Byrd’s Malachi Johnson tops Week 5 Shreveport Times Football Athlete of the Week voting

Byrd’s Malachi Johnson garnered enough votes this week to win the Times online poll for Athlete of the Week, sponsored by Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission and Cosse and Silmon Orthodontics.

A standout football player for the Jackets, Johnson becomes the first Byrd winner in the football poll for the 2023-24 school year. The running back joins Calvary’s Landon Sylvie, who won the first football poll of the 2023 athletic year.

Johnson and his supporters racked up 29,111 votes, a solid 40.4% of the 72,038 votes cast in the weekly online recognition. Those numbers allowed Johnson to top a field of 11 additional candidates, including Benton’s Witt VanHoy, who made a strong run for the recognition with 18,630 votes (25.9%).

Johnson will receive a backpack, a boxed lunch combo and some additional swag courtesy of Raising Cane’s and Cosse and Silmon.

MANY WINNER: Many’s Deacon Lafolette tops Week 4 Shreveport Times Football Athlete of the Week voting

HUNTINGTON WINNER: Huntington's Jamarion Washington is a Times Athlete of the Week

NORTH DESOTO: North DeSoto’s Trysten Hopper tops Week 3 Shreveport Times Football Athlete of the Week

The 5-foot-5, 155-pound speedster leads the Jackets with 399 rushing yards and eight TDs. He tied a school record with five TDs in a loss to Huntington earlier this year. Johnson rushed for 134 yards and two scores in last week’s loss to Captain Shreve.

“Obviously very talented and athletic young man who gives us the ability to have big plays,” Byrd offensive coordinator Wade Leone said. “But Malachi has also really matured and grown as a football player to fill some voids we had from losing a large senior group last year.”

Others on the third football ballot the school year were Cole Cory, North DeSoto; Payne Williams, St. Mary’s; CJ Dudley, Parkway; Jay Simon, Calvary; Ahmad Breaux, Ruston; Tonashton Bland, Logansport; Isaiah Washington, Haynesville; Greg Webb, Captain Shreve; Gabriel Relliford, Evangel and Hutson Hearron, Northwood.

They were chosen because of their performance the previous week or because their names were submitted by their coach. The Times poll is posted each Monday at shreveporttimes.com with a new slate of student-athletes in high school sports other than football.

The Times online only poll runs through Thursday midnight. The poll includes northwest Louisiana athletes competing in volleyball, cross country, swimming, cheerleading, basketball, soccer, wrestling, powerlifting, indoor and outdoor track, baseball, softball, golf, tennis, bowling, gymnastics and fishing while those sports are in season.

Jimmy Watson covers Louisiana sports for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @JimmyWatson6.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

Week 1: Landon Sylvie, Calvary

Week 2: Jayden Gladney, Airline

Week 3: Tristan Hopper, North DeSoto

Week 4: Deacon Lafolette, Many

Week 5: Malachi Johnson, Byrd

Fan’s Choice POY: Jamarion Washington, Huntington

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Byrd’s Johnson tops Week 5 Times Football Athlete of the Week voting