Baxter Johnson (0) plays for Webb on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Knoxville, Tenn. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY DAVE LINK
Baxter Johnson grew up with a love for football, but another sport became the path to his future.
Johnson is at ease going into his senior year at Webb School of Knoxville, knowing he’s committed to play lacrosse for the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
“Football was like a dream as a kid, but just looking at it, I was better at lacrosse, and I felt like I could play at a really good spot for lacrosse,” said Johnson, the 5Star Preps Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.
“I played for a team down in Georgia (3d Lacrosse) to elevate my game, and we would travel to Maryland, Connecticut, Baltimore, places like that, to just play against better competition and better people.”
Johnson, a running back and free safety in football, grew up around lacrosse and watched the sport thrive at Webb.
His father, Jonathan Johnson, helped start Webb’s lacrosse program in 2004 along with then-head coach Rico Silvera.
Baxter’s brother, Hank, was a standout goalie for the Spartans’ lacrosse team, graduated from Webb in 2023 and now plays club lacrosse for SMU.
Hank’s career at Webb ended with an overtime loss to Christ Presbyterian Academy in the 2023 state semifinals, but Baxter helped lead the Spartans to the 2024 TSLA Division II-A/AA state championship.
Webb fell one victory short of winning the Division II-A state title this year, losing to CPA 8-6 in the May 16 championship in TSSAA’s first year with lacrosse as a sanctioned sport.
The Spartans (15-3) advanced to the final with a 9-8 victory over Evangelical Christian School of Cordova in the state semifinals. Steve Beville replaced Silvera as Webb’s head coach this past season, and Jonathan Johnson is still an assistant.
“That was a really scrappy game,” Johnson said of the ECS win. “They were a really good team. We were down 7-4 and we came back later in the game.
“Adam Weston really stepped. He was putting the ball in the goal a lot and so did Drew Johnson (no relation to Baxter), he stepped up a bunch, too. We just came back and it was a hard-fought game and we won. That was a great game for us.”
Not so for the state final a week later at Nolensville High School.
The Spartans had a 5-1 halftime lead against CPA but were outscored 7-1 in the second half. Baxter Johnson finished with four points.
Weston, a rising senior and perhaps Webb’s top attackman, didn’t score in the final and missed the second half due to an injury.
“I’d say that really hurt us, but you can’t really blame it on injuries,” Johnson said. “We just got out-toughed in that second half. We couldn’t win ground balls that we probably should have won and we just gave them too many second chances.”
Johnson, a midfielder, finished the season with 93 points (goals and assists), which led all of Knoxville lacrosse. He already holds Webb program records for career goals, assists, takeaways, and ground balls.
In early January, Johnson went to West Point for a prospect day for Army’s lacrosse coaches, and it turned into a life-changing workout.
He got an offer to play lacrosse at West Point.
“I played really well, and they said that they’d been watching me and they wanted to offer me,” Johnson recalls. “They gave me a week to think about it, and (later) I got on another call with the coach and I (said), ‘This opportunity is too great to pass up. It sets you up so well later in life and it’s such an amazing program, so I’d like to commit.’”
Johnson said committing takes the pressure off athletically and academically as he prepares for his senior year at Webb, where he plays a crucial role on the football team.
Webb Baxter (42) and the Webb Spartans defeated the CAK Warriors 27-21 in OT on Friday, September 27, 2024. (Photo by Charles Mays)
Last season, Johnson was Webb’s leading rusher with 736 yards, averaging 6.5 yards per carry with seven touchdowns. He also caught 14 passes for 102 yards and a touchdown, and defensively was the team’s third-leading tackler with 81 tackles (58 solo, 23 assists).
“It’s very comforting,” Johnson said of committing. “I don’t have to worry about the ACT or things like that, and when I’m playing lacrosse, I can just play freely without having thethought that if I’m getting watched, I made a mistake here or there, things like that.”
And before he graduates from Webb, he wants to help the program win its second state lacrosse championship — for the one that got away in May.
“It’s great to make it there and everything and we should celebrate that,” Johnson said, “but this year, we’re healed up and we’re ready to go.”