Bolingbrook’s Berry-Johnson has results that explain his level of confidence

Bolingbrook’s Kyan Berry-Johnson is no different than most wide receivers who are genuine in their belief that the only thing stopping them from racking up a ridiculous amount of receptions is if his quarterback decides to send the football somewhere else.

Where the Wisconsin commit very well might be different than other wide receivers is that he might be telling the absolute truth.

“I tell my quarterback all the time,” Berry-Johnson said. “If you don’t have a read, just throw it to me, and it is going to get caught.”

And Berry-Johnson’s quarterback last season, then-freshman Jonas Williams, learned pretty quickly Berry-Johnson was good to his word. If Williams wasn’t perfectly precise with a throw, even in traffic, Berry-Johnson tended to find a way to make plays, some of which defied logic.

“I always know if I throw the ball up to Kyan, I’m confident he’s going to come down with it,” Williams said.

Fifty-50 balls don’t exist in Berry-Johnson’s vocabulary – he sees every football in the air as his.

Developing that mentality took awhile. He worked relentlessly with an older brother, Ravon, who played at Northern Michigan. The duo would play various games and push each other. The penalty for failure was push-ups.

Berry-Johnson doesn’t like push-ups, so as he saw it, there was only one alternative.

“We worked out a lot together when we were younger, and the penalty for not catching a football was like 30 push-ups,” Berry-Johnson said. “And I didn’t ever want to do that many push-ups, because we would do it, like, all day long. And I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that.’ "

Berry-Johnson also incorporates different training methods to try to enhance his receiving abilities. Williams and Berry-Johnson routinely work out together outside of practice; sometimes they switch to tossing around other types of balls such as tennis balls and even golf balls.

“He’s a worker,” Bolingbrook coach Titcus Pettigrew said of Johnson. “I see him and Jonas are here on the weekends pitching and catching. They surprise me because of their willingness to show up and just do it on their time. That takes you to another level, because there’s so many kids we only have for two and a half hours a day, but to see them on Saturdays working, that tells you who is ready to take that next step.”

Berry-Johnson committed to Wisconsin after separating himself from many in his class during showcase events in the spring. Some of the focus on Berry-Johnson’s exploits at the high school may have been a bit diminished by the presence of now-transferred I’Marion Stewart, a former Raiders teammate who has since committed to Michigan.

But there’s no denying Berry-Johnson’s want, and he relishes the chance to get even more opportunity in his senior season.

“I’ve been working on my speed and going up getting the football,” Berry-Johnson said. “I’ve been working on everything really, everything that can help the team win.”

That willingness to do whatever he has to wasn’t lost on Wisconsin, who recognized that while Berry-Johnson may not have the world-class track speed some wide receivers possess, he most certainly has the knack that many of those do not. Berry-Johnson seems to be able to find the football and make plays even when it appears almost impossible to do so.

And like all wise young men are prone to do, he asked his mother, Tamica, for advice on how to approach and decide what to do next.

“I was just waiting and waiting for people to come to me,” Berry-Johnson said. “And I was just talking to my mom like every day, ‘Mom, what do I have to do better?’ And she would just tell me to go workout every day, and from that day on that’s pretty much what I did. Then the season came, and I just took care of business.”

Wisconsin didn’t have to make an extremely hard sell to Berry-Johnson.

“There was a lot,” Berry-Johnson said in what factored into making Wisconsin his choice. “It was the coaches, the players and the new OC that just got there (Phil Longo). I asked them questions, and they helped me, and I was like, ‘I like it.’

“So when they asked me if I wanted to confirm that spot, I went and confirmed it.”