Fresh off another All-State baseball season and helping Gatewood win a third straight state title, Gators’ running back Hunter Johnson will head north to play football at SUNY Cortland, the State University of New York campus, near the mid-state Finger Lakes.
Johnson committed to the NCAA Division III Red Dragons in December, shortly after leading the Gators on the gridiron this past season with 17 touchdowns. Those included 13 scores on the ground while averaging a team-leading 86.3 yards rushing per game and placing second on the squad in receiving yards per contest.
“Hunter is a tremendous athlete. He’s explosive. I really think those guys are getting a very dedicated, explosive running back,” Gatewood head coach Jeff Ratliff said of the third player he’s sent to the next level over the past few seasons, as Johnson joins UNC’s Evan Bennett and Weston Wallace of Western Kentucky as a college athlete.
“He just needs to put on a few more pounds, I think, but Hunter has an exceptional work ethic, too, so that will help him with that,” Ratliff added.
Johnson’s parents, Robert and Janine, are both native New Yorkers. He grew up in the Empire State but relocated to Greensboro with his family four years ago, when he started at Gatewood as a freshman.
That natural connection to New York played a big part in his decision to play at SUNY Cortland, Johnson said.
“I did talk to a few other schools up there and in Pennsylvania, but they were smaller schools, and SUNY Cortland is more of a medium-sized school, and it’s in New York, which is what I really wanted,” he said. “I also liked the coach, Steve Cushing, that I was working with there, but he’s taken a new head coaching job now, so now I’m working with Coach Tom Blumenauer, but everyone just calls him Coach Blue.”
Johnson added, though, that he wasn’t completely sold on going the college athlete route to pursue the engineering degree he now plans to achieve at SUNY Cortland. Ratliff and some of the assistant coaches helped convince him it was the way to go, he admitted.
“Coach Ratliff and Coach (Josh) Ringer, Coach (Troy) Burner, they all helped me with deciding on it. They kept telling me that it’s a good idea and I might regret it if I don’t go, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, even if I only play for one year. But if I don’t, I might regret it forever. So, they gave me some good advice and really helped me with the decision.”
Plus, Johnson admitted, he’s excited about the possibility of playing in front of up to 40,000 fans at Yankee Stadium this season.
“It’s an Empire 8 Athletic Conference game that actually gets pretty wild,” he said. “SUNY Cortland has a really big rivalry with Ithaca, which is about 30 or 40 minutes away, so it’s the number-one rivalry in Division III, which is pretty cool.”
Ratliff said he couldn’t be happier about Johnson getting the opportunity to continue playing at the next level.
“Hunter is just somebody who represents who we are at Gatewood as a school, as a student, as an athlete, and just as someone with a lot of character,” the longtime Gators head coach said. “You can see from the way he represented our team as a captain, as an MVP, and now going to play at the next level, he’s just a good kid, and I love him to death.
“And I know he’s going to do well because he’s going to work. He has the work ethic, he has the athleticism, he just needs to add a little weight, but that’ll come. Now it’s up to Hunter to see just how far he can go. So, we’re thrilled and we’re all just looking forward to seeing how he does. And I really think he’ll do great.”