At Jackson, he also competed in track and field athletics, with his best efforts in high school including running the 40 yard dash in 4.4 seconds, a long jump of 21 feet 6 inches and a high jump of 6 feet eight inches.
[1] In 1999, he was named by The Star-Ledger as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1990s.
[2] Johnson was one of four of the Star-Ledger's top 10 players of the 1990s who played for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars/Red Bulls, joining Claudio Reyna,[citation needed] Petter Villegas[3] and Billy Walsh.
On October 2, 1996, a last-minute foul by Johnson on DC United's Marco Etcheverry led to a penalty kick that effectively ended the Metros' season.
Johnson came back to the MetroStars in 1999 on a one-game loan from the Staten Island Vipers.