Deb (Allaman) Johnson rates as one of the school's all-time leading volleyball players. The 6-foot southpaw outside hitter still ranks fourth in career attack percentage at .332, fourth in career blocking assists with 181 and seventh in total blocks with 232. She led the 1989 team with a .370 attack percentage, still the fifth best single season total in school history and topped the 1988 team with 78 total blocks.
During Johnson's four years on the Blugold varsity from the 1986 through the 1989 seasons, the team posted a 170-30 win-loss record and won the school's only conference championship in 1987 when it finished 52-3 overall. The team placed second in the conference twice during her career. She was on the first three Blugold teams to advance to NCAA post-season competition in 1987, 1988 and 1989.
As a senior, Johnson ranked among the top 10 in the conference in attack percentage, kills, total blocks and blocks per game. She earned All-Conference, All-Region, AVCA second team All-America and third team GTE Academic All-America honors.
After her volleyball eligibility was completed, she spent one season playing basketball for Lisa Stone and was named the team's Blugold Award winner that year.
She was a member of several honor societies and recipient of two scholarships as a student at Eau Claire. She was the Blugold NCAA Woman of the Year nominee and a Super Six Award winner in 1991.
Following her graduation, Johnson taught and coached in the St. Croix Falls and Clayton school districts. She has now returned to her hometown of Grantsburg where she has coached the JV volleyball team and served as a varsity assistant at the high school since 1996 and is involved as a volunteer in church, school and community activities. A stay-at-home mother, Johnson and her husband Peter have a six-year-old son Gustav, an 18-month old son Sven and are expecting their third child in March.
Besides her career as an English teacher, Johnson has served as a drama advisor, director of a three-act play, a senior newspaper advisor, forensics coach and certified adjudicator. She has worked with special needs students, served on a volunteer group for alcohol and other drug abuse for female athletes and served on a committee for discipline, gifted and talented and at risk students.
She has served as the volunteer station director for the Grantsburg community television and on the board of directors for community education and dollars for scholars, coordinates the Grantsburg food pantry, teaches a frugal living class for area residents and helps with local relief efforts through a social action committee. At her church, she has taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, served as a senior high school youth group leader, served as a church council member and sings in the church choir.
She is a freelance videographer and considers herself an outspoken environmental enthusiast with an overzealous attitude about reducing, reusing, recycling. She writes poetry, short stories, essays, news articles, journals and manuscripts. She is working on a self-initiated local history project of girls' athletics at Grantsburg High School in video documentary and book form. She has been Red Cross certified in several areas and worked for years as a WIAA volleyball official.
As a JV volleyball coach, her teams have incurred one loss in five complete seasons. She has been part of a varsity program whose success began with Bill Morrin in 1989 but has included conference and regional titles and two state trips since Johnson joined the program in 1996.