By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Keon Johnson was 9, and there he stood in City Hall in front of the Macon-Bibb County Commission.

“I tried out in Dallas - Dallas, Georgia,” he said in a video posted by The Macon Telegraph back in 2017, his mother Sheena by his side, explaining the honor.

He had tried out for the USSAA All-American showcase, and was picked for the regional all-star team to play that August at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. It led to a notable GoFundMe plea from Johnson.

Back then, the Alexander Magnet II student was considered among the best young players from Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, and was being recognized by the city for that accomplishment.

Now? Throw in the other 47 states and all sorts of countries, and Johnson is again among the best.

Not that you’d have any indication of as much when watching or listening to him.

To sit with Johnson for nearly 30 minutes as practice commences in front him is to sit with somebody who doesn’t act, talk, or sound like the average teen ager, nor like the average student-athlete, nor like the normal elite athlete.

Johnson is polite and personable, maintains eye contact, and fulfills his part of a conversation with thoughtful answers and a quick smile.

There’s no indication that he is, well, who he is, based on his accomplishments and potential.

“I would say in a word he’s ‘grateful,’” head coach Greg Moore said. “We got through playing at John Milledge, and there are four or five kids standing at the gate outside the visitors’ dugout trying to get his autograph.

“It's just become part of the scenery of what's going on in our baseball program, and it's a great thing. This is a guy that’s still working with young kids, teaching them how to hit on the weekends.”

Some parents of the youngsters holding a Keon Johnson – and there are loads over the past few years – autograph may make sure to hold on to that paper, considering the kind of future that may be waiting.

Granted, the only thing he’s thinking about is ending this season with a win. Others, whom he politely doesn’t pay much mind to, are more focused about down the line with perhaps the best baseball prospect ever in Bibb County and one of the best in the area.

Career stats

201 for 413, .484 average

52 doubles

8 triples

32 HR

151 RBI

211 runs

84 stolen bases

FPD records in hits, HRs, 2Bs, SBs

The last Central Georgia high school player to be drafted was Houston County’s Andrew Dunford, who went in the 12th round to Detroit in 2023. He was released after the 2024 season after pitching in five games and is now in the Australian Baseball League

Johnson will break a long Bibb County draft-free streak that dates back to 2018 when Tattnall’s Kendall Logan Simmons was picked by Philadelphia in the sixth round, and lasted through 2025, all in the minors where he was assigned to eight different teams.

He may be the most ballyhooed area prospect since Deondre Smelter of Tattnall, who dazzled scouts by cracking 97 miles an hour on the mound as a sophomore and was drafted by Minnesota in the 14th round in 2010, in part because he was more interested in college – academics and athletics – and had slid a bit on lists as a senior, in part because of injuries.

And he’ll go higher than Stratford’s Robbie Sovie, a fourth-rounder by Detroit in 2002, and FPD’s Rashad Eldridge, who went to Cleveland in 2000’s fifth round.

Will he be so fortunate as to beat the 24th choice in the 1990 draft, Jones County’s Rondell White? Or the 26th pick in 1994, Warner Robins catcher Mark Johnson?

Or the 18th pick back in 1989, Jones County shortstop Willie Greene, tapped by Pittsburgh?

He’s likely to set the Bibb County standard, currently the second-round, 46th pick in 1986, Southwest outfielder Milt Cuyler.

That’s a nice history lesson, not much more.

There are playoffs to conquer, and a state championship to be won.

“I’m just trying to end it the best way possible,” said Johnson, who is 4 for 8 with five runs and four RBI in three playoff games, entering Friday’s home semifinal against Athens Christian. “Dogpiling in Statesboro, winning state.”

That journey began in earnest on May 15 when the top seed in GIAA Class 4A hosted Strong Rock, and was stunned in the second game with a loss they avenged in five innings two days later.

Lurking as the No. 2 seed is Brookstone, which has vanquished FPD in the last two state title series, once in Macon at Luther Williams Field and once in Columbus.

Not looking ahead is nearly impossible.

“We've been on the side of losing twice, and we're trying to climb Everest,” Johnson said. “That's what it feels like, at least, just because we played the same team in state twice, just couldn't get it done.”

There’s staying focused, and there’s paying attention to college baseball and the SEC.

Johnson signed in January with Vanderbilt, having just watched videos at the ceremony of Commodore coaches rave happily about who they hoped would be their starting shortstop for a few years.

They can’t wait, considering Vanderbilt is having an un-Vanderbilt-like season, on the NCAA Tournament bubble after two straight SEC Tournament losses to fall to 38-20.

No matter what happens with the Draft – Johnson is all but a consensus top-100 prospect - he’ll have a huge decision. Barring injury, that professional career isn’t going anywhere. But he’s also aware that one is of college age only once, and three years at Vanderbilt would put him on track for a degree from an elite school.

“I can’t go wrong either way, to be honest,” said Johnson, equally non-plussed about the scores of individual records he’ll depart with. “I'm either going to be playing for Tim Corbin and all the guys that I honestly play around during the summer - so I know them - for three years and get better and go be a first-rounder. Or you know, I can wait it out, see what the draft's going to do this year and still potentially could be a first-rounder and take that route.

“There’s no bad option.”

Of course, he can’t get too cocky about that academic rep at Vandy. Older brother Ishmail is in the Air Force, currently stationed in Las Vegas.

“He’s like a wizard,” Johnson said with an ever-so-slight tone of a defeated younger brother. “He’s insanely smart.

“He’s like with all the wizards and the smart ones. I say ‘the smart ones,’ not like I don’t have a 3.8 GPA, or 3.7 myself, but he’s that intelligent.”

Ishmail took his mother’s last name and Johnson his father’s, but Keesha Wingo is a single parent who has taken on breast cancer three times and has two children of accomplishment making her proud.

“She is 62, believe it or not,” Johnson said with pride. “And she does not look 62. She used to joke that she’s old enough to be some of my coaches’ grandma.”

Not that she actually fits that role. Mom is at every game, manning the Gamechanger video camera, and taking in the joy her youngest plays with and shares with others.

After games, he talks with little kids while signing autographs, and talks with the adults, with ease. Sometimes, it’s as if he doesn’t quite grasp his impact with others.

“I think that’s a fair assessment,” Moore said. “But he’s well aware of what’s going on. There's a lot of expectation out there. We'll go anywhere from five to 20, 25 scouts per game.

“So, he's very well aware of what's going and what's happening, but he has done such a really good job at enjoying every step along the way and having a good time with it.”

Being grounded, above and beyond his age, makes a big difference.

“Keon's played all over the world, all over the country,” Moore said. “He's been everywhere. He played with different teams in the summer and just done all kind of things.

“But to this day, he will still tell you his favorite baseball to this point in his life has been on his high school baseball team.”

Among the things that stands out to Moore is how Johnson – involved in assorted community-service groups - improved every year, in one form or another. Now, as a senior, his defense at shortstop is on par with his offense.

Thankfully.

“My freshman year, I had 11 errors,” Johnson said with a slight cringe. “I was throwing it over the dugout my freshman year. I was hitting the top of this. It was bad.”

Nobody’s ducking any more. He and big buddy Brady McHugh as second base are having a dream senior season on the dirt.

“Me and our second baseman have turned some sick double plays,” Johnson said. “Me and him have been infield partners since seventh grade.”

Johnson is one of several Vikings who have signed to play college baseball. McHugh is headed to East Tennessee State, Conner Strandmark to Mercer, Wyatt Waters to Augusta.

Many Vikings have been partners for awhile.

“Since about probably 10 years old,” Johnson said. “We’ve all played against each other. We’ve played with and against each other forever.”

Thus, the only thing on his mind, competing with graduation, is joining them and other Vikings in a delirious dogpile next weekend on the infield at Georgia Southern’s J.C. Clements Stadium.

He’ll have six weeks after that to worry about his long-term future, hoping to spend that time smiling as a state champ with a group he’s been a part of since fifth grade.

Erasing some of the past pain has blocked out Johnson’ thoughts of a bright future.

“We all love each other,” he said. “Playing for the name on the front rather than worrying about your number on the back. We don't even have our last names on the back.

“At this point, right now, as we're speaking, it feels like it's taking forever … because we're on a (27-1) streak, and we're just …

“We want the ring so bad.”