Dennis Clark
The Tribune-Star
CLINTON —
He’s everywhere, he’s everywhere!
If you regularly peruse the sports pages, South Vermillion senior Scott Johansen’s name appears throughout the school year. And for a good reason, or should I say five reasons.
Johansen competes in five, count ‘em, sports for the Wildcats — a high school version of a five-tool player, as it were.
In the fall it’s football and soccer, in the winter it’s bowling and basketball, and in the spring it’s baseball. He’s not just on the teams, he’s a big contributor to all those teams.
• Football — This was the “fifth” sport in Johansen’s repertoire, continuing a recent tradition of SV soccer players joining the football team, generally as a placekicker, for their senior year.
“My grandma didn’t really want me to play … didn’t want me getting hurt,” Johansen smiled. “But with it being my senior year I just decided to wing it. All I was planning on doing was kicking for the football team, but they’ve got me playing wide receiver, corner[back] this year.”
Johansen shined as a wide receiver during the season opener at home vs. Covington, recovering nicely on a badly underthrown ball, turning a seemingly sure interception into a pass reception.
“Stole the pass from the Covington defender,” he said. “[The defender] just seemed like he was sitting there and so I went and got it. I have a lot of fun playing football, it’s a blast to me.”
As for his placekicking duties, one might assume he is a “soccer-style” kicker with his soccer background, but he is a “head-on” kicker. Hard to learn kicking in that fashion?
“Not really … just run up and kick the ball,” he said. “Nothing really other than that. Learned it this year.”
• Bowling — Johansen is no stranger to the bowling lanes, rolling a 300 game and a 800-plus three-game series in January. The South Vermillion boys team has qualified for the semistate the past two years.
“Been bowling since I was 4 and competed on the high school team the past four years,” Johansen said. “We got beat out in sectional our freshman year, but ever since that we’ve had the upside. We’re looking to give it one more go before we graduate this year.”
A key teammate is Adam Smith, who is also a football, soccer and baseball teammate. “[Smith] does about the same things I do, except he doesn’t play basketball,” Johansen noted.
Coincidentally, Smith is the current punter for the Wildcats’ football team.
• Baseball — Johansen is a leading hitter and patrols center field for the Wildcats. He will be a four-year varsity player when this spring season rolls around, and was an All-Western Indiana Conference performer last year.
“We’ve made a good run at sectional the last two years, making it to the championship game against West Vigo,” Johansen said. “Unfortunately, we lost both of them.”
Johansen batted about .390 last year and paced the team with 32 runs scored. He’s also proud of his 94-percent fielding percentage. “Had 50 putouts in 54 tries. Coach [Tim] Terry said that [many putouts] was a bunch for a center fielder. You usually don’t get that much action out there.”
• Soccer — Johansen has been the boys varsity goalkeeper for the past two years and is presently a senior captain, along with Smith.
“Just having fun,” he noted. “We’re kind of down this year, but it should still be a successful season with a first-year coach.”
• Basketball — The roundball sport, at least at the high school level, was added to Johansen’s activities during his junior year.
“Played sixth to eighth grade … started all those years. But just didn’t really feel like playing [basketball] my freshman and sophomore years. Until coach [Rodney] Idlewine dragged me out last year to play,” Johansen grinned.
How does Johansen juggle his time with dual commitments during the fall season?
“Just keeping your priorities straight,” he explained. “Go to soccer practice one day until 5:15 [p.m.], then come over to football for about an hour and 15 minutes. Give both as much time as I can. With schoolwork, that’s kind of hard.”
Despite football and soccer going on simultaneously, he doesn’t figure to miss any games.
“The only conflicts we were going to have were two Saturday games. Playing at Memorial Stadium, we got a soccer game moved. Lucas Oil is after soccer season. That will be a fun experience, playing on the Colts’ field.”
“It’s a tough schedule,” SV football coach Ron Whiteman said. “He goes right from soccer practice, grabs his pads, comes over to our field and finishes up practice with us. He’s having fun. He’s doing a good job. I mean, he came out and had never played before.
“Scotty just comes in with a smile on his face every day and can’t wait to get there. It’s a special deal, because it was his dream. He gets to play offense and defense, and not just kick.”
As for the pass reception, Whiteman laughed, “Didn’t look like it was his first game. Kind of reminded me a little of [former Wildcat player] Cody Mumaw … I don’t want to put that much pressure on him. It was a Cody Mumaw type of play he made.”
Johansen, who carries a 3.90 grade point average, wants to attend Rose-Hulman or Indiana State.
“I would like to go to Rose, study physics and math. But if I don’t go there, I’d like to go to ISU and do sports medicine or something like that,” he said. “I’d really like to be an athletic trainer. Just to be able to stick around sports the rest of my life.”
He also entertains the possibility of playing his favorite sport of baseball in college.
“I would love to play college ball somewhere,” Johansen admitted. “Even if its [Division II] or something like that. I love the game. I’d really like to pursue it to the next level.”
