Cypress Bay’s Tyler Johnson is the Broward County Boys’ Volleyball Player of the Year
Tyler Johnson embraced the underdog mentality during his time playing for the Weston Cypress Bay boys’ volleyball team.
During his high school career there, Johnson, a 6-foot, 3-inch outside hitter, has never been part of the tallest or deepest roster in the state or even Broward County.
And yet Johnson and the Lightning have consistently remained among the best.
“Since sophomore year, it’s been an honor to be part of such a great program. We’ve had two great coaches during my time here, who have built a great culture there,” Johnson said. “The mentality we had. We were understaffed compared to other teams we played, but we didn’t let it stop us.”
Johnson is taking that approach to his next step - playing collegiate volleyball at Brigham Young University.
And he’ll head there after finishing a stellar senior season and earning his second consecutive Miami Herald Broward County Boys’ Volleyball Player of the Year honor.
Johnson finished the season with 302 kills, 147 digs and 52 blocks.
His efforts helped Cypress Bay advance to the Class 3A regional semifinals before losing in four sets to Miami Columbus. The Lightning went 19-7 and navigated through a tough schedule in Class 3A, which was considered the toughest of the three classes this season after the state expanded to a three-class format.
Cypress Bay lost only once to a team from Broward and beat several of the top teams in the state along the way.
“We took a lot of younger kids on the team this year and helped them fall in love with volleyball and really embrace the sport,” said Johnson, who also played a lot at the setter position during his career.
Johnson, who has played on Team Florida on the boys’ national select team in recent years, will join one of the country’s top-notch programs at BYU. He plans to take the most he can from the lessons he learned while helping the Lightning evolve into one of Broward’s best teams over the past four years.
“I think I have to have that mentality (in college),” Johnson said. “I’m a little undersized and gonna be among a bunch of giants so I have to have that mentality when I go over there.”
