Gazette MVP: True path revealed for Brunswick's Chris Johnson, who went from throwing to sprinting

The fastest sprinter in Medina County began his high school career as a shot put and discus thrower. When Brunswick senior Chris Johnson reported to practice as a freshman, the 2024 Gazette MVP for boys track and field was carrying a few extra pounds and didn't have much muscle tone, so he attended an organizational meeting for throwers despite having been a solid sprinter at St. Ambrose Catholic School. "The reason I didn't run is I was scared I was going to be slow, to be perfectly honest," he said. "There was a meeting for runners and a meeting for throwers. One of my buddies was throwing, so I went there. I was decent at that in middle school, so I figured I couldn't be that bad. I was just nervous when I showed up." Early in Johnson's freshman track season — the COVID-19 pandemic canceled spring sports in his eighth-grade year — Brunswick coach Owen Coughlin was pouring over football film, the hope being he would find a young skill position player who could sprint or hurdle and a few linemen who could develop into throwers. "I didn't do my homework on Chris," Coughlin said. "I pulled up some football film and I'm looking at this receiver going, 'Who the heck is that kid?' I asked (then-freshman sprinter) Landen Case and he said, 'That's Chris Johnson.' I said, 'The thrower?'" Now 6-foot-2 and 175 pounds, Johnson was at least 10 pounds heavier and a few inches shorter as a ninth-grader — "He was a porker," Coughlin joked — so he concentrated mainly on the throws as a freshman. Near the end of the season, all the throwers broke into a number of teams to compete in a lighthearted 4x100-meter relay. Johnson's randomly selected relay teammates weren't exactly burners, so when he got the baton for the final 100 he was well behind everyone else. "We didn't win the race," he said, "but I was catching everyone." Johnson continued to throw the shot and discus while also running in some sprint events as a sophomore. He then earned All-Gazette honors as a junior after helping the 4x2 finish 14th and the 4x1 take 16th at the Division I state meet. A more committed and determined Johnson went to another level as a senior, when he broke 1999 school records in the 100 and 200 set by Medina County Sports Hall of Fame inductee and Brunswick athletic legend Dave Harris. Harris, who won state titles in both events as a junior as the Blue Devils tied Westerville North for the 1998 D-I team championship with 30 points, ran career bests of 10.74 and 21.64 seconds. On the second day of the Greater Cleveland Conference Meet, Johnson, who to that point had not beaten teammate Collin Kavulic in the 100, ran 10.63 and 21.58. "That day was crazy to me," he said. "I was in my house getting ready really early because I was so, so nervous. I was thinking about the 100 final and I was just shaking, so I had to get out of the house. I went and walked around the track a bunch of times just to try and calm down a little." As it turned out, Johnson didn't have his spikes, so he borrowed a pair from teammate Evan Deel. "They were a perfect fit," he said. "I do my runouts and I'm so nervous. All I'm thinking about is beating Collin Kavulic. He was in my head. He'd beat me right out of the blocks and I just couldn't win. "When I got in the blocks I was so loaded up my arms were shaking. They said, 'Set' and I'm thinking, 'Push, push, push.' There was a slight tail wind, and at 60 meters I separated. I didn't think I was going to break the record. I just wanted to win. I went over to the table and when they said 10.63, the whole team just stormed me. We had a huge mob." Coughlin let Johnson enjoy the moment for a short time before reminding him he still had the 200 to run. Prior to putting on headphones and listening to the devotional hymn "On Eagle's Wings" by Michael Joncas, the deeply religious Johnson called a friend and told him, "The 200 record is going away." "My mind just felt clear and all good," he said. "I was telling everyone good luck before the race, then I got a good push and was just flying around the curve. I kept picking up my legs and pumping my arms and finished through the line. I knew (Harris' record had been broken), but I went to the table to make sure. It was so surreal to pass such a legendary athlete in the record books. It just didn't feel real." The owner of a huge personality, Johnson went on to win the 100 and 200 at the Brunswick D-I District and helped the 4x1 finish second. At the Port Clinton Regional he was second in the 100 and 200 to Elyria's Mateo Medina, who went on to win state titles in all three open sprints, with the Brunswick 4x1 finishing first and the 4x2 taking second. The state meet didn't go quite so well but ended on a positive note. Seeded third in the 100, Johnson finished 15th in 11.14, with the 4x1 that included Kavulic, Armel Robinson and Case placing ninth and also failing to advance to the finals. "I wasn't allowed to use our blocks, so I didn't get a good load into them and my setup wasn't good," Johnson said. "I don't think I crumbled under the pressure because I wasn't really nervous. They just outperformed me that day." Wanting to give the 4x2 the best chance possible to win a state title, Johnson withdrew from the open 200 preliminaries in order to save energy. With the 4x2 seeded fourth going into the finals, Johnson got the baton for his anchor leg in sixth and passed two runners to give him, Kavulic, Robinson and Mark Semanco a fourth-place finish. "It's bittersweet," Johnson said. "Fourth is good, but I really wanted to win. I dropped the open 200 just to give my full effort and make sure I was fresh. It was disappointing, but I'm glad I got the opportunity to compete with my teammates." The feeling was mutual. When the Blue Devils picked team captains prior to Johnson's senior year, he got 30 votes. No one else got more than nine. Not bad for a thrower-turned-sprinter who dropped football after his sophomore year. "His talent is insane," Case said. "Oh, my gosh, he just picks up everything so quickly. We learn form, he gets it down right away. Anything we practiced, he just picked it up quickly. "Once he realized he could get the records he wanted, he really locked into track and realized it was something he wanted to do." Case and Johnson have been friends since their youth football days, when the former was a receiver and the latter was a running back. "He was so good," Case said. "He used to run away from everybody." Case laughed when asked if Johnson was equally good when it came to running up the middle. "I think that's why he quit," he said with a chuckle. "He was scared of getting hit. All he did was run away from contact, but it worked when we were younger because he was so fast." The only child of Craig and Catherine, the outgoing Johnson is as quick-witted off the track as he is fast on it. "He's a whirlwind," Coughlin said. "He's very animated and he's excited. He's always looking to crack a joke or rile someone up for his entertainment or everyone's entertainment. You can feel his energy all the time and he's very fun to be around, but he has very strong emotions. When he's happy, you can feel that. When he's angry, you can feel that." Over the years, Johnson learned to harness his emotions and not let a bad race affect the rest of a meet. "When he was younger and he got upset, he'd stay in that angry, upset place and it would color everything he did the rest of the day," Coughlin said. "This year he was able to snap out of that and get our 4x2 to the final. That's what I'm most proud of. When I first started coaching him he had no control over his emotions at all. He's grown up so much, and that was evidence right there." His high school career over, Johnson is planning to attend the University of Akron and try out for the track team as a walk-on, but that's not etched in stone. Believing his star sprinter still has a lot of untapped potential, Coughlin has been pitching Johnson to a number of schools in the south, where he could run outdoors year-round. "He didn't know what he was capable of at first, but when he finally saw that, it inspired him," the coach said. "Now he wants to go pro. The sky is the limit." It wasn't always that way, as Coughlin said, but that's what made it so rewarding to witness the strides Johnson made over the years. "When he was a sophomore and I had him every day with the sprint group, that's when I started to lose my hair," Coughlin said. "He was resistant to anything that wasn't exactly what he wanted to do, but he took a big jump his junior year in that respect. "One of the distinct things with Chris is he wants to win so badly. He wants to win more than he wants to breathe at times. He started becoming more receptive to what we were doing, and this year it felt like I was talking to a different version of Chris Johnson." Johnson is thankful for the teaching and guidance he got from the head coach he calls "Coach O" and grateful for all the support he got from teammates and other coaches. The 18-year-old also wanted to emphasize how important his faith is to him and thank his parents for all their help, but the fun-loving personality isn't going anywhere. "I like to make jokes, that's for sure," he said. "I'm a jokester because I just love making people smile. When I get angry now, I'm only angry for a moment. I take some deep breaths and then I move on to the next thing. I worked on that a lot this year because I held myself to higher expectations." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.