Colony High soccer coach earns spot on U.S. National Team in footgolf

PALMER — A random YouTube video led to a new athletic career for longtime Colony High School soccer coach Jeremy Johnson. Now, Johnson has the opportunity to represent his country in his new sport.

Footgolf.

Johnson was named to the U.S. National Footgolf Team and will compete in the FIFG Footgolf World Cup in Morocco in December.

“It’s a national team. It’s awesome,” Johnson said earlier this week. “It’s not a dream I have had since I was 5 years old. But it became a dream, a goal.”

And the journey started with a random moment. Johnson said he watched a short video online about footgolf, a relatively new hybrid sport that combines soccer with the concepts of golf. He found a course finder online. Anchorage Golf Course was on the list, and Johnson gave it a try. He was hooked immediately.

Johnson, a head coach at Colony High since 1995, has been active in soccer for much of his life. He’s played in adult soccer leagues for a long time, but wanted another way to fulfill his competitive desire.

“I don’t want to chase 20-year-olds on the soccer field anymore,” Johnson, 45, said. “There’s not really a (soccer) division for me.”

But footgolf allows Johnson the opportunity to use his skill set, he said, and his ability to strike a ball.

“I was never a good golfer. But this is something I get enjoyment out of, kicking the ball. The first time I was hooked.”

Shortly after discovering the sport, Johnson decided to give it a shot in his first competition, the 2015 national championships in Chicago, Illinois.

“They didn’t have a qualification process,” Johnson said.

All he had to do was register and pay the fee. Johnson said he finished 86th out of about 150 players.

“I can kick a soccer ball exactly where I want it to go. I figured out there’s a whole bunch of other people that can do that too,” Johnson said with a laugh.

But Johnson said he was determined, and made the decision to go all-in with the new sport. Johnson, who now splits time between living in Alaska and California, met some other California players at the 2015 championships. Now Johnson is a member of the West Coast Footgolf Club, which recently won the 2018 national championship.

Johnson spends his winters in California, and trains with the West Coast club throughout his time there. Last year, Johnson said he was ranked 36th nationally. Prior to the 2018 footgolf season, Johnson said he made a call.

“I decided to invest the money and go do this. My goal was to make the U.S. National Team,” Johnson said.

So, Johnson traveled the country, from tournament to tournament, hitting states such as Florida, Texas, Illinois and Michigan.

Johnson said the tournaments vary in four sizes, with point values assigned to each. There are 50, 100, 250 and 500-point tournaments. Rankings are based on performance in these tournaments, and players must compete in a select number of tournaments at each size of tournaments.

Johnson finished ninth nationally, which earned him a spot on Team USA.

Johnson said his ability to train at Fox Hollow Golf Course in Anchorage is another big reason why he has been able to enjoy this type of success. Fox Hollow is a sponsor, he said, and Johnson is able to train as often as he can, while in Alaska.

Johnson said footgolf takes all of the concepts of golf. But players trade in the bag full of clubs for a standard, high quality soccer ball. The game is played on standard golf course. But instead of the small hole, there is a 21-cup.

Players strike the ball in the tee box, and kick the ball down the course on Par-3, Par-4 and Par-5 holes.

Johnson said it’s not just booting the ball as high and far as possible.

“There are little nuances,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he had to learn to control the ball on the ground, rather than sending it through the air and watching the ball take several bounces beyond the green. Putting is among the toughest footgolf skills, he said.

“In soccer, you are passing the ball hard enough for somebody to stop. In footgolf, you are only hitting it hard enough for it to just drop or stop,” Johnson said.

As he now looks forward to the World Cup, Johnson said the feeling is completely surreal.

“It’s amazing,” Johnson said. “I get to wear the red, white and blue.”

Johnson has a Go Fund Me account to help cover the costs of his trip to Morocco for the World Cup, at gofundme.com/world-cup-of-footgolf?fbclid=IwAR1xP9nnAt_xBU0jIgZjUA0rOmepKViB4VzZy-HMZYyi1lv243sFpka6k9o

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.