Opportunity with U of I soccer only makes Johnson-Monfort stronger
By FRED KRONER
Meredith Johnson-Monfort lettered in soccer four years while attending Mahomet-Seymour High school.
At the University of Illinois, Johnson-Monfort earned three varsity letters in soccer.
As a high school athlete, she set the (since-broken) school record for goals scored in a season and in a career.
As a college athlete, Johnson-Monfort tallied one goal, in an October, 2019, match at Maryland.
Though the statistical outcomes were drastically different, the experiences from both chapters in her life were rewarding and positive.
“Overall, I could not have had a better four years (at Illinois),” Johnson-Monfort said. “I did not get to experience as much success on the field as I would have liked. I did play in many games, (starting four), but as a competitor, it was hard to watch a game from the bench.
“Honestly, I was OK with it. This is the highest level of collegiate soccer, and all of my teammates were incredible athletes and players. I learned time management skills, how to push myself beyond my limits, and had friends so close they turned into family.
“Soccer was full of long hours and hard work, but it has been a passion I have had since I was 4 years old.”
Johnson-Monfort was selected by her teammates for the Jeremy L. Daly Award.
It honors the memory of Daly and, Johnson-Monfort said, means “that despite adversity, I continued to push through with a smile on my face. I will forever love the Fighting Illini Soccer Family and will never take the four years I was blessed with for granted.”
Daly was a young boy that former Illini women’s soccer coach Jillian Ellis met while an assistant coach at Virginia. He had a form of retinitis pigmentosa that caused him to slowly lose his sight and his hearing.
As a teen-ager, Daly died in an automobile accident. According to a 2015 story in The Alton Telegraph, Ellis founded the award at Illinois in his memory with the criteria specifying it be presented to a squad member who demonstrated “what it means to be a good human being.”
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Johnson-Monfort, a 5-foot-7 forward, enrolled at the University of Illinois in the fall of 2018.
“I was completely unsure what to expect,” she said. “I had only met the girls I would be sharing a room with a handful of times, which was very stressful in itself.
“On top of that, I had no idea what my courses or soccer workload would be. I was excited to embrace the next chapter, but I was a bit angsty for what it would hold.”
She soon learned that she need not fear the unknown of transitioning to a major college with an enrollment in excess of 56,000. The soccer program created an immediate group of acquaintances, many of whom became cherished friends.
“I am so thankful to the people I surrounded myself with because they shaped who I am today,” Johnson-Monfort said. “I met countless incredible people during my time here, but I have also found my very best friends in the entire world.
“My closest friends push themselves to be the best version of themselves they can be, while expecting the same from me. We hold each other accountable and want one another to be the most happy and successful possible.”
Johnson-Monfort’s freshmen season at the UI was curtailed by an ankle injury that prompted her to redshirt.
Before she earned her bachelor’s degree in three years and her master’s after her fourth year on campus, Johnson-Monfort had other battles beyond the one for playing time on a team with a plethora of talented players.
During the summer of 2021, she started feeling the strain and stress of being overbooked.
“I stayed over the summer last year to do morning workouts with our strength coach and some teammates on campus,”Johnson-Monfort said.” We had to be at workouts by 5:45 a.m. every day Monday through Friday, but I had an internship at Carle Foundation Hospital every day from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. every day Monday through Friday as well.
“I often had to leave morning workouts before they were even finished (at 7 a.m.) and rush home to put on business professional clothing and get to work. Mentally and physically, I was beyond exhausted.
“Many days I questioned whether or not it was worth it. When my internship ended, preseason began, as well as the Gies Management Academy (basically a bootcamp for the master’s program before the year began to students ready).
“For the whole summer into the school year, I was crazy-busy with school and athletics, and could feel myself beginning to burn out.”
Johnson-Monfort managed to keep the negative thoughts at bay and kept moving forward toward her goals.
“I persevered,” she said. “It was a grind, but I’m so glad I was able to have those opportunities to become a better player and a better student, all while gaining invaluable experience in the medical administration field.”
The summer 2021 experience followed a spring 2021 episode that was magnified by an illness that she had not shared with the majority of her teammates.
“We were at the end of a particularly hard soccer practice and we were told to get on the line for more fitness,” Johnson-Monfort recalled. “At this time, I was at the peak of my lung pain, but I had only told a few of my teammates about the struggles I was going through.
“I got on the line and completed the fitness. I think the coaches knew how bad the day was going to be for everyone considering they had the UI Police Department speaking with us that day and they brought some therapy dogs.
“I remember pulling my gaiter up to my eyes so no one could tell that I was crying in pain from my lung as we stood and listened to the policemen speak.”
Practice ended, and Johnson-Monfort was near a breaking point.
“I remember getting in my car, calling my dad (Gary Johnson) to tell him that I was going to quit, and driving for an hour around to feel a little bit better,” Johnson-Monfort said. “He talked me out of it, and I am so beyond glad he did.
“It was not all picture-perfect in my time here, but that does not mean it was not worth it. I would not change a thing about my Illinois Soccer experience. The adversity helped lead me to where I am today, and I could not be more proud or thankful for the role that Illinois Soccer had in that.”
In retrospect, Johnon-Monfort is convinced she made the right decision.
“In order to best handle everything on my plate, lots of long walks were taken paired with lots of phone calls to my sister (Kathryn) in Virginia,” she said. “I just continued to tell myself how worth it all of it would be eventually, how my younger self had dreamed of where I was today, how lucky I was to have all of these amazing resources and people in my life and would list off all of my blessings. Looking back now, I am so glad I stuck it out. It was all so worth it.
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Monfort-Johnson’s ankle was only the first of several health barriers she needed to contend with during her years on campus.
“I remember I woke up one morning (in 2019) and was in such intense pain breathing, speaking and laughing even,” she said. “My mom (Renee) came into my room with my sister, and we were all talking, when someone made a joke that made me chuckle, and I started sobbing because of the pain in my chest.
“At that point, we all knew I needed medical help. I ended up having pneumonia, a pleural effusion, and histoplasmosis, which resulted in me having an emergency procedure to help me.”
The histoplasmosis was likely in the works for years.
‘We think I got histoplasmosis, a fungal lung disease, from growing up on the farm, but I would not change a thing about my childhood either,” Johnson-Monfort said. “I took an antifungal medication twice daily for about six months.”
For the next two years, Johnson-Monfort was in varying degrees of pain and discomfort, including the continued lung pain.
“I ended up having to receive further treatment due to some of the other symptoms, but then was led to a thoracic surgeon because of a continued growth in my lung,” she said. “It was really scary at first, but I knew that I had the best support system around.”
Johnson-Monfort was originally reluctant to share details of her illness, and its severity, with friends.
“For the first few months of knowing, I only told my family, my coach, and five of my closest friends,” she said. “They were all so positive and supportive that I had no doubt everything would be fine.
“Eventually, in a team meeting, I told the rest of my teammates, and I was flooded with so much love and support.”
In December, 2021, Johnson-Monfort underwent surgery in Chicago, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, to have a portion of a lung removed.
Incredibly, despite the obstacles, Johnson-Monfort continued to thrive in the classroom.
She received her bachelor’s degree in community health (with a minor in Spanish) in three years while maintaining a cumulative grade-point average of 3.96 (on a 4.00 scale).
Johnson-Monfort used this past year – her fourth since graduating from M-S – to earn her master’s degree in management. In both semesters, she compiled a perfect 4.00 grade-point average.
“I was able to graduate with my bachelor’s and master’s in four years because of my support system,” Johnson-Monfort said. “Whenever I was feeling overwhelmed or stressed, my family and friends were there to calm me down and make light of what seemed to me to be so serious.”
In particular, her parents and sister were instrumental in her ability to cope.
“My mom, dad, and sister are three of the most influential people in my life,” Johnson-Monfort said. “They have shown me what it means to define and find success in all they do, what it looks like to be yourself, and how to never take life too seriously.
“Being able to say that my family is full of my biggest role models, biggest supporters, and best friends is a blessing like no other. I would not be anywhere near where I am today without their constant love and support.
“They have paved the path for me and their guidance has made me into who I am today. I cannot put into words how much each of them has done for me and what each of them means to me.”
Johnson-Monfort was a four-time Academic-All Big Ten selection and twice was chosen as a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar.
She was also the 2021-22 Outstanding UI Graduate Female Scholar (an award for a student-athlete for maintaining the highest graduate student GPA).
“The biggest takeaways I have from Illinois Soccer are my newfound time management ability, how important having a great support system is, and how far you can go in life if you surround yourself with people who are constantly pushing you and themselves,” Johnson-Monfort said.
She said she was already on a good path thanks to influential faculty members she had while in high school.
“The Mahomet school system set me up incredibly well for success at the University and I am forever indebted to all of my incredible high school teachers like CDR (Dan Ryan), Mr. (Eric) Potter and Mr. (Andrew) Seo,” Johnson-Monfort said. “They, and so many others, taught me how to make the most of my time in the classroom and how essential putting in extra work/studying is for success.
“Soccer helped me with time management at the University level because of our mandated freshman study hall hours and weekly mentorship meetings to make sure we were staying on track.
“I have definitely grown a lot these past four years. I think I have become a much more accepting human and have also become more confident in who I am. I used to be nervous to be myself because I feared judgment, but now I am proud of who I am and do not feel the need to suppress any part of myself. I am more willing to love freely, and I am so grateful for these new parts of myself.”
Johnson-Monfort accepted a prestigious administrative fellow position at Carle Foundation Hospital for the next year.
It will help her determine a long-term future plan.
“I will be exploring and learning more about hospital operations, health plan management, a variety of corporate support functions, and so much more in this new role,” she said. “This position is just a one-year opportunity, but I am excited to hopefully accept a new full-time job in the organization after or pursue Law School.”
She wouldn’t be opposed to a lengthy stay at Carle, however, just not as a patient.
“In 10 years, I hope to still be in Illinois working in Hospital Administration, hopefully at a Carle facility,” Johnson-Monfort said. “I do hope that I go to Law School someday as well, but I am not necessarily too sure about this one.”
Her teen-aged self had different expectations and goals.
“In high school, I would have answered this question very differently,” she said. “I probably thought I would end up in Texas and had absolutely no idea what job I would want to hold.
“I think this is yet another example of my growth and I am very happy with where I am at now.”
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Johnson-Monfort still has connections to the girls’ soccer program at her high school alma mater.
She has done individual coaching lessons the past three summers. One of the players she worked with is Southeast Missouri recruit Cayla Koerner, a recently graduated M-S senior who this spring shattered all of Johnson-Monfort’s season and career scoring records.
“I have gotten to know Cayla in the recent years through individual trainings and her coming to Illinois ID camps,” Johnson-Monfort said. “She is a funny, charismatic, hard-working girl, who has much success to come.
“I am so proud of Cayla for breaking them. She was someone who I have done the individual lessons with, so I am very invested in her success and happy to see how far she has come.
“I am glad she was able to leave her mark on Mahomet soccer, and I look forward to seeing her career at SEMO. I wish her the best of luck in all she does, and I hope she will have the same positive experience there as I did at Illinois.”
Johnson-Monfort said she faced more restrictions than Koerner during her time as a Bulldog.
“I was only permitted to score two goals per game at the high school level – three if was necessary for a win – which I know held me back from setting a higher bar,” Johnson-Monfort said, “but at the same time, I am thankful for the limit Coach (Joey) Gruner placed.
“It helped me to learn to assist more and it made so many of my other teammates able to have goals and have their own successes. I do think records are made to be broken though, and I am glad that it was Cayla who got to do it.”
That doesn’t mean she was in a celebratory mood.
“I would be lying if I said it did not make me a bit sad to see them broken though,” Johnson-Monfort added.
