By Butch Kamena
Aug. 13, 2002
BELLINGHAM, Wash. --- They came to Western at the same time - the fall of 1998. One was a receiver, one a cornerback. Each enters his senior season as an established star, someone looked to for big plays on Saturday.
But while Saturday brings the glory and the recognition, rarely is it the toughest battle they've faced during the week. For the last two years, wide receiver Greg Dykstra and cornerback Martez Johnson have gone head-to-head each and every day in practice, making each other tougher, making each other better.
"You match up the best against the best and try to get better," said Western wide receivers coach Eric Tripp. "They have a good working relationship because there's respect between them."
The work has paid off. Dykstra has led Western in nearly every receiving category the last two seasons. Last year, he had 57 receptions for 919 yards and 10 touchdowns, all team bests, earning first-team Great Northwest Athletic Conference and Little All-Northwest all-star honors and being a Verizon District VIII Academic all-star. He capped the season by tying a school record with 14 receptions against UC Davis, his seventh game of the year with five or more catches, and enters his senior season fourth in Western history in career receptions (122) and receiving yards (1,895), and third in touchdown catches (21).
Johnson has been a fixture at cornerback the last two years, earning second-team all-GNAC honors last season. He has seven career interceptions and 23 passes defensed, including a school-record 15 last season. He was also a first-team all-West Region and all-league kickoff returner in 2000, averaging 29.6 yards a return.
Their practice battles are the kind which turn heads.
"True competitors are always going to compete," said Johnson. "There's no money or anything else involved, we're competing with our pride. We're teammates, but our pride is still there."
While the head-to-head battles didn't become a regular routine until their sophomore season, Dykstra remembers the first as being in the sixth or seventh week of the 1998 season, when both were redshirting. Head coach Rob Smith called them out by name at the end of a 1-on-1 drill. Johnson jammed Dykstra at the line, forcing the receiver to change his route, but Dykstra was able to haul in a pass from Sam Hanson on a fade pattern.
Johnson, however, is never one to back down from a challenge. During his first two seasons, he'd often step out to face All-American Ben Clampitt, who was in the process of grabbing 138 passes and scoring 24 touchdowns in those two years. When Dykstra became the top receiver, Johnson gravitated there.
"Both of us have a drive to be the best," said Johnson. "To be the best you have to go against the best. Greg Dykstra may not be the fastest receiver we have, but he is the best. He knows how to use that big body.
"By going 1-on-1, we're able to help each other, give each other little tips. I'm able to tell him if I see something, and if I'm giving something away, he sees it and tells me."
Dykstra agrees.
"We just like battlin'," he said. "Nobody hurts from competition, it makes us both better to go against each other.
"Martez is fast, he has good technique, and he has really good instincts. Sometimes I'll run a route and I'll wonder how he jumped it so well."
Both players have followed similar football paths since arriving at Western, redshirting while learning new positions in 1998, then making contributions in 1999 before becoming full-time starters as sophomores in 2000.
Johnson was being heavily recruited entering his senior year at Rainier Beach High School in Seattle, but a number of schools backed off after he suffered an ankle injury in the second game of the season. He visited Western with friends and met with then-defensive backs coach Doug Biddle, who liked what he saw on tape.
"He said he liked the attitude I played with, told me 'That's what we look for here'," said Johnson. "I talked to my parents, they said this was a good place to be, and the rest is history."
An outside linebacker or safety through most of his high school days, Johnson, was moved to cornerback upon his arrival at Western.
"When they put up the depth chart, I saw I was at corner, and at first, I wondered what was going on," he said. "After being challenged by it, I loved it. I love the 1-on-1 aspect, the being isolated on an island. On a long pass, whether it's a touchdown or a big defensive play, you're the first person people see."
Johnson saw extensive action in nickel defenses as the fifth defensive back as a redshirt freshman, then made his first start on the corner in the national playoff game at Northeastern State, Okla., making five tackles and his first career interception. The interception proved to be one of the decisive moments of his career.
"I knew the guy was going deep and the ball was thrown up so it was a jump-ball situation," Johnson said. "I jumped up, got it and brought it in. It was exhilarating. That's where my confidence really began to shoot up."
As a sophomore, he grabbed a starting corner spot, making 27 tackles and nabbing three interceptions. His game took another boost when Anthony Dalton arrived as a transfer last season, giving Western a top-quality corner on each side of the field.
Still, Johnson's commitment to getting better was demonstrated this off-season. He spent a month in the mid-summer triple-digit heat of Phoenix, staying with friends while working out in a speed camp attended by many Arizona Cardinals.
"It's helped tremendously," said Johnson, after mentioning the daytime highs during his month in Arizona never dropped below 107. "I had to find another step. I was a 4-speed before, now I'm a 5-speed. I'm coming in and out of breaks faster now. I can definitely feel it."
Dykstra was a three-time all-state player at Lynden Christian High School, where he was part of a family tradition of state championships, helping the Lyncs win the Class 1A football title in 1997 as a quarterback on offense and a cornerback on defense. Father Greg and older sister Shannon were both stars of state championship basketball teams, and younger brother Grant, now a Western hoops player, won state title in both soccer and basketball.
It was because of the football championship
Greg Dykstra was noticed by Western. With the final two rounds of the playoffs at the Tacoma Dome, the Lyncs held a number of early-morning practices on the turf field at Western, then the only artificial surface in Whatcom County.
"We came out to watch the practices and saw his footwork in defensive back drills," said Tripp. "We knew then he was a good one."
Upon his arrival, Dykstra was moved to wide receiver. He had played the position as a high school sophomore, making 53 catches, but admitted that had been all athleticism and very little technique.
"It was crazy at first, watching Ben Clampitt and other guys running routes and trying to do the things they did," said Dykstra. "I felt kind of goofy the first couple weeks. Coach Tripp took a tremendous amount of time helping me learn technique, learning to read defenses and cornerbacks. I credit him a lot. I never knew I needed to know so much for a position."
Tripp said one play the following spring marked the instant the Vikings knew they had a gem.
"It was the first scrimmage of the spring, and I remember this like it was yesterday," Tripp said. "Greg ran a fade and the ball was thrown right over the top of him. He came down with the ball on the sideline and stayed inbounds. It was a defining moment. Sometimes, it's just one play that sets you up for success."
Dykstra established himself as a starter late in his freshman season. He had 23 receptions that year, 16 of them in the last four games. He caught his first career touchdown pass on a 9-yard slant pattern against nationally ranked Chadron State, and had four catches in the national playoff game.
With the graduation of Clampitt, Dykstra became Western's go-to receiver as a sophomore, making 42 catches for 717 yards and nine touchdowns, all team highs, and tying a school record with three touchdown grabs in a victory over West Texas A&M.
Dykstra has proven himself to be a deep threat, making 10 catches of 40 yards or more over the last two years, and grabbing three for 34 yards or more in a victory at Fort Lewis, Colo., last season. He does that despite not having blazing speed, although Tripp says as a total package, Dykstra might be the best all-around athlete on Western's roster.
"Coach Smith says I have deceptive speed, that I look slower than I really am," Dykstra said. "That comes partly from running the right routes and setting the defense up, making them think I'm doing one thing, then doing another."
Unlike the duels in the Old West, both of these guys can walk away not merely having survived, but being better for the battle. It holds off the field, too, as both players figure to graduate at the end of winter quarter, Dykstra with a degree in engineering, Johnson with one in communications and a minor in sports psychology.
But before that, there's the matter of their senior seasons. Both have personal goals, but talk just as much about their hopes for the team.
"I've found, even last year, that if you get caught up in the numbers and things don't go your way, you get bitter," said Dykstra. "I'm not going to worry about numbers this year. My main goal is that I want to win and get back into the playoffs."
"We've been so close (to the playoffs)," Johnson said. "I sometimes feel like as a defense we've underachieved, this year I'd like to see everyone overachieve. If people say that we can only go so far, then let's go beyond it."
