Tuesday, 4/29/97 Sighting his own goals Josh Johnson always knew
he’d wind up at UCLA, alma mater of his parents and sister. But he
didn’t expect to be throwing a javelin for the Bruins – and
following in dad’s footsteps.
By Emmanuelle Ejercito Daily Bruin Staff t was way past his
bedtime and Josh Johnson was still toiling away. He was in
elementary school at the time and trying to do his map assignment,
but every time he got two-thirds of the way into his project he
would make a mistake. Then, instead of just erasing his mistake and
continuing, he threw away the paper and started all over again so
that his map would be perfect. "To me that is really Josh, not that
he wants to be perfect, but he really wants to do things right …
He’s one of the most disciplined athletes that I’ve ever known,"
Johnson’s father said. That is quite a compliment considering his
father has known his share of world-class athletes. Johnson’s
father? Rafer Johnson, the gold-medal winner in the decathlon at
the 1960 Olympic games and a track star at UCLA. But now it is Josh
Johnson’s turn at UCLA and in the world of track and field. The
younger Johnson is one of the top javelin throwers in the nation,
currently ranked fifth, although it’s a bit of a fluke that he’s
even on the team. "I didn’t have the faintest idea (that I was
going to do track at UCLA)," Josh Johnson said. "I thought that I
was just going to play club lacrosse." It may have been a surprise
that Johnson would end up on the track and field team, but it was
no accident that Johnson came to UCLA. Not only did his father come
here, but so did his mother Betsy, his sister Jenny (a former
captain of the UCLA women’s volleyball team) and his uncle Jimmy,
who was a defensive back for the Bruins before becoming a Hall of
Fame player for the San Francisco 49ers. But it wasn’t just family
tradition that brought him to Westwood. "Learning to ride their
bicycles and skateboards, all that stuff, they did that on the UCLA
campus," Rafer Johnson said. "We’d come down the hills between the
library and the men’s gym. We were up and down Janss Steps, they’d
ride their big wheels around Pauley Pavilion so they knew the
school as children and I think that that too had an influence on
the fact that he went there." While there was no question that Josh
Johnson would eventually end up a Bruin, no one would have expected
him to be a javelin thrower. At Windward High School in Santa
Monica, Johnson lettered in four sports but track was not one of
them. Johnson was a member of a track club team when he was in
grammar school but both his junior high and high school did not
have a track program. Instead, Johnson released his energy in
football, lacrosse, soccer and basketball. With such an
accomplished track and field athlete for a father, one would think
that Johnson would have been going around the track since he could
crawl. But Rafer Johnson had a different philosophy. "I think that
kids should have fun; they should experiment and they should do
different things," Johnson said. "I think that specialization takes
a lot of fun out of a lot of things, particularly for young
people." "They didn’t want to push me into anything, especially
track," Josh Johnson said. "He didn’t want to put pressure on me,
you know, (he) almost kept me away from it. I almost wish that he
had shown me earlier so that I could have gotten an earlier start
on the javelin." Despite keeping his father’s javelin from the 1960
Olympics in his room, Johnson only started throwing the javelin in
his true freshman year at UCLA. And it was entirely by chance that
Johnson picked up the event. Throwing coach Art Venegas, who was
desperate for back-up javelin throwers, was in a school parking
structure when he spotted a six-foot-two-inch young man. "I saw a
kid and I thought, ‘My God, that kid looks like a great athlete, I
wonder if he would like to try out the javelin," Venegas said. "So
I came up and said, ‘I wondered if maybe you have an interest in
trying out the javelin.’ And while I am doing this Rafer Johnson
comes up and says, ‘Oh I see you’ve met my son.’ " Rafer Johnson
remembers jokingly saying to Venegas, ‘Coach, I have your next
javelin thrower.’ So Venegas asked Josh to make an appointment to
test out the javelin, but it took Johnson awhile to come around.
"My dad had said, ‘Doesn’t this look like a javelin thrower?’"
Johnson said. "Coach was like, ‘Yeah have him come out.’ And I
thought that he was agreeing with my dad just to agree with him,
but then he was saying stuff to my sister and he called my dad and
I thought, ‘Okay he really wants me to give it a shot because he
thinks I can do it – not because my dad thinks I can." Johnson
redshirted his freshman year to learn the techniques of the
javelin. As a redshirt freshman Johnson made an instant impact in
the javelin for the Bruins. He won the Penn Relays with a personal
best throw of 229’5". At the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Johnson’s
throw of 220’3" earned him All-American honors – finishing among
the top eight in the nation. However, he was hampered by injuries
during his sophomore season and saw limited competition. But this
season Johnson is coming back to form and in his first meet threw
within a foot of his personal best. "I think that he is obviously
going to be a national-class thrower here," Venegas said. "It’s too
early to tell if he’s going to be a successful international level
thrower." Because his father was a successful international level
athlete, people have high expectations for Josh Johnson. However
Johnson doesn’t allow the pressure get to him. "I don’t really let
it bother me," Johnson said. "I can only do what I can do." CHARLES
KUO/Daily Bruin UCLA junior Josh Johnson is looking to have a big
year after sitting out his sophomore season with injuries. Genes
should be on his side, as his father was an Olympic medalist in
track and a star at UCLA.