When Dustin Johnson finished his last exam of Texas A&M’s spring semester, the freshman wasted no time before returning to Waco.

He did not return to kick back and relax. Johnson had things to do.

At 19, Johnson is too young to rent a car or buy alcohol. But he’s old enough to create and oversee his own youth baseball and softball event.

Unless rain interferes, the inaugural Karem Shrine Little League Classic will take place today at Waco’s George W. Bush Little League Complex.

The event, which will feature four Little League softball games and four baseball games, is the result of countless hours of preparation. Johnson, besides being a full-time college student, is also thought to be the youngest Shriner in Waco’s history.

Dustin Johnson has worked on a youth baseball and softball event that will be held today at a Waco little league complex.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“I’m very proud of the way Dustin has taken the initiative and created this event,” said James Koehler, the Potentate, or president, of Waco’s Karem Shrine.

“This whole deal has been his deal. We’ve backed him, and he’s asked me for advice on Shrine matters. But it was his idea, and he took it and ran with it.”

Johnson said the credit for the idea belongs to his father, Larry Johnson, a local bail bondsman and member of the Shriners for about 30 years.

“Baseball is big in our family, and my dad always thought baseball was something the Shriners could get involved with,” Dustin Johnson said. “There’s the East-West Shrine football game, but there’s never really been anything on the baseball end.

“With me being a sports management major at A&M, I’m just taking his vision and trying to make it happen,” he said.

Johnson said 100 percent of the funds raised from the event will benefit the Shriners Hospitals for Children, which provide specialty medical care to children at no charge.

For Larry Johnson, watching the event come to fruition at his son’s hands has been the realization of a dream.

“It’s just natural that baseball and children go together, and children are what the Shriners are all about,” Larry Johnson said.

“Back in December, Dustin went through his initiation into the Shrine, and afterwards we had a 15-minute talk about (the Little League Classic) in the car. I remember him saying, ‘Hey, Dad, I think I can make this thing work.’ ”

Merging passions

For Dustin, it’s been a labor of love. The event combines three of his deepest passions — baseball, community service and the Shriners.

Dustin grew up playing baseball in the Midway Little League and at Midway High School, though he admits his affinity for the game outmatched his talent.

“I’m one of those people who is not necessarily the greatest player, but I know baseball like the back of my hand,” he said.

In 2006, Johnson plunged into the coaching side of baseball, mostly on a whim, when an acquaintance asked him to consider coaching a son’s select baseball team.

Soon, Johnson was organizing out-of-town trips for select baseball teams while attending high school.

He helped found the Waco Thunder baseball organization and also volunteered with the Waco Challenger League, which provides opportunities for special-needs children to play sports.

By Johnson’s senior year at Midway in 2009, his community-service projects had gained enough attention that he was presented with the prestigious Jefferson Award for Public Service.

Always curious about his father’s involvement in Freemasonry and the Shriners, Johnson took advantage of the organization’s rule change that lowered the minimum age requirement for membership to 18.

He was initiated as a Mason at the end of his senior year of high school. He became a member of the Shriners, an offshoot of the Masons, in December 2009.

Johnson has rounded up a number of sponsors for his Little League classic and persuaded KWTX-TV’s Dan Ingham and 1660 ESPN radio’s John Morris and Butch Henry to serve as announcers for today’s games.

Johnson even brokered an agreement with Time Warner Cable to televise the four baseball games via the company’s Central Texas On Demand project on Channel 200.

And he managed to do it all while taking classes in his first year at A&M.

“At first, there was a little resistance from some people. They’d kind of raise their eyebrows and think, ‘Who is this kid?’ ” Johnson said.

“But then I think they started looking at me as a fresh face with a fresh idea, and more and more people started getting interested.”

bcherry@wacotrib.com

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