Trojan warrior: Longmont QB Johnson led team to 4A state championship game

By Joshua Lindenstein
For the Ledger

Jake Johnson admits that he might have gotten a little wrapped up in the hype associated with being the star quarterback of one of the state’s best high school football teams.

Longmont High senior Jake Johnson passed for 2,145 yards and 17 touchdowns, and ran for 1,013 yards and 18 touchdowns for a combined 3,158 yards of offense and 35 touchdowns to earn the Camera's player of the year honors.

After a glowing junior season in which accolades were shoveled his way, Longmont High’s Superman entered his senior year with an air of invincibility. The trait that had helped make him a great player on the field, however, briefly clouded his judgment away from it.

One mistake and a week of watching from the sidelines gave Johnson the reality check of his young life. He was caught smoking marijuana at a friend’s house just before the season began and was suspended for the Trojans’ season-opening victory against Denver East.

“It woke me up,” Johnson says. “It was one of those life-defining moments where you become a better person and learn from it.”

Faced with the guilt of feeling like he’d let his teammates down, Johnson says he got back to his “old sophomore and freshman roots” of trying to outwork everyone and prove himself every day in practice and in games.

The renewed dedication led Johnson to his best season yet. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder threw for 2,145 yards and 17 touchdowns. He rushed for another 1,013 yards and 18 TDs. And in a season in which Longmont was faced with replacing a large and talented senior class from the year before, he led the Trojans to their first state title game appearance in nearly two decades.

For his excellence, Johnson was named the Camera’s prep football player of the year for the second year in a row.

Johnson says his preseason misstep was particularly upsetting because he always prided himself on being just another humble kid in the hallways at LHS and not fitting into a lot of the pop-culture stereotypes that go along with being the star athlete.

The incident also wasn’t the example he wanted to set for young kids who might look up to him and his Trojan teammates, and says he knew he didn’t need the drug to live life to its fullest his senior year.
The Trojans’ coach, Doug Johnson — no relation to the player — says Jake took his leadership role with the team to another level this season, especially during the 11-3 Trojans’ postseason run.

“He just led by example and was great to his teammates,” Doug Johnson says. “He instilled confidence in everybody and did a great job … being somebody that everybody wanted to get behind and wanted to get in front of and block for and all of those things.”

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Jake Johnson’s senior performance was that every opponent entered every game knowing exactly who they’d have to stop to be successful and, aside from an early loss to Loveland, no one really had an answer.

Johnson put the underdog Trojans on his back in the playoffs as they upset No. 6 Liberty, No. 3 Pine Creek and defending state champ Wheat Ridge. He played a standout first half against Heritage in the 4A championship game before the magic ran out in the second half of the 42-28 defeat.
“He came up big when we needed him,” Doug Johnson says.

In all, Jake Johnson accounted for 1,196 yards of offense and 13 TDs in the postseason.
He might have had a larger role on defense as well during the stretch run had he not suffered a sprained ankle and separated non-throwing shoulder toward the end of the regular season.

“You couldn’t have asked for anything better,” he says. “It was great for a senior year to get to where you’ve been dreaming about since fifth-grade ball. It was a lot of fun. It showed you the work and everything that, not only I put in, but my whole team put in, because I couldn’t have done it without my line blocking or my receivers making catches.”

Johnson says he has addressed his preseason incident with college recruiters and believes it is in the past now.

He has yet to receive a Division-I offer mostly, he believes, because of his desire to play quarterback. Many of the bigger schools that have shown interest have talked to him about moving to other positions.

He says the perfect offer from a major program could still persuade him to play another position. But so far he remains adamant about playing quarterback in college, even if it’s at the Division-II ranks.

“I like being able to have the ball in my hands and be one of those playmakers,” he says. “I’ve always been one of those kids, when it comes down to the end, give me the ball. I love that it’s a make or break type of thing.”