Hanford star QB out for season with knee injury

Hanford High quarterback Ryan Johnson, The Fresno Bee’s 2015 Player of the Year, has a torn ACL in his left knee, wiping out his senior season.

That includes basketball for the athlete who has won a combined four Central Section titles in both sports.

The injury, suffered while being sacked on the Bullpups’ fourth play in a season-opening 33-14 loss at Buchanan on Friday, was confirmed Tuesday afternoon.

Johnson, who has made an oral commitment to San Jose State for football, underwent five hours of CT scan and MRI testing Monday at Sierra Pacific Orthopedics in Fresno, said his father, Sandy Johnson.

His father and mother, Carrie, informed him of the official X-ray readings Monday night in Hanford after the father learned of the results a few hours earlier.

“It was an extremely horrible scenario to watch him,” said Sandy Johnson, pausing to collect himself. “As a parent, you want to experience all the pain and injuries and let your children be free of them.”

Colleges generally honor scholarship offers to athletes injured as seniors in high school, and Sandy Johnson said San Jose State “is still 100%” keeping its to his son. National Signing Day is Feb. 1.

Sandy Johnson said he was told by Sierra Pacific Orthopedics doctors that his son faces eight months of rehabilitation.

“Ryan told me, ‘I’ll be ready in six and a half.’ I like that,” said the father, a former football and basketball standout at Riverdale High in the early ’80s. “At least he’s thinking ahead. Maybe that’s a goal there.

“But the doctors aren’t concerned with how fast he comes back. They want him to take time and get stronger. There’s no sense in hurrying back because there’s nothing to come back to. His senior year is done.”

Johnson’s career, the most accomplished in history of the 124-year Kings County school, closes with a combined 75-20 record as a starter in football (26-3) and basketball.

The Bullpups of the West Yosemite League were coming off a 14-1 season, highlighted by section Division III and State CIF Division IV-AA titles as the 6-foot-4, 200-pounder set school passing records for completions (214), attempts (346), yards (3,063) and touchdowns (35). He completed his only pass attempt this season for 11 yards against Buchanan.

Hanford hadn’t won a section championship in football until Johnson led it to consecutive D-III crowns in 2014 and ’15, accounting for 6,226 total yards and 77 touchdowns in those seasons.

The brother of 2014 Bee girls basketball Co-Player of the Year Brooke Johnson (now playing at UNLV), he also scored 43 points in a basketball game last year – No. 2 all-time in school annals.

Johnson, who turned 18 Aug. 21, was also offered a football scholarship by Nevada.

Hanford will play at 10th-ranked Sanger in a nonleague game Friday.

In Johnson’s absence, the Bullpups played quarterback by committee against Buchanan, closing the game with senior wide receiver Jordan Perryman taking direct snaps.

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 6:02 PM with the headline "Hanford star QB out for season with knee injury."