It’s easy to find junior Zac Johnson during one of Wauconda’s football games.
He’s everywhere.
Johnson could be tackling a ball carrier from his safety spot. He could be kicking; he handles kickoffs, field goals, extra points and punts for the Bulldogs. He could be taking a snap at quarterback.
This cycle of perpetual activity, it turns out, isn’t limited to football.
“My dad has always told me that everything you do should always be practice for something else,” Johnson said. “If I’m not working at something, I’m not getting better.”
There was plenty of work for Johnson to do this past weekend.
A day after Wauconda’s dominant 40-7 road win against Grayslake Central on Friday, he played a baseball doubleheader with his travel team at a tournament in Wisconsin. Early Sunday morning, he helped his father, Byron, install a backsplash in a client’s kitchen.
“He’s getting to the point where he realizes what comes from the hard work he’s putting in,” Byron Johnson said. “A lot of his days are pretty jam-packed.”
Byron Johnson, whose four daughters also played sports at Wauconda, was a multisport athlete for the Bulldogs and played baseball at Western Michigan. Time will tell how closely Zac Johnson’s athletic career aligns with his father’s. It’s probably not a coincidence, however, that Byron Johnson was a safety and kicker too.
“He didn’t even tell me at first,” Zac Johnson said. “He let me fall into these positions. ‘Keep it simple’ is about the only coaching he gives me.”
The one memorable coaching directive Zac Johnson received from his father ? and which remains in place to this day — was about batting left-handed.
“Even going back to when I was a little kid, he wouldn’t let me swing righty,” Zac Johnson said. “As a lefty, you’re a little closer to first base, and most curveballs you face come from the outside.”
That said, he knows his father’s influence has been significant. Zac Johnson called his father his “biggest mentor.”
“He’s twice the athlete I was,” Byron Johnson said. “We’ve got a couple good years to go to see what route this takes, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
The Bulldogs (5-0, 3-0), who have won 16 straight regular-season games and play Antioch on Friday in a showdown for first place in the Northern Lake County Conference, probably wouldn’t trade Zac Johnson either. He is Wauconda’s leading tackler this season.
He enjoys the physical nature of the safety position.
“Once I see that it’s not a pass, I’m going to help out my linebackers and defensive line,” he said. “I run those 13 yards so I can hit someone. That’s one of my favorite parts of the game. There aren’t many places where you get to do that.”
Zac Johnson also makes an impact on special teams, of course. He was good on his only field-goal attempt this season, a 30-yarder, and he blocked an extra-point attempt in a win against Grant in Week 4. He averages 36.8 yards per punt and has dropped two inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
Zac Johnson is the rare kicker whose team wants him to be heavily involved in kick coverage.
“He kicks it off, and he’s like a missile running down there,” Wauconda coach Chris Prostka said. “You can just add that on to all the other things Zac does for us.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.