There’s no hiding talent.
Waleed Johnson may have been a little rough around the edges when he arrived in Plano for his freshman year, moving from Chicago to live with his aunt and uncle.
Not now.
A junior running back and defensive back for the Reapers, Johnson could be going places.
“I had never played anything but flag football,” Johnson said.
Athletically, his focus had mainly been on basketball, which he still plays, along with track.
Football, though, is now No. 1.
“It’s hard to put into words,” Johnson said. “There’s just something about it. I think I’m better at it and hope to keep going with it.”
A 5-foot-10, 160-pound speedster, Johnson leads Plano (2-1) in rushing with 557 yards on 47 carries with seven touchdowns.
Four of those TDs came in Friday’s 54-0 rout of Westmont on runs of 47, 10, 60 and 34 yards.
“You never played tackle football?” a surprised Armando Martinez remembers saying to Johnson when they met freshman year and became fast friends. “He caught me by surprise.”
Unbeknown to them, they had lived pretty close to one another in Chicago.
“We both got moved up to varsity our sophomore year,” Martinez said. “He’s faster and put in the work. He was quiet freshman year. Now, he’s more outgoing and speaks to everyone.
“He has a big, loud voice. Everyone listens to him and crowds around him.”
Plano coach Rick Ponx, who has had plenty of heart-to-heart talks with Johnson, said Waleed has grown up and become a leader in the program.
“First thing I saw was speed,” Ponx said. “He was faster than everybody else. But freshman year, he didn’t know a sweep from a toss from a trap. He just knew if you put the ball in his hands, he was going to be faster than people.
“What did shock us was how tough he was inside. He wasn’t afraid to run between the tackles. He didn’t have any fear. He just wanted the ball in his hands, so we knew we were going to have a good one.”
The rest?
Johnson learned fast.
“I like offense the best,” Johnson said. “I can truck somebody if I have to, but I’d rather make someone miss.”
Opponents need to be wary, according to senior teammate Carnell Walls, who shares running back duties with Johnson and also plays linebacker.
He’s happy he doesn’t have to play opposite Johnson except in practice.
“You have to be careful how you break down and tackle him,” Walls said. “He can change speeds and cut just like that, especially if he has a blocker in front of him.
“You can’t see him, and if you choose the wrong side, you look up and he’s 10 yards up the field already.”
Last season, Johnson finished with 258 yards rushing with three TDs backing up senior Ray Jones Jr., who ran for 1,173 yards.
“It was tough to take Ray off the field, but you could see it in Waleed,” Ponx said.
Johnson said seniors like Jones and Josh Padilla accepting him helped his development.
And there’s more.
“He can catch the ball out of the backfield, too,” Ponx said. “We use him everywhere, kickoff returns. We took him off punt returns because we needed to give him a break.”
Ponx said he told Northern Illinois about Johnson during a visit in the spring, but he worries Division I coaches may think Johnson is too small.
“People are going to have to take notice of his numbers,” Ponx said. “There’s nobody knocking on his door right now — he just needs to get out to some camps.”
Johnson plans to do that in the future.
“They’re going to want to see him live,” Ponx said.