After ten years,
divorcing the sport you love isn’t easy, but sometimes it’s the only choice.
Zach Johnson,
former Trojan offensive lineman, had played the game he loved since he was ten
years old; however, this season, one hit and one diagnosis changed his life.
Johnson began
playing football at the age of 10 and said there was no doubt this was the game
for him.
“I wasn’t the tall
athletic looking kid,” Johnson said. “I was always the biggest kid in class, so
people expected me to play.”
He only received
one FBS offer to play football and that was at Troy University where he was
able to come in early.
Johnson graduated
mid-term and joined the Trojans in the spring of 2011.
“He actually went
through spring ball and summer training, and in the fall won a starting job,
which is highly unusual,” head coach Larry Blakeney said. “He’s a pretty good
player to be able to do that.”
When he first
arrived his role was to fill in where he was needed, but due to injuries on the
line during the 2011 season, he was placed into a starting role.
“Zach was a huge
part on this offensive line,” senior lineman Kyle Wilborn stated. “The second
he got on campus he made an impact.”
This season though
in the first home game against Louisiana-Lafayette, Johnson suffered a
concussion after his helmet was hit by running back Shawn Southward on a play
late in the game.
It wasn’t just the
concussion Johnson was battling however.
“With the
concussion alone, they had ruled me out for the rest of the season anyway, but
this gave them time to really look at my neck,” Johnson said. “The whole
process was pretty crazy.”
Johnson had
suffered from concussions before and also had problems with stingers and neck
injuries.
“I would even
sneeze and get stingers,” he said.
During the time
following his injury in September, Johnson saw several doctors and a
neurologist.
Doctors determined
Johnson suffered from spinal stenosis, an abnormal narrowing of the spinal
canal.
He was told his
spinal column is so narrow there is barely even enough room for the nerves
themselves.
After over a
month, Johnson and the team orthopedic discussed the options for him, and he
was informed it was highly unsafe to continue playing football.
“The doctors and
trainers told me that if I were to have a serious neck injury then there would
be a 90 percent chance of paralysis,” Johnson said. “In all actuality, the concussion was a blessing in
disguise.”
For Johnson, it
wasn’t leaving the game that was the most difficult.
It was leaving his
family.
“Without a doubt
the offensive line is a family,” Johnson said. “To see them go into battle and
not being able to suit up beside them may be the worst feeling.”
With the impact
Johnson made immediately on the team, he will be missed.
“We’re sad to see
him go but we certainly understand you have to be smart with an injury like
that,” offensive line coach John Schlarman said.
“I really hate it
for him hearing the news that he can’t play football anymore but I know that if
anybody can handle it Zach can,” Wilborn declared.
Though his
presence on the field will be missed, he is not only remembered for his actions
but also his character.
“You don’t get any
better than Zach,” Schlarman said. “He’s a good Christian young man.”
But when one door
closes, another opens.
That’s something
Cory Wilkes, another former Trojan football player, knows all too well.
He was a member of
the team for two years from 2008-2010 before suffering a career-ending back
injury off the field.
Wilkes said prior
to his injury he began to evaluate how much of his life he was pouring into
football.
“Eventually I
started realizing, you know, I’m devoting too much to football,” Wilkes said.
“I really wasn’t focusing on priorities as much as I should have.”
After he was told
he could no longer play, his reaction was not typical.
“It was not as
bitter as I thought it would’ve been,” Wilkes stated. “If it had happened a
year before, I would have been torn apart.”
He said some of
his family members took the news harder than he did.
Since he had
already begun to think he needed to reevaluate his priorities, leaving the game
was not a harsh departure.
“It really helped
me to understand God is really pointing me in a new direction now,” Wilkes
said.
Wilkes still lives
in Troy and serves in different ways at Bush Memorial Baptist Church, which is
how he knew Johnson.
Both of them
worked at Camp Troy at Bush Memorial teaching children the game of football.
After Johnson’s
career ended, Wilkes offered words of encouragement to him.
“It’s not fun
being told you can’t do what you love, but it’s going to turn out really good,”
Wilkes said. “God’s going to open doors and opportunities that you never
dreamed would’ve happened.”
Johnson said that
hearing from Wilkes has helped him through the process of moving on.
“It is different
talking to someone who is simply giving you sympathy and talking to someone who
genuinely knows what is going on from experience,” Johnson stated.
Johnson said
though football is not in his future, he already had other plans in mind.
“When I was a
freshman in high school I surrendered to the ministry, and feel led to one day
pastor a church,” Johnson said.
For now, he plans
to get involved in churches and ministries around the area and after finishing
his degree, attend seminary.
“I know that God
has a greater plan for my life and I’m anxious to see what it is,” Johnson
stressed.
Though he only was
a Trojan football player for two seasons, he left a definite impact on his
coaches and teammates.
“I know he’s got
big things in his future outside of football that he’s going to be involved
with,” Schlarman said. “I look forward to seeing what he does moving forward
from here.”
