For Now, Johnson Is Getting His Kicks on the Beach : Volleyball: Former Laguna Beach High standout is one of beach tour's top players and has pondered trying out with an NFL team as a punter.

By MIKE REILLEY

Aug. 11, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

CAPISTRANO BEACH — Pro beach volleyball player Adam Johnson makes a living near the surf, but he wouldn’t mind making some spare change on the turf.

“I’ve been procrastinating,” he said. “But I’d like to try out as a punter with the Rams or Raiders.”

Huh?

“Really, I’d like to do it,” he said. “I was talking to (Ram safety) Pat Terrell on a plane ride back from Chicago once, and he kept telling me to come out.”

Outrageous? Maybe.

Impossible? Not quite.

Johnson was a standout punter as a senior at Laguna Beach High, averaging 42.7 yards per attempt during the only season he played organized football.

But for now, the only kicking Johnson does is in the sand, and it’s usually in the direction of his competition on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ tour.

His all-around skills on the beach--a killer jump serve, pinpoint passing and straight-down spikes--have made him one of the tour’s top stars.

He won six tournaments last season, his first full year on the tour, and has two early season victories this year with Kent Steffes. Johnson is currently seventh in the 47-player standings with $73,638 in prize money.

Johnson and Manhattan Beach’s Brent Frohoff, partners since early July, will compete at the $100,000 Seal Beach Open, which starts Friday at the Seal Beach Pier.

Johnson’s versatility made him a standout in soccer, tennis and volleyball while growing up in Laguna Beach, and later with USC and the U.S. national volleyball teams.

Although a single-sport athlete now, he still has multi-sport aspirations.

He has toyed with the notion of cross-training--playing for both the AVP and the NFL. His sponsor--the shoe company with the swoosh-stripe--also handles Bo Jackson, the dude who made cross-training hip.

“It’s not too far off tilt to say I could make an NFL team,” Johnson said. “If I could kick that far after only two months in high school, I could be right there again; I just have to get out there and train again.

“Right now, it’s probably the furthest thing from my mind.”

Johnson, 27, has hardly touched a football since his senior year at Laguna Beach. He played only after begging his parents to let him try out as the team’s place-kicker.

“They were afraid I would get hurt,” he said. “A bunch of my buddies on the team said we didn’t have a placekicker and convinced me to come out.”

His punting average wasn’t his only impressive football statistic.

“I think I had 17 touchdown-saving tackles on (returns),” said Johnson, who later played some free safety. “That’s how bad we were. I had never done any tackling drills in practice. I just imitated what I saw on TV.”

Johnson, an all-Southern Section soccer player, considered trying out as a punter in college, but instead accepted a volleyball scholarship to USC, where he was a three-time All-American and the 1986 NCAA player of the year.

And if you think his NFL dreams may seem somewhat unrealistic, consider this: his 42-yard average would have ranked sixth in the NFC last season.

But an average NFL punter’s salary, about $100,000, pales in comparison to Johnson’s beach income. He earned $192,000 in prize money last season, and his endorsement deals with Nike and Spalding take him well into six figures.

Johnson has been a professional athlete since 1990, when he left the national team for the Italian pro leagues.

The decision wasn’t easy. A 6-foot-3 outside hitter, he barely missed making the 1988 Olympic team after recovering from an injured left ankle.

He returned to the team in 1989, and earned a starting job when Karch Kiraly, Steve Timmons and several other players left for the Italian leagues.

Johnson followed them a year later, saying he was torn between the money offered by Italian teams and a chance to play in the Olympics.

“I was getting married, and I was paying $400 a month (in personal expenses) just to play for the national team,” Johnson said. “And guys I was starting ahead of were making more than I was. I’m not money hungry, but they needed to compensate us better. I just didn’t see that happening.

“I was working as a busboy for part of the 1989 season. I look back and I almost have to laugh. I had no savings, my car was breaking down all the time. It was crazy.”

His financial woes ended when Bologna, Italy, signed him to a three-month, six-figure contract. “A lot of guys go over there just for the money,” Johnson said. “But I went and had fun, too.”

While in Italy, he married Jennifer Stoney, a former Laguna High volleyball player whom he had dated since college. The couple repeated their wedding vows when they returned to Southern California.

Johnson also wanted to return to the national team after playing in Italy, as had some of his former teammates. He watched Timmons, Jeff Stork, Doug Partie and Bob Ctvrtlik leave for Italy and return to the team last spring.

But because of a team policy, only players with four years of national team or Olympic experience are allowed to rejoin the team after playing professionally. And Johnson hadn’t put in enough time.

His Olympic hopes ended, he teamed with Timmons and placed third at the U.S. beach championships at Hermosa Beach.

A new career began to unfold.

Johnson trained for the beach full-time in the off-season. He signed a two-year endorsement deal with Nike shortly before his first tour victory, the Santa Barbara Open, with San Diego’s Pat Powers early in the 1991 season.

Powers dumped Johnson later in the season, when they had problems getting along.

After brief stints with John Hanley and Mike Whitmarsh, Johnson teamed with Ricci Luyties, a 1988 Olympic gold medalist. They won three tournaments together, two televised nationally, including a victory over Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos at the U.S. championships at Hermosa Beach.

“NBC televised four tournaments last year and I was on three,” Johnson said. “Everyone started calling us the ‘NBC kids.’ ”

Johnson hasn’t enjoyed as much success this season. He has switched partners three times, from Steffes to Luyties to Frohoff. He hasn’t won a tournament since April 4, when he and Steffes beat Whitmarsh and Frohoff at Fresno.

The split with Steffes was predetermined. They had agreed to play the first few tournaments together while their partners, Kiraly and Luyties, were playing indoors in Italy and France, respectively.

But the split with Luyties was unexpected.

They struggled, reaching only one final, at Louisville, where they lost to Kiraly and Steffes. After a seventh-place finish at Manhattan Beach the following week, Johnson told Luyties, “I just can’t take this.”

“We couldn’t sideout to save our lives,” Johnson said. “That took away from my jump serve; I wasn’t hitting it as hard as I would have liked. And Ricci wasn’t blocking as many balls as he should.”

That left Johnson one week to find a partner. He teamed with Frohoff, who had just split with Whitmarsh.

“I needed someone who is fired up,” Johnson said. “A spark plug.”

Their partnership hasn’t fizzled, but it hasn’t exactly burned up the tour. Still, Johnson isn’t unhappy with their three third-place and a fourth-place finishes. He’s having too much fun to worry about it.

“I still enjoy playing this game,” he said. “And I’ll keep playing as long as I enjoy it. I look at Sinjin, he’s 35, and he’s nowhere near calling it quits.”

And neither is Johnson. But if he does . . . there’s always the NFL.