Malaya Johnson, a rising senior on the women's basketball team, will travel to Ivory Coast to compete and train alongside the country's national team.
Malaya Johnson, a rising senior center on the Elon University women’s basketball team, will participate in a 10-day trip to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, with Athletes in Action later this month.
Joining a team of collegiate women’s basketball players from across the country, Johnson will take part a four-day training camp June 25-28 at the Athletes in Action headquarters in Xenia, Ohio, before heading to Africa from June 29 through July 10. There she and the team will compete and train alongside the under-19 Ivorian National Team and teams from other foreign nations. While in Abidjan, the team will conduct youth basketball camps, coaching clinics and provide humanitarian aid to the greater Abidjan area.
Johnson is the third Phoenix women’s basketball player to participate in an Athletes in Action international tour in the last six years. Sam Coffer joined the program for a 2012 trip to Brazil and Lauren Brown visited Poland in 2015.
“Never in a million years would I have thought I would have the opportunity to play internationally,” Johnson said. “Athletes in Action is giving me the opportunity to not only do that but to also be an advocate for the word of God. I am honored to be a part of a talented group of individuals and I can’t wait to see what awaits in Africa.”
During the 2016-17 season, Johnson had a breakout campaign with 9.1 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per contest while rejecting 54 shots to bring her career total to 132, which stands fourth all-time in Elon women’s basketball history. Throughout the season, Johnson shot 54.4 percent from the floor to pace both Elon and the Colonial Athletic Association.
For additional information about Athletes in Action, visit the organization’s website at www.athletesinaction.org. To follow the team during its trip, visit the team’s blog by clicking here.