Iron Mountain Athletics Photo IRON MOUNTAIN SENIOR Marcus Johnson holds a plaque honoring his 2,000 career point following Tuesday’s game against Gladstone.

IRON MOUNTAIN — There may come a time in the future when Marcus Johnson reflects on all that he has personally accomplished on the basketball court.

But that day is not today.

The Iron Mountain senior instead remains intensely focused on the task at hand.

After cracking into an exclusive club of 2,000-point scorers, passing Earvin “Magic” Johnson on the state’s all-time list along the way, Johnson was just happy that his team’s dream season was still in order.

“I knew I was 12 points away entering Tuesday’s game,” he said. “But it’s not something I was chasing. It’s an awesome thing, something not many others get to say, passing Magic and all. It’s cool to be fortunate enough to do that, but obviously, at the end of it, the most important thing was we won the game and everyone played really well.”

“He’s played 96 varsity basketball games,” said Bucky Johnson, Mountaineers head coach and Marcus’ father. “Not many kids get an opportunity to play in 96 games. People may have questioned him getting brought up as a freshman, but Marcus took that to heart and used it as motivation. He wanted to leave no doubt in people’s minds that he had a mission. He has an unbelievable competitive nature, a killer instinct and unbeatable work ethic.

“But Marcus has been blessed. Our whole team has been blessed with having good teams and good players. You can’t score 2,000 points just because you’re a good shooter. You have to have great teammates. And Marcus has had that.”

The victory over Gladstone on Tuesday has the Mountaineers on the cusp of a second-straight undefeated regular season. Tonight’s regular-season finale against 17-win Negaunee is all that stands in the way.

Then the drive for a return to the state final awaits.

That, more than points, is what motivates Johnson.

“It’s a big game to determine the conference,” he said. “But we’re focused on the ultimate goal. In the end, if we happen to lose, it’ll just give us more motivation that we have to take it to another level in order to get where we want to go.”

Johnson and his teammates, by way of plowing through opponents all season long, have made no secret of their desire to return to the site of last year’s heartbreaking state final loss.

“Ever since March 15, (2019) it’s been on our minds,” Johnson said. “It didn’t take a week. It didn’t take a month to realize what we want to do. It took almost as little time as getting on the bus. We knew right then that we were going to compete hard than ever, go after teams harder then ever in order to accomplish our goal. We want to leave no doubt.”

Johnson is so motivated that not even a broken foot or the insertion of a 2-inch screw into that foot back in July could derail his drive.

“He basically wore out his foot,” coach Johnson said. “He had multiple stress fractures at the end of last season that we didn’t even know about. He’d get sore, but he’d just ice it. Marcus is so tough but finally it just broke.”

After the early July surgery, Johnson wasted little time working his way back, joining his football team in progress a few weeks into the season and helping them to a state semifinal. He wound up winning the U.P. small school Player of the Year award along with all-state accolades.

“For him to play 11 football games and now 19 basketball games has been incredible,” coach Johnson said. “We feel blessed that he could play this year at all. And had he not had surgery, he would not have played.

“You talk about a kid who had to work hard. From being cleared to resume activity on August 19 to his first football game that third week of the season, he had to work. It wasn’t until the playoffs started that he finally told me he was back to 100 percent.”

But hard work is all Johnson has known since a very young age. Following in the footsteps of his older siblings and basically growing up on the basketball court, Johnson developed his passion for the game and a unmatched appetite to compete and win.

“Just being able to watch it so much growing up, wanting to be that guy, wanting to be in the spotlight, is all I could think about,” Johnson said. “Having my dad as a coach, my grandpa as a coach, my brother and sister were successful in their own right. It’s just growing up around it and wanting to be as good as them and trying to do more. They’ve all pushed me, helped me. They motivate me.”

Johnson has experienced the highs and lows of competition from a young age. Picking up his older brother, Kyle, off the court as an eighth-grader after a tough district loss ended Kyle’s senior season is one particular memory that stands out.

“I remember as the buzzer sounded, he broke down. I remember telling him, ‘I got you,’ because I knew I would get a shot next and being the last of the three kids, I wanted to carry it on, do it for them because of the bond I have with my family. Sports and basketball mean so much. I saw how much it hurt them to lose. ”

Johnson also remembers hanging with teammate Foster Wonders as a youngster and talking about wanting to experience the big games for themselves when they got older.

“It’s something you dream of,” he said. “And now I feel like I’ve been in so many big games. Growing up in that atmosphere and being able to experience what it takes to prepare for those moments. It’s kind of allowed me to develop a mindset, an edge, that I don’t think a lot of kids have the opportunity to do.

“I’m just lucky, really, to have great teammates that can help our team win. We do it collectively, as a bunch. I’ve been blessed to have that throughout high school every year.

“People always look at me or Wonders and the points we score. But we’re not going to be able to score those points or achieve any of those individual accolades without great teammates, guys who understand their role — and being able to have the trust in your teammates, which is a huge thing we have. We’ve all played with each other for a long time. We mesh well. We have good chemistry. We get along really well. We’ve kind of developed a brotherhood, a family feel. Having great teammates just makes everything easier.”

Being surrounded by family Tuesday night, including all four grandparents, as he eclipsed 2,000 points meant everything to Johnson.

“It was surreal to share that with my family,” he said. “It was something special to have that experience with them.”

“It was just great to see,” coach Johnson said. “I was so very happy. To have the whole family here, it means a lot to him. We don’t have a lot of time to reflect on it and enjoy right now, but it was great.

“I wrote him a letter a long time ago that he’ll open when he graduates. There’s just something a little different about Marcus. It’s hard to explain. He was always that one kid who wanted to out in the street and play catch or have me pitch to him. It all started with Little League, his competitive nature. He just has that refuse to lose attitude. He just keeps fighting.”

Tonight’s game against Negaunee that could seal a perfect regular season is just the start for Johnson and his teammates on the path toward their ultimate goal.

“What I took from last year’s ending was that life is not always fair,” Johnson said. “You can’t control what others do. You can only control what you can personally control. You remember the heartbreak, but you have to move on and learn from it. Use it as motivation to be better.”