The countdown is on for young Trey Johnson. With every start and every stride, the Kapolei freshman moves a step closer to the future. That horizon is oh, so bright.

Johnson was one of the runners who captivated a sparse but gritty audience at Punahou’s Alexander Field that endured morning rain and mid-day rays. He posted his best time ever in the 400-meter run — 50.6 seconds — that was a close second at the Cal Track/Ruby Tuesday Hawaii Invitational.

At a lean 6 feet 2, Johnson just turned 15 and is just starting to figure out so many things. Time is on his side, but like every sprinter, he wants to reach some big goals soon. Like now.

"It feels like time to improve," he said, though he has already sliced six seconds off his 400 time in the past eight months. "I need to get stronger. I need more physical strength for the last part of the race. This meet, I don’t know what happened at the end. I was dead in the last 10 (meters). I didn’t really have good turnover speed."

Still, the ninth-grader’s new PR time would have been good enough for eighth at last year’s state championships. That field was composed of six seniors and two juniors — Justin Main of St. Francis (49.63) and Izaiah Lavatai of Radford (50.44).

Johnson has hopes of bringing his time down to 49 seconds before spring is over. Last year’s 400 champion, Daniel Pietsch of Seabury Hall, won with a time of 48.85. The state meet record is 48.66, set by Punahou’s Bennett Valencia in 1997.

It wasn’t just Johnson’s 400 time that had some spectators in awe on Saturday. It was the whole package. The stride. That amazing stride.

"He’s got some big strides," teammate Patrick Beter said. "Everything’s big with him."

"When you look at the kid, you can see that God has blessed him," Tony Jones said.

Jones is the track and field coach at Nanakuli High School. He is also the coach of Leeward Track Club, which worked out on Kapolei’s track last summer. That’s when Johnson, just coming off eighth grade at Ilima Intermediate School, met Jones and jumped into the club’s circle of dedicated youngsters.

"When he came over from Ilima Intermediate, he was proud of what he had done at 400 meters: 56 seconds. He is a piece of coal that you keep polishing. He has a lot of good family support, and he bought into the fact that if he really trained and put forth the effort, and then go ahead and improve his technique, he would really improve his time," Jones said.

The result? By the end of the club’s seven-week summer program, Johnson’s 400 time was down to 53 seconds. In the fall, he joined the cross country team at Kapolei, building a base, building strength.

"Trey is a young man who has personal pride. He’s a good listener, he has good manners and he believes," Jones said. "His stride length is over 1.5 times most of his competitors, and the muscle twitch, the turnover that he uses, connecting his brain to his legs — the neuroscience stuff — he runs a very good 200 meters within the 400 and he knows how to accelerate."

Johnson is not into the neuroscience stuff as much, but he is learning quickly. At the Cal Track meet. he burst out of the start exceptionally well. Fluid. Long. Almost effortless.

"He’s a great first turner off the block with quick feet, and for 50 meters that’s what he’s doing," Jones added. "His form and posture are so good on the back stretch, that second turn when that bear is weighing on you."

And yet, it’s posture that both Johnson and Jones continue to hone.

"My posture at the end was falling apart," Johnson said of the narrow loss on Saturday.

"His speed is determined by turnover and stride length," Jones noted. "He has learned to utilize the proper sprinting posture for his height."

It’s a work in progress, though in this case improvement has been vast and swift.

Jones knows the complexity of the 400 well.

"I ran the 400 meters, too. There’s no way around the pain and you have to go through that. Your body has to adjust to that, and he’s doing that," he said.

Johnson hopes to keep whittling his times down — he’s gone from 51 seconds to 50.8 to 50.6 in his first three varsity meets — and reach that spring goal of 49 seconds.

"Oh, definitely, I’d love to see it," Jones said. "It couldn’t happen to a more deserving young man."

Growing up in a military family made transplanting an almost normal way of life for Johnson. But his family is tight. Forest Johnson ran the 400 at the University of Georgia. That’s where he met and married Anita, who was a jack of all trades: 100, 200, 400, long jump and triple jump. At UGA, Anita specialized in the long jump (20 feet, 7.5 inches).

But they never wanted their first son to specialize in a sport right off the bat.

"You know how you put your kid in a sport and see if he gravitates to it? Trey didn’t really train hard until this past summer with Coach Jones," Anita Johnson said. "It wasn’t a huge track club, but you could see the growth the more times he ran it with the coaching he was getting, the encouragement."

Anita is a former college athlete, yes, but she was like any other doting mom on Saturday.

"Today was the first time he’s really been tested. We’re parents, but we also have insight," she said.

They passed some magnificent genes to Trey, and he’s putting in the sweat equity to see how far this goes.

"Trey really found some self-esteem and confidence," said Jones, who sees Johnson run from time to time when Nanakuli trains at Kapolei’s facility. "All I pray for is that he keeps himself healthy. At the pace he’s running, the quality he’s running, he’s got to step it up to the next level. I’m sure the good coaches, better than me, will help him to do that. It’s a pleasure to know that young man and his family."

The countdown continues. In a few months, the Johnson ohana will leave the islands and return to Georgia, where competition in the 400 and every other event is stiffer.

TOP 10

Voted on by coaches and media from statewide. First-place votes in parentheses. Ten points for first-place votes, nine for second, etc.

BASEBALL

Also receiving votes: Maui 11, Kauai 9, Punahou 6, Pearl City 2, Keaau 1, Maryknoll 1.
No longer in Top 10: Kauai.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

Also receiving votes: Kahuku 10, King Kekaulike 10, Kealakehe 4, Seabury Hall 4, Baldwin 3, Maryknoll 3, Iolani 2, Mid-Pacific 2.

SOFTBALL

Others receiving votes: Kaiser 7, Lahainaluna 6, Moanalua 6, St. Francis 4, Kapolei 3, Leilehua 3, ‘Iolani 2.