Johnson Draws Strength From Dad’s Memory

When William Johnson was in sixth grade, his father died of a heart attack.

“It was devastating,” Johnson said. “He was my idol.”

Steve Johnson, a big man who was a middle school principal, never got to watch his son wrestle or play football. He never got to see William bring home a report card from high school that had straight A’s. He never got to experience the moment his son decided to become an Ivy Leaguer.

Somehow, though, Johnson used his father’s death to guide him on a path to success.

Johnson was a standout tight end and defensive end for Tustin High’s football team. He has been the top heavyweight wrestler in Orange County this winter, qualifying for the state championships this weekend in Stockton. He has never received a grade lower than A in high school. He plays the piano and guitar, surfs on a longboard, helps build houses for the poor and rarely misses church on Sunday.

He’s friends with everyone, from the nerds to the most popular kids on campus, from the rappers to the classic pianists.

“You can’t find someone who doesn’t like him,” football Coach Myron Miller said.

On Monday at a banquet in Anaheim, Johnson will be honored with 40 other high school football players as a scholar-athlete by the Orange County chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

He’s a 17-year-old senior with a future full of hope. He’s 6 feet 4, 240 pounds and plans to do more than just play football at Harvard.

His birthday, May 29, is the same as John F. Kennedy’s. He likes shaking hands and kissing babies. He’s starting to enjoy government and politics, something Harvard is known for.

Maybe there’s a reason his fifth-grade teacher once said, “You’re going to be president someday.”

Most of all, he has seized opportunities to meet new people and explore facets of life teenagers don’t always want to experience.

He credits his teachers at Tustin for broadening his knowledge and challenging his beliefs.

“My English teacher, Mr. Woods, developed a lot of creative thought in literature,” he said. “He has forced me to take a step back and transfer things to the real world. My calculus teacher, Mr. Patton, was a jock in high school but very intelligent. He showed me you can have an equal balance of academics and athletics. My civics teacher, Ms. Levine, tried every day to bring out the politician in me.”

Johnson’s mother, Miriam, is an eighth-grade teacher. His older brother played football at Tustin. His younger sister is a freshman volleyball player. They helped navigate him through the dark days after his father’s death.

“We drew closer, formed our own support group and managed to get through it,” he said.

But his father has never really left him. Before every wrestling match and every football game, Johnson speaks to him.

“Always for me, he’s been a driving force,” he said.

During his visit to Harvard, when he was 3,000 miles from home and trying to decide whether to commit or continue taking college trips, he sought comfort and advice from his father.

“It sounds weird,” he said. “I asked him, when I woke up on a Sunday morning, looked out the window, everything was white, I’m at Harvard, how can I pass this up?”

In his personal essay, Johnson wrote why he plays the piano:

“I play because it soothes my mind and sets free my dammed flow of thought. I play because it eases my heart and softens my soul--because the simple structure of music gives me foundation in an unpredictable world.

“I play because it makes me feel close to my late father knowing that he loved to hear me play. And I know that he is proud of me, not because of my brother’s athletic prowess, nor because of my sister’s dramatic artistry, but because I pursue a balance of the two, because I am his middle child, and in his eyes am his Renaissance man.”

To become a scholar-athlete in Orange County, you had to maintain at least a 3.3 grade-point average and make first-team all-league. The Anaheim banquet will be filled with achievers like Johnson.

Three days later, the San Fernando Valley chapter will hold its scholar-athlete dinner in Granada Hills. Fifty high school athletes will be honored.

There’s Dustin Baxley of Oak Park, who has a 3.93 GPA and endeared himself to classmates and faculty with his leadership skills. There’s Jamey Iaccino of Panorama City St. Genevieve, on the honor roll seven times. There’s Albert Alejo of San Fernando, a black belt in martial arts of whom his football coach said, “I know Albert will be successful because he has a never-quit attitude.”

There’s Keith Howell of Newhall Hart, who started out in the school band, became a football standout and gained entrance to Harvard.

These are athletes who have made their parents and communities proud.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.