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Double Trouble at Piner
Piner freshmen Dezirae and Kyra Johnson are on the fast track to success

By ERIC BRANCH
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Thursday, May 7, 2009

Dezirae and Kyra Johnson were born together — Dezirae actually came out of the womb four minutes ahead of her identical
twin sister — and in the ensuing 15 years they’ve never strayed too far apart.

Dezirae and Kyra are freshmen at Piner High.

Dezirae plays volleyball. And so does Kyra. Dezirae used to play basketball in junior high. And so did Kyra. Basketball
got too rough, Dezirae explains. Kyra agrees.

Anyway, Dezirae and Kyra planned to join the track team this spring. But then Kyra — or was it Dezirae — thought that
might not be such a good idea after all. What if they weren’t good enough? Better not try it, they agreed.

“I thought it was going to be really hard,” Kyra said.

“I was really scared,” Dezirae said.

Piner track coach Melissa Guanella coached the sisters in volleyball and knew they were excellent athletes. She eventually
convinced them to join the team.

Now Dezirae and Kyra, both endearingly naive, are running track together.

And they are also doing this together: Setting records. Turning heads. And basically giggling their way to the top of the
Empire’s track-and-field scene entering today’s Santa Rosa All-City Meet at Santa Rosa High.

“They have no idea how good they are,” said Guanella, a former heptathlete at the University of New Mexico who believes
the twins could also have Division-I futures. “And they have no idea how good they can be.”

Let’s start with Kyra, who has the Empire’s fastest time in the 300-meter hurdles this season at 47.48 seconds despite
having less-than-ideal technique. Her time is also the fastest for a freshman in Empire history and ranks third in Piner
history.

Kyra also ran the 200 meters for the first time in competition on Wednesday at Cardinal Newman. She won in 27.1 seconds,
the fourth-fastest time in the Empire this season.

As for Dezirae, her time of 60.19 seconds in the 400 meters is the fastest in the Empire this season.

She broke the 26-year-old school record in the event on April 22 at meet against Ukiah and Maria Carrillo. It was the
first time Dezirae had run the 400 in competition. She broke the record by nearly a second, but her performance was so
unexpected that it took several hours to register.

“I woke up at 3 a.m. and told my wife ‘That was a school record,’” said Louie Rosales, who shares the coaching duties
with Guanella. “It just dawned on me then.”

In talking to Dezirae and Kyra it’s clear that their success — they were shocked to learn that they would be subject of
a newspaper story — hasn’t fully dawned on them.

Perhaps it’s because they attained their current status quite unexpectedly. When they finally ventured out to the track
this season, they didn’t threaten any records.

At their first meet in early March, Krya ran the 300 hurdles in 57.4 seconds, nearly 10 seconds slower than her current
mark. Dezirae, whose time of 49.37 seconds ranks fourth in the Empire, finished the 300 hurdles in 60.7 seconds.

It wasn’t until weeks later, when they felt more comfortable in their new surroundings, that Guanella began to see their
vast potential.

“I think they kind of discovered themselves,” Guanella said. “They discovered that there’s no pecking order here. They
can go and run as fast as they want.”

For all their success, the sisters still haven’t developed a swagger.

Two weeks ago, on the eve of the Viking Classic — a big local meet at Montgomery High — Dezirae and Kyra went to Round
Table Pizza, but were too nervous to eat dinner.

The next day, the hours before the meet were even worse for the lithe 5-foot-4 sisters.

“We were talking about it all day,” Dezirae said. “We were so nervous. We were saying ‘These girls are so much bigger
than us. They’re seniors and they have really long legs. Their tall and go faster.’”

Kyra laughs at the memory. And so does Dezirae.

They laugh a lot. They are 15, and they have a unique bond, so much of what they giggle about isn’t remotely funny to a
stranger.

“We have so many inside jokes that make us laugh,” Kyra said. “I’ll just say ‘stick shift’ and no one will know what were
talking about, but we’ll be laughing so hard we’re almost crying. Or we’ll just say something like ‘artichokes’ and we’ll
laying on the floor busting up.”

Stick shift? Artichokes?

Somewhere Dezirae and Kyra are reading this. And laughing.

Together.

You can reach Staff Writer Eric Branch at 521-5268 or eric.branch@pressdemocrat.com.

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