May 12, 2013 –
Proud to announce our April Character Athlete of the Month is Robert
“Chop” Johnson. He has overcome a lot in his first 18 years and is
reaching goals he set for himself as a young child. His story reminds us
at D1 of Michael Oher…and we hope he can have the same results. Allison
Landrum, who has mentored Chop, as well as tutored him…offers the
following:
“Chop is the embodiment of fearlessness and he was overwhelmed when he
realized that he had been chosen as D1¹s Character Athlete of the Month
for April. To me, the biggest reason Chop is the epitome of fearlessness
is that he has overcome more obstacles in his 19 short years than most
people have to deal with in a lifetime.
Chop lost his mother in a car accident when he was 8 years old, and he
was riding in the car with her. The impact that tragedy had on him is
something that no one could ever understand unless they had been through
a similar situation. He struggled in school academically, but he loved
sports.As he grew, it became obvious that he was going to be a big kid.
He was enrolled at Dora High School as a 10th grader, but he did not
have any family in the immediate area, so he was sleeping at the homes of
various friends and acquaintances or making the commute to Birmingham to
stay with his grandmother or his sister when he had gas money. This
situation made regular attendance extremely hard for him.
In spite of these hardships, Chop excelled at athletics. With basically
no formal weight training, he was an integral part of two play-off
football teams as a defensive tackle who was almost always double and
triple teamed. He also lettered in basketball, again advancing to the
regional tournament twice, but continued to have issues with his academic
performance. But, unlike a lot of other kids, he never gave up and quit
trying to reach the goal he had since he was a little boy of playing
college football. He just had no idea how to get there.
We met Chop this winter when my husband volunteered as an Assistant Coach
with the Varsity Boy¹s Basketball team at Dora. We immediately
recognized the amazing potential he had, because of his overwhelming size
and also his incredibly polite and kind nature. Stephen asked him if he
wanted to play football in college and he said without hesitating, ³YES!²
We told Chop that all we could do for him was give him an opportunity to
try to help him with the process, and if he was up for the challenge, we
were committed 100% to see it through no matter what. He has since
worked his tail off in every way you can imagine. During basketball
season, I began tutoring him intensely to help him get his grades up and
prepare for the graduation exam. He began a dual enrollment with the
University of Nebraska Independent Study High School, in addition to
carrying a full course load at school, to try to get his grades up to be
in the best possible position to play football at the next level.
Despite his enormous size and natural strength and athletic ability, Chop
had never really weight trained. This was abundantly clear at his first
junior college tryout. His talent was very raw and he needed some expert
assistance to make up as much ground as possible, as quickly as possible.
As soon as basketball ended, because of the remarkable work and effort
he was making academically, we started looking for a solution. We found
D1 and after our first meeting with Brad and Stephen and Chop¹s first
workout with Cam, we knew that we had found a place that would impact him
not only as an athlete, but develop him as a person.
In just a short time, Chop¹s life has changed so much. His body is
changing physically, obviously, but more importantly his confidence in
himself has increased dramatically. He recognizes that there are so many
people who love him and want to see him succeed. The people at D1 have
gone above and beyond to make sure Chop gets the individual attention and
training he desperately needs, but they also care about what is going on
in his life outside of training. They have hooked him up with other
people and resources that can help make his dream of playing college
football a reality. Further, the other students he is in class with
inspire him and push him and expose him to kids from high schools all
throughout Birmingham and the surrounding counties.
Chop¹s work is paying off. This fall, he plans to attend Hargrave
Military Academy for a post graduate prep year to further strengthen his
academics and athletics. If that doesn¹t work out, he will enroll in a
junior college. Either way, the confidence and support he has gotten
from the coaches and staff at D1 will impact him for the rest of his
life. “