Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9410200024
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Johnson enrolled in kindergarten at the private school on Colonial Avenue and finishes this year as one of Timesland's all-time leading passers. When the Raiders open the season Friday at Brunswick Academy, Johnson hopes to start a year in which he becomes a 4,000-yard career passer.
To put this in perspective, only 14 public school passers in Virginia High School League history have topped that mark. Since private school records aren't kept, there's no way to know where Johnson would rank in his group.
The North Cross senior has thrown for 2,512 yards and, going into this season, only Blacksburg's Greg Shockley with 3,240 and Handley's Brian Partlow with 3,187 have more passing yardage among active VHSL players in the state.
Johnson is hampered by the fact that the Raiders play a nine-game schedule. Even when North Cross won the private school Division I state championship a year ago, the Raiders played but 11 games while Blacksburg, which made the Group AA Division 4 state semifinals had 13 games.
Partlow passed for 2,400 yards last season when Handley changed to the run-and-shoot offense. Meanwhile, Johnson was a third of North Cross' potent offense last season that included running back Marcus Cardwell, an All-Timesland performer, and fullback Monty Smith. Even Skip Johnson rushed for more than 400 yards so that Hal Johnson, good as he is, never has been the featured offensive weapon for North Cross.
That might change this year. Smith transferred to Patrick Henry and Cardwell graduated. So Johnson might reach 4,000 yards passing by necessity.
Though Johnson lives in Franklin County, he was destined to attend North Cross. His sister, Wray , was a top North Cross athlete who recently graduated from Princeton. Johnson's father, Jim, would have played at the University of Virginia, but a knee injury ended his career.
Johnson's long tenure at North Cross enabled him to come to grips early with one of his favorite people, football and basketball coach Jim Muscaro.
``I always knew I'd play sports for Coach Muscaro. I've known him since kindergarten. He's been a fixture on this campus. I remember when I was in the lower school, I had Coach Muscaro for phys ed class. Before that, I'd go up to him after football games and shake hands with him,'' said Johnson.
The elementary school kid made quite an impression on Muscaro.
``He was bigger than all the other kids in his grade,'' said Muscaro with a knowing smile.
``You could tell he had a lot of potential. He was quick, he could jump well when he was very young.''
Johnson grew to be 6 feet 5. He is thin and looks more like a basketball player. As a sophomore, Johnson was a key reserve for the Raiders' private school state championship basketball team as he scored 274 points. He is a good 3-point shooter, which might fool some teams because of his height.
Unofficially, Johnson has scored 777 points, so he's likely to be a 1,000-point career man for the Raiders in basketball.
With all his talent and size, did Johnson ever consider leaving North Cross for bigger schools where he might get more attention from colleges?
``I never considered transferring for sports reasons,'' he said.
Yet Johnson did think about pulling out of North Cross two years ago. ``A lot of factors were involved. I shouldn't go into them for the sake of North Cross,'' is all he'll say on the matter.
Besides Muscaro, Johnson remained at North Cross because of academics. Johnson isn't just a star on the field, but he's also one of North Cross' best students. He ranks first in his class with a 4.0 average and has scored over 1400 on the Scholastic Assessment Test.
For football, Florida, Texas, Wake Forest, Boston College, North Carolina and North Carolina State have shown interest. Wake Forest and Florida have even called.
``I'd have to say he's the best college prospect I've coached. I thought Tom Branch could have played college ball,'' said Muscaro of a player who dominated soccer at Radford University.
Johnson says he'd like to play college football. ``I'd like to play on as high a level as I'm capable. There are other factors [like academics] that are equally as important. I'm looking for life after college athletics. The chances that I'd be able to play professional ball are slim and none,'' he added.
``I realize that playing college football is a great experience. There are other reasons to choose a college.''
Johnson is also a late bloomer. There were no sandlot football programs in Franklin County when he grew up. So he didn't play any organized football until he was a freshman at North Cross.
That brought on another problem. ``I had to talk his mother [Mary Ann] into letting him play football. He had wanted to play ever since he was in fifth grade. But she's on the [North Cross] board and she's one of those parents who goes everywhere and is very supportive,'' said Muscaro.
Besides basketball, Johnson played tennis competitively. He gave that up for lifting weights. ``I love to play tennis, but I'm on the skinny side. I realized it was important for me to bulk up [for this season],'' said Johnson, sounding more like a Division I prospect than he cares to admit.
So Johnson has at least nine football games and maybe another state championship left to win that will go with the other two in football and basketball he's already helped the Raiders capture.
``I never realized I'd have as much success as I've had,'' says Johnson.
``I didn't dream of anything like this,'' said Muscaro. ``I never liked to depend on a passer that much.''
He's comfortable depending on this passer, though.
by CNB