DOUBLE TROUBLE : El Toro Attack Features Two Quarterbacks

Scenes from a recent El Toro High School football practice:

Quarterback Rob Johnson makes his way to the line of scrimmage. He bends under center, hollers out a series of numbers and suddenly finds the ball in his hands.

Back he goes, rolling to his right, scanning downfield for an open receiver. He plants his feet after a few yards and throws the ball with the full power of his 6-foot-4, 190-pound frame behind it.

In a moment, Johnson is gone, sprinting out to his position as wide receiver.

Quarterback Steve Stenstrom steps to the line, screams out another set of numbers and finds the ball in his hands. He drops back swiftly, plants his 6-foot-2, 195-pound physique and throws a strike to a receiver.

To a casual observer it’s a little confusing. Who is the starting quarterback here anyway?

It’s not the least bit confusing to El Toro Coach Bob Johnson or to either player. Rob Johnson, a junior, is the coach’s son and the team’s starting receiver and backup quarterback. Stenstrom, a senior, is the starting quarterback for the second year.

He’ll be the starter and Johnson will be his receiver when the Chargers play Tustin in a nonleague game at 7:30 tonight at Tustin.

“If he’s not the top quarterback (in the county), he’s in the top three,” Bob Johnson said. “There are other good quarterbacks, but my favorite one is Steve.”

Stenstrom has completed 67.5% of his passes for 420 yards and five touchdowns in three games.

Next season, the plan is for Johnson to take over as quarterback. That’s a natural step because Rob is the younger brother of Bret Johnson, who was a three-year starter at El Toro and now is the starting quarterback at UCLA.

“Right now, Rob would start for just about everybody else in the county,” Bob Johnson said.

Two great quarterbacks, both proteges of Bret Johnson, but one starting position. What’s a coach to do?

It really wasn’t a difficult decision. Stenstrom passed for 1,600 yards and 14 touchdowns in his junior season and Johnson wanted him as his starter again.

The coach also decided to try Rob at wide receiver to take advantage of his size and skill.

Better to have two standout quarterbacks on the field at once rather than have one playing and the other toting a clipboard on the sideline.

“It’s nice to have that depth,” Bob Johnson said.

El Toro has had standout quarterbacks and receivers in the past, but never a standout quarterback who also is an impressive receiver. Johnson is both.

Johnson had never played a down at receiver before this season. He always had been a quarterback. Nevertheless, he said, it wasn’t difficult to learn the position.

“I knew all the routes, so it was easy,” he said. And he has become quite proficient at catching passes. He’s the team’s leading receiver with 10 receptions for 185 yards.

“He’s really paying the price at wide receiver, but that’s OK,” Bob Johnson said. “He’s a fish out of water out there. (But) he’s making the best of it.”

Johnson doesn’t seem to mind being a receiver while waiting to be the starting quarterback. He’s taking it as a challenge and a learning experience. He’s not one to get flustered anyway, says his mother, Debbie Johnson.

“He flies by the seat of his pants and hopes it all falls into place,” she said. “Rob’s so much his own person.”

He and Bret are a study in contrasts. Rob is carefree and at ease, quick to make a joke with a stranger. Rob also is taller by four inches.

But both are workaholics, says Bob Johnson.

“I thought nobody could work harder than Bret, but Rob does,” Bob Johnson said. “And he’s got great size to go with it (his work ethic).”

He also has a big choice facing him before his graduation.

Football? Basketball? Baseball?

Rob plays all three sports at El Toro and excels in each. He averaged 17.2 points a game for the Charger basketball team last season. As a pitcher on the baseball team, he had an 8-3 record with a 2.96 earned-run average.

But Johnson says he’s not particularly interested in distancing himself from his brother’s accomplishments, nor does he claim to be bothered by the fact that he’ll always be known as Bret Johnson’s little brother.

“It’ll always be like that and I don’t care,” Rob said. “I’m proud to be Bret’s little brother.”

Stenstrom spent his sophomore season watching Bret Johnson closer than any opposing defender, maybe even closer than Rob. He watched and learned, waiting for a chance to play.

“(Bret) had so much poise and confidence,” Stenstrom said. “He was the leader of the team. He was such a winner.”

Stenstrom never would have had a chance to play understudy to Johnson had his family not moved from Plano, Tex., after his freshman year. And he certainly would not have had a chance to throw the ball the way the Chargers throw.

“In Texas, you had to be a real speedster because everybody runs the option,” Stenstrom said. “I had the strongest arm on the team.”

And that didn’t count for much. Stenstrom was the freshman team’s “throwing” quarterback. He played only when the team needed a lot of yards and didn’t have much time to gain them.

Moving to El Toro was the best thing that could have happened to Stenstrom’s football career.

“I was real lucky,” he said. And last year, after a season of observing Bret Johnson, Stenstrom took over as the Charger quarterback.

Now, he’s the teacher and another Johnson is the pupil. It makes for an effective passing combination.

“We’re both in the same frame of mind,” Stenstrom said. “He (Rob) knows how to make the same reads and find the open spots.”

Said Rob Johnson: “We both pretty much know what’s going to happen at the same time. We have an advantage that way.”

At El Toro, Stenstrom and Johnson have proven that two quarterbacks are better than one, even if one is playing wide receiver.