This year marks Augie Johnston’s second year playing professional basketball in Germany.

Johnston, a former Cal State Monterey Bay basketball player and two-year starter for the Otters, graduated from CSUMB in 2009 with a degree in business. Last season he played for Germany’s Velbert Baskets, a team in the northwestern part of Germany. This year he’s stepping up his game and has signed with Germany’s Rattlesdorf Independents, a league one level higher than the Baskets located in the southwestern region. “Unless you are a high-profile Division I player, you are going to have to start at a low-level team and prove yourself,” Johnston said. “So I am very happy I was able to do that, and I hope I can move up once again after this season.” This can-do attitude is classic Johnston. While at CSUMB, the Atascadero native showed exemplary leadership ability as the assistant coach during the 2008-09 season, mentoring and supporting his team as they reached the CCAA tournament. “You really have to dedicate yourself to whatever dream you have,” he said.

Johnson hopes to coach basketball at the junior college level once he returns from Germany. “People who know me know that I was on a mission to make this happen from day one,” he said, “and I never took a day off.”