Big Man on Campus: Santa Barbara High’s Malachi Johnston

From the first time he stepped on the football field as a wide-eyed freshman, Santa Barbara High senior Malachi Johnston has been a force to be reckoned with.

As a four-year varsity starter on the offensive line and three-time captain, Johnston is now a grizzled veteran who commands the respect of his teammates and coaches, but it didn’t always feel that way.

“That jump from eighth grade football was pretty gnarly for me. I remember after my first home game asking where the orange slices were at,” Johnston joked. “I just had no idea. I was getting rides everywhere from my teammates and I just felt like a little kid the whole year, but I am very grateful I got that opportunity.”

The experience competing against players much older than him brought Johnston confidence and a desire to excel. The Dons were 9-2 his freshman season and made a huge leap in competition for the playoffs from CIF-SS Division 6 to CIF-SS Division 4 and have been playing at that level ever since.

“I always go back to May 2023 when we voted for team captains,” said Santa Barbara High coach Nate Mendoza. “He was a freshman at the time, and he was the third highest vote getter. That was impressive to me. I didn’t think the older guys would vote for a younger guy, but it just shows his work ethic. He set the standard for the program.”

Johnston takes representing his school and his city very seriously. “It’s special to play here,” he said. “I remember watching these guys as a little kid and being like, ‘Wow.’”

With the early playing time, Johnston was on a trajectory to garner attention from Division 1 college programs. He received his first offer from Nevada in May 2023, but the work had only just begun.

Johnston’s entire life became centered around improving his game so that he could stay on the radar of college coaches. There are a little more than one million high school football players in the United States and only 258 Division 1 college football programs that play at the FBS and FCS levels. 

“It’s hard to get recruited,” Johnston explained. “I don’t think people appreciate that enough. Getting an opportunity and fighting to earn that opportunity is extremely difficult. I have a lot of respect for all the guys that I’ve competed with that have the same dreams as me because it’s hard. There were a lot of times that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to keep doing this or thought about giving up, but I’m pretty proud of myself that I stuck with it.”

A huge part of the recruitment process involves academics, and Johnston flourished in the classroom, maintaining a 4.3 GPA. In the end, he received scholarship offers from Cornell, Colgate, Nevada, and Portland State before settling on Cal Poly.

“I was kind of undecided, but I went up there and realized that they’re doing something special,” said Johnston. “The program had a little rough patch, but they are committed to getting better, and part of me playing Division 1 football is that I want to get better. I want to be the best version of myself that I could possibly be.”

The Dons are a young team this season with underclassmen in key roles, but they have applied themselves well. They are 4-3 overall, including a 28-27 loss to undefeated Corona Del Mar, a team ranked 24 in the state, and a 24-14 loss to unbeaten Moorpark.

“I think that we are really close,” Johnston said “Every game we have lost this year has realistically been due to one or two major mistakes. Part of that is that we are really young, but as the season has progressed, the mistakes have started to disappear. We’ve gotten better at finishing a full game.”

Johnston has started on both the offensive and defensive lines this season, and at 6’3”, 270 pounds, his impact in the trenches gives the Dons a chance to finish the season strong. n