Jackson's reserved place-kicker allows his leg to do the talking

At a time when most future Jackson football players dreamed of someday being the next power running back, fullback or bone-jarring linebacker, Morgan Johnson teed up footballs in his yard off Route W and kicked them up a hill.

"I'd use sticks or a shovel or something [for uprights]," the soft-spoken Jackson senior said.

And when the Greatest Show on Turf was playing in St. Louis, most kids were smitten by Marshall Faulk, Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce or Torry Holt.

Not a certain fourth-grader, not Morgan Johnson.

His favorite NFL player?

Jackson's Morgan Johnson kicks the game-winning field goal against Eureka in the Class 5 state quarterfinals last year in Jackson. (Fred Lynch)

"Jeff Wilkins was pretty much like my main guy," he said.

And one would think a young boy with such a passion for kicking would have spent much of his youth playing soccer.

Not Morgan Johnson.

"I never played soccer," he said.

You see, kicking a round ball into a net is not the same as kicking an oval ball over a bar.

Jackson kicker Morgan Johnson warms up before Friday's game.

So it's no accident that the 5-foot-7 Johnson, generously listed at 149 pounds, spends most of a Jackson football practice booming kicks through the uprights.

And it's also no accident that he's quite proficient at banging them through the uprights on Friday nights.

Johnson and his passion proved useful, if not season-saving for the Indians in 2008, and has been a bright spot in a winless season in 2009.

Johnson is 3 for 5 on field goals this season, which may not sound like a lot, but two have been notable and deeply appreciated by his teammates and coaches. The two second-half field goals provided the lone points in losses to Parkway South and Parkway Central. That for a team that encountered a shutout against Sikeston.

"It beats having a goose egg up there," Jackson coach Van Hitt said. "It really does. It makes you feel a little bit better."

And that's a consensus among players, too.

"To see a 3 instead of zero is always a lot better," junior running back Stetson Proffer said.

Johnson's 47-yard boot in the second week against Parkway South did more than break a shutout: It broke the school record. That is no small feat since one of Johnson's recent predecessors is Grant Ressel, who is now the starting place-kicker for the Missouri Tigers.

The kick

While the 47-yard kick is the longest in a game for Johnson, it's far from his biggest. His biggest, less than half the distance of his record kick, is measured on a pressure gauge.

It occurred on a Saturday last November. The fact that it occurred in November was part of the pressure equation, as the Indians were fighting for their season in the Class 5 quarterfinals against Eureka, a team that had beaten Jackson in district play. And the clock and score elevated blood pressure to unbearable limits around a packed Jackson field.

With the score tied 7-7, Johnson was called on to boot a measly 20-yarder with about 10 seconds left. An appearance in the state semifinals was riding on the foot of the then-junior, who had been successful on 6 of his 9 previous attempts during the season.

"That's pressure, I'm telling you," Hitt said. "I mean we had a packed house. Everybody knew that was the game if he could get it through."

Johnson had an encounter with pressure kicks just two games earlier, when he sent an extra point through the uprights against Chaminade in the regional contest to force a second overtime, which ended with Jackson winning.

"I was awfully nervous," Johnson said of his kick against Eureka. "I didn't think it would come down to it. I thought we were going to score a touchdown, but then they called for a field goal. I just tried to block everything out of my head."

Plenty was running through other minds. Tommy Selsor, who had been a holder for Johnson in junior high, on the freshman team and JV, had just come out of the game as senior quarterback Marcus Harris was the holder on the varsity.

"I know a lot of guys in that game were like, 'Oh gosh, I can't watch this, I can't watch this,'" Selsor said. "I had a pretty good feeling he'd kick it through the uprights. And he nailed it."

The kick sailed through the uprights with 6.8 seconds left. Eureka's season was over and the Jackson fans celebrated as the Indians moved on.

"That was pretty much overwhelming," Johnson said. "I couldn't believe I just kicked a game-winning field goal in the playoffs against a really good team like Eureka. It was a pretty good feeling."

Strange times

The recent run of kickers at Jackson is about as unusual as the Indians' 0-6 record in 2009.

In the past, Jackson's trademark has been hefty linemen and physical play.

At times, kicking at Jackson has been an awkward endeavor, as linebackers and linemen sometimes tried to fill the role. Any longtime fan of Jackson football has seen many smashmouth touchdown drives followed by an assortment of line drives and pop ups that appeared to be half extra point and half hope.

Kickoffs were just as painful to watch.

"We've had years where we had to lay it flat on the tee and just squib in down there because we couldn't kick it deep enough or high enough to get our coverage down there," Hitt said. "A line drive to the 20, that's the worst thing you can do because they get the ball and run it right back in your face.

"The last couple of years we've had good kickers."

The squib has been replaced with the touchback.

Johnson has booted 13 of 15 kickoffs into the opponents' end zone for touchbacks this season. That luxury practically has eliminated a dangerous play as most of the Indians' opponents have shifty return men with blazing speed.

"He has a very strong leg," Hitt said. "He's well blessed with it."

Through confidence, maturity and technique, Johnson has raised his kickoff game from a year ago, when he sent four of his kicks into the end zone.

"I'm not near as nervous as last year," Johnson said. "I'm getting a lot more touchbacks."

"His leg now is a little bit stronger than what Grant's was," Hitt said. "Grant probably put 75 percent of the kickoffs in the end zone, and he's put all but two in the end zone on the kickoffs."

With field goals, Johnson will warm up before games blasting 50-plus yarders.

"He'll kick 50-yarders maybe two of three, so that's worth a shot in a ballgame if we get a 50-yarder," Hitt said.

Passion's origin

The yard, with its hill, sticks, rakes and shovels, was the beginning and remains a training ground.

"It was just something I really liked to do," Johnson said. "I saw the NFL kickers on TV and it made me want to kick. I just had a passion for kicking, I guess you could say."

Since his affinity for NFL kickers set in, he says he spends about three days a week, a couple of hours at a time, kicking in his yard. That's three days a week year round.

His mother Sherry has been a longtime first-hand witness to the passion.

"I've seen him kick in rain, snow and ice," Sherry said. "If he didn't get it right, he threw a fit. He's really dedicated to it."

He played JAYF football in seventh grade, where he was a receiver and defensive back. But he also got to punt and attempt one extra point.

Did he make it?

"Yeah. I remember because it was my first one," Johnson said.

At the age of 13, he reached the punt, pass and kick state finals at the Edward Jones Dome in 2005, competing before a Rams game.

He said he didn't do very well.

But did he get to meet Wilkins and get his autograph?

"I wish," Johnson said. "I have his autograph, but I never met him."

The autograph was a gift.

Since those days, Johnson's passion for kicking and improving has outgrown his yard.

He attended the Ray Guy camp in St. Louis before his junior year. This past summer he traveled to kicking camps in Dallas and Cincinnati and made his second trip to a camp at the University of Missouri.

He's also been invited and plans to attend the Las Vegas Kicking Academy in December.

"He's got a lot of time and money invested in it," Hitt said. "Those camps aren't cheap by any standards."

Johnson said the one-day Chris Sailer camp in Dallas helped him the most.

"He's a professional kicking coach and he goes nationwide and ranks kickers," Johnson said. "He helped me a lot with my consistency, hitting the ball right every time and little techniques and stuff."

And he conscientiously brings home the instruction and applies it to his game.

"When we do walk throughs, he stands in on the offensive or defensive teams and he'll stand back there practicing his form," Selsor said. "He's always got his mind on kicking the ball."

A role model

And almost by design, the kid with the passion has an accessable role model in Ressel.

Ressel, who graduated from Jackson in 2007, also has the passion and is living his dream with the Tigers.

"Even in junior high, Grant said, 'I'm going to kick for the University of Missouri,'" Hitt said. "He told that to the kids out on the practice field in junior high. That was his goal in life at that point in time. And that's what he strived for, and that's where he's at now."

Johnson said he looked up to Ressel when he kicked for the Indians, but he never got to kick with him or really got to know him. That has changed in Ressel's time at Mizzou.

At a camp at Missouri before his junior year, Johnson got the opportunity to kick with Ressel for the first time. After the camp sessions, the two kicked together at Missouri's practice field. Johnson said the two text each other and communicate through Facebook on the Internet on a weekly basis. Ressel also came back to Jackson and kicked with Johnson a couple of days this past summer.

Ressel has been a pleasant surprise for the Tigers, who were looking for a replacement for all-Big 12 kicker Jeff Wolfert. Ressel is perfect on 10 field goal attempts and 15 PATs.

"He's the same old Grant," Johnson said. "I just see him on TV now."

Ressel serves as an inspiration for Johnson, who hopes to be kicking for a college next year.

"It gives me extra confidence to have someone to actually look up to that has been in my situation," Johnson said.

Ressel went to Missouri with no promises or scholarship. He failed to make the team his first year at the school, but his persistence paid off when he walked on last year and beat out two other place-kickers for the starting job this year.

Johnson said his preference is to kick at a school in California, a state he's never been to. He said the farthest west he's been was his trip to Texas this summer, but he likes to travel and is intrigued by the West.

And he's learned a lesson from Ressel in that a place-kicker often has to be his own recruiter. Colleges usually don't knock on kickers' doors.

He's contacted numerous schools and has ongoing communication with Southern Utah. He keeps the school updated on his statistics by e-mail. He's also registered with a website that facilitates communication between kickers and colleges.

"I think I can get a scholarship somewhere if I work at it," Johnson said. "It may not be at a real big school, it may be at a small school, but wherever I can kick and get a good education will be fine with me."

And if there's a hill nearby, that would be nice.