Asbury Park twin sisters are Shore Conference football pioneers

*Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Keansburg’s Morgan Hutchins started a game on the defensive line in 2022.

Asbury Park head coach Will Johnson and offensive line coach Rob Ward could only laugh when asked if they think twin sisters Eniya and Elani Johnson are ready to handle being starting linemen as freshmen at the most physical position on the field.

“C’mon, man,” Ward said before smiling. “They’re from Asbury.”

“Of course they’re tough,” Johnson said. “They’re not your average women. They’re not going to back down from anyone.”

The Johnson sisters, who are cousins of the head coach, are part of a wave of girls starting to make an impact on the offensive and defensive lines for Shore Conference teams. Eniya Johnson is believed to be the first girl to start on the offensive line for a varsity team.

Keansburg’s Morgan Hutchins started a game on the defensive line for the Titans in 2022, becoming what is believed to be the first girl in Shore Conference history to start at that position.

 

Witnessing history here at Keansburg. Senior Morgan Hutchins gets the start on the D Line. Believed to be the first female to start a football game for us. Congrats Morgan! pic.twitter.com/MJLQ5FCPcQ

— KeansburgSports (@KeansburgSports) October 22, 2022

The 14-year-old Johnson sisters represent the latest girls becoming a regular part of Shore Conference football beyond serving as teams’ kickers. Pinelands junior Holly Lucas also saw time on the defensive line for the Wildcats last season.

Eniya will be the starting center and play on the defensive line, while Elani will start on the defensive line in the 3-5-3 base defense for the Blue Bishops.

“I’m proud of myself,” Eniya said. “I didn’t know that I was going to be starting at center. Coach Will (Johnson) and my other coaches have been putting me to work.”

“I didn’t even know I was going to start varsity, so I’ve just been working hard every day to be a great player,” Elani said. “I don’t want to be treated differently. I want to be treated like everybody else. I want to play like everybody else.”

Johnson sisters make an early impression

Both sisters played together for the last four years on the youth level on Asbury Park’s American Youth Football (AYF) team.

“Being a girl on the team, they gave respect to me,” Elani said. “They didn’t treat me like I wasn’t part of the team.”

Football is part of their family. Their father played, and their older brother, Yazzir Johnson, is a 2024 Asbury Park graduate who was a lineman on the team last season.

“I’ve watched them grow through the youth system and now I get to coach them,” Will Johnson said. “Watching them play, they are who they are. They don’t change for anybody.”

Red Bank head coach Shane Fallon got a look at the sisters firsthand when they were in seventh grade. Fallon was an assistant coach for his son’s AYF team, which played Asbury Park and the Johnson sisters.

“They were the two best linemen in the entire league, offensively and defensively,” Fallon said. “They dominated every game they played. Every team we saw on film struggled to block them. They were physical and athletic and played with intensity.

“I just remember looking at the film and scouting them, then talking to our head coach and offensive coordinator and being like, ‘We have a problem.’ They’re going to be successful in high school.”

Seeing their first varsity action

The sisters battled on both sides of the line in a preseason scrimmage against Jersey City’s Lincoln High School in August, clogging up running lanes on defense and not backing down from any of the trash talk in the trenches.

“When they found out that Eniya and I were females, they tried to be like talking rough and aggressive to us,” Elani said.

“This one time I was bull-rushing a kid and he said this nasty stuff to me and tried to hit me in my face,” Eniya said. “Then one of my teammates was telling him I’m a girl, and he didn’t care. It’s OK because I don’t want to be treated any differently.”

Eniya also showed resilience, shaking off a bad shotgun snap to sophomore quarterback Jason Whittaker early in the scrimmage to help Asbury Park hit some long touchdown runs by junior running back Am’iere Massie. Starting at center would be nerve-racking for any freshman, let alone the first girl to do it the Shore.

“Breathe, that’s what you really got to do,” Eniya said. “Because I get frustrated a lot if I even mess up one snap. Messing up one snap just motivates me even more. My quarterback and my linemen were telling me I’m good. They’ve been boosting me up a little bit more.”

“They’re both tough, and we think they can really help our team this year,” Whittaker said.

A bright future ahead

The Johnson sisters hope to join veterans like Whittaker, Massie, and lineman Keion Franks in helping the Blue Bishops rebound from a 2-7 season against a tough schedule. Will Johnson is the fifth head coach in the last five years for his alma mater, and he’s hoping to bring some stability back to a program that won multiple state titles when he was the quarterback.

The twins are looking to help an offense that scored 17.8 points per game last season and shore up a defense that was third from the bottom in the Shore in allowing 27.4 points per game. A big component is being in peak shape because the roster is small at the Group I school, so most starters play heavy minutes on both sides of the ball with little break.

“Coach Will has been great,” Eniya said. “I’ve been really in shape and disciplined. We’ve got coaches putting us to work so we won’t be out of breath late in games.”

The future is also bright in track and field for the twins. Both of them were accomplished shot putters and discus throwers at the youth level.

Plus, they always have one person to go head to head with in practice who will drive them to new heights: each other.

“All the time,” Eniya said before smiling. “It’s competitive.”

“It’s making us push more and just makes us go harder,” Elani said. “We love to compete.”

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