Pomona’s 3-Sport Star Is a Real Johnny on the Spot : Preps: Red Devils’ Johnny McWilliams prepares for his senior year with a hectic summer athletic schedule.

Since he started his athletic career at Pomona High, Johnny McWilliams has never spent a lot of time relaxing during the summer.

For the most part, summer vacation for McWilliams has consisted of heavy doses of basketball tournaments, leagues, camps and practices.

This summer, as McWilliams prepares to enter his senior year in high school, the schedule is a little more hectic than usual, a little more busy than for most high school athletes.

Not only is McWilliams, 17, competing in basketball activities, he has also found time to play football and baseball and is regarded as a top college prospect in all three sports.

The basketball schedule for McWilliams includes summer league games two nights a week and as many as seven tournaments with his high school team. The Red Devils reached the final 16 before losing in the L.A. Games summer tournament last week.

The 6-foot-6, 215-pound forward also practices with an all-star team from the Slam-’N-Jam program and will compete with the squad at several tournaments this month. The list includes the Slam-’N-Jam Tournament from Saturday through July 19 at Cal State Long Beach, the Basketball Congress International National Invitational Tournament July 22-25 at Arizona State and a tournament at Texas Tech July 27-Aug. 1.

After returning from those tournaments, McWilliams will resume summer league play with his high school squad in early August and have about a week to unwind before football practice opens later that month.

In between the whirlwind of basketball games, McWilliams is also competing as a wide receiver for Pomona in passing league football three to four times a week and also plays left field for a Big League Baseball 18-and-younger team on Sundays.

That does not leave him a lot of time for small talk and socializing.

“I rest when I can and go out when I can but it really doesn’t leave me time for much else,” McWilliams said. “I guess it keeps me out of trouble.”

It is not as if McWilliams minds spending his summers this way. In fact, he said he wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I enjoy doing it and being on the go,” he said. “I don’t like to stay at home. I’ve never been a stay-at-home guy.”

Ed Taylor, basketball coach of the Red Devils, said there was initial concern that the summer schedule would be a little too hectic for McWilliams to handle. But he said steps have been taken so that doesn’t happen.

“That feeling is there with myself, the other coaches and his parents,” Taylor said. “We’ve been working on it so that he doesn’t overextend himself. In football, he just plays a half and sits down.”

The coach said it is especially important for McWilliams to play a lot during the summer.

“It’s important primarily for learning purposes,” Taylor said. “The more you play, the more you learn.”

McWilliams said the summer is an ideal time to work on his skills in all three sports because it’s the only time of the year that he doesn’t have to worry about schoolwork.

“It’s a real good time to go over a lot of things and to work on the skills I need,” he said. “Plus, without school, my days are a lot longer anyway and I also have more time to rest.”

There is no doubt in McWilliams’ mind that he has benefited from the heavy sports activity in the summer.

“I’ve picked up a lot of things,” he said. “It basically helps me when I play with my high school team. The things I learn help my team (at Pomona), too, because I come back a better player.”

He said he also benefits from competing in outside leagues such as Slam-’N-Jam.

“I’m playing (in the league) so I can become a better player,” McWilliams said. “It helps improve my skills being in a league like that because I get to play against the best players and that makes me a better player.”

McWilliams said it is especially important to play a lot of basketball during the summer because that is usually when reputations are built in the eyes of college recruiters.

“I’m playing as many games as I can because during the summer basketball really becomes a priority for me,” he said. “It’s not that basketball’s my favorite sport. At this point, I don’t have a favorite sport. It’s just that in the summer, basketball is very big in this part of the country. That’s when scouts notice you and that’s when it really begins for you.”

In the case of McWilliams, his reputation as a blue-chip prospect was established before the summer season started. It came as a product of three impressive basketball seasons with the Red Devils.

A three-year starter, McWilliams averaged 15.3 points as a freshman before averaging 24.2 points and 12.2 rebounds as a sophomore and earning All-CIF Division III honors. As a junior, he averaged 23.5 points, 13.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists to repeat on the All-Division III squad and receive The Times San Gabriel Valley player-of-the-year award.

He has also left his mark on the football and baseball fields. In football, McWilliams has been Pomona’s leading receiver the past two seasons and averaged more than 20 yards a reception last season with his 4.49-second speed in the 40-yard dash. Playing high school baseball for the first time last season, he ranked among the San Gabriel Valley leaders with a .465 batting average and slugged nine home runs.

Taylor said it is because of McWilliams’ tremendous all-around abilities that he encourages him to play all three sports during the summer.

“When you’re as talented as he is, you have to go out there and play as much as you can until you make up your mind,” Taylor said. “He’s one of those rare athletes who has the ability to make it big time in three sports.

“He has the capability of going out on the court or field and destroying his opposition. If you had that kind of ability, you would want to play a lot, too.”

As his senior year approaches, McWilliams said he is still undecided about which sports he will focus on in college.

“I’ll probably play only two out of the three in college,” he said. “You’ve got to leave time for your classes, too. Basketball will definitely be one, but I really don’t know what the other will be.”

McWilliams said he will probably not decide on what sports to pursue until after football season, although Taylor thinks he might have the brightest future in football.

“As a former football and basketball player myself, with his speed and his hands and all-around ability, I think football would be his best sport,” Taylor said. “But I think he’s leaning to basketball a little more.”

He doesn’t expect to make a decision on what college to attend until the NCAA’s national letter of intent signing period in April.

As a basketball player, he has been recruited by Nevada-Las Vegas, Notre Dame, Syracuse and Georgetown.

“A lot of schools are recruiting me in all three sports,” McWilliams said. “Sometimes I wonder if they even (realize) they are recruiting me in all three.”