These are fun and satisfying days for Jonathan Johnson, a past president of the Rotary Club of Farragut who remains a loyal member after 19 years. And during those 19 years he also has served as a volunteer coach for the Webb School lacrosse team.
Lacrosse season 2022 is fun and satisfying for him because his sons – Hank and Baxter – are playing together for the first time and he gets to coach them, a little. Baxter is an eighth grader who plays midfield, and Hank is a junior and the team’s goalie. He’s a smart dad. Here’s why he coaches them just a little: “… They are very different, and it is sometimes better for the dad not to be the one directly coaching them.”
A big part of Rotary is giving back to your community and that can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Johnson’s coaching is but one. He’s been the scoutmaster for Boy Scout Troop 757 for the past six years at Webb and on the board of directors for Knox Youth Sports, the Knoxville Quarterback Club and Webb School.
He has a job, too. And, again, the number 19 surfaces. For 19 years he has been a co-owner of A&W Office Supply & Design along with his brother, Rob, and their father, Joe. Ron and Joe are also Rotarians in the Rotary Club of Knoxville.
Johnson, 46, is a Webb graduate, class of 1993 who played football, basketball and soccer there. After graduation he was off to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1997 with a bachelor’s in systems engineering. He became a field artillery officer and served for five years until May 2002. He was deployed for six months to Kuwait.
His lacrosse job is tied to West Point. He tried to be a walk-on player on Army’s NCAA football team. He got cut. A friend suggested he try out for the lacrosse team, a sport he’d never played. He played on the junior varsity as a sophomore and played varsity his last two years at The Point.
“Lacrosse takes parts of the three sports I played in high school so I knew conceptually what to do. I just couldn’t throw and catch, and so I worked on that a lot on my own to get to the point where I wasn’t a liability,” he said.
He played a position that is known in the sport as LSM – “long stick middie.” The sport recognizes these players as “lacrosse’s most versatile athletes. They do it all those LSM guys. They are charismatic playmakers carrying a toolbox full of skills.” They are called “on-the-field artists whose role demands defensive acumen, ball-handling and fitness. LSMs are the front-line soldiers.”
Johnson works for Webb’s head coach, Rico Silvera. “We have a great staff and Rico has grown a great culture with our team. My favorite part in all this is the relationships I have formed with the players and seeing them grow and mature,” Johnson said. “Rico and I have done this long enough where former players are well into their careers and have their own families. It is neat seeing them. We started a middle school team this year, and the coaches are all guys who were former players. It is great working with them.”
But this 2022 season is a very different one for Johnson. “It is a special time for sure for us. The boys used to ride on the bus to away games when they were really young and now to see them playing together is great fun,” he said.
No doubt they spend a lot of time at home talking lacrosse, going over strategy and reviewing performances. His wife and the boys’ mother, Betsy, loves it. “Betsy likes it as it brings the family together,” he said.
And linked to all of this is Johnson’s servant heart, a common trait you will find in the world of Rotary.
To explore membership in the Rotary Club of Farragut, call 865-659-3562. Farragut Rotary meets each Wednesday at 12:15 p.m. at Fox Den Country Club. Tom King, a past president of Farragut Rotary, has served at newspapers in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and California and has been the editor of two newspapers.