mom is her instructions from the sidelines during games.
"She would say, 'Shoot it!' or 'Steal it!'" Jimmy said. "I do miss that."
He missed celebrating her 50th birthday on Sept. 1. He missed not buying her a gift for Mother's Day. He also misses the regular, nondescript contact they had on a day-to-day basis.
"She used to make me breakfast, drive me to school and pick me up," Jimmy said. "If I was sick, she'd stay home from work and take care of me. You take those things for granted."
One thing he never took for granted was her hugs.
"She gave the best hugs ever," Jimmy said. "They were big and comfy. Hugs are underrated. I'll be honest, I miss those the most."
Scholarship fundraiser for Corinne Johnson
What: Mystery Dinner Theater, an interactive mystery dinner theater
Where: Indian Ridge Country Club, Andover
When: Friday, March 27, 2009 at 6 p.m.
Tickets: Adults, $75; teens, $50. All proceeds will go to the Corinne (Morris) Johnson Scholarship Fund, which benefits Andover High seniors who have suffered the loss of a family member. For more information on the scholarship, or to make a donation, go to www.corinnejohnson.net
