Caleb Johnson was a massive force in the Colonial League throughout his high school football career at Northern Lehigh.

The 2012 high school graduate won the Times News Player of the Year award during his senior season - as he recorded a whopping 120 tackles and hit 1,000 yards on the ground. Needless to say, he was the ‘Dawgs primary ball-carrier.Johnson’s success on the field and in the classroom led him to an opportunity to attend Harvard University following high school. He appeared in a handful of games during his freshman season in 2013.“The biggest change was the tempo of everything,” said Johnson. “Everyone was suddenly bigger than me too, which was different. I was well enough prepared by my coaching staff at Northern Lehigh to handle almost all of it though. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to get in a few games (during freshman season). I played mostly special teams-- which is fun and you get to hit people. Most freshmen don’t get that opportunity.”Unfortunately, Johnson suffered an ACL injury during his sophomore season in 2014 and has been relentlessly rehabbing for over a year. Johnson had surgery last July, and the hard work seems to have paid off. Things seem to be looking up for him at just the right time.“I’m fully cleared to participate,” explained Johnson. “I’ll be getting my hands in the dirt soon enough. From my perspective, it couldn’t have happened at a better time. There’s no right time to tear an ACL, but because of when it happened, I’ll be able to play a fifth year (at Harvard). I was mostly cleared for spring ball - I could run almost all of the drills.”The economics major had some time over the summer to clear his head. Johnson was teaching at Maru-a-Pulu, a school in Africa.“I was teaching a lot of SAT and college prep courses,” he elaborated on his time in Africa. “Things are going awesome right now, everything went well. I was able to crank it back a bit instead of doing full blown football training while I was overseas teaching. The culture is way different, and it was a great experience.”Caleb explained that he had a ton of support while he was injured at Harvard.“Connor Sheehan and Ryan Jones were big influences on me, they graduated last year. I’ve learned a lot from them, on and off the field. They’ve helped me grow quite a bit. The list goes on. I could give you 120 names; we’ve been very successful these last couple of years.”Johnson is ready dominate on the gridiron again, and he seems to really enjoy everything else that Harvard has to offer.“It’s been amazing here (at Harvard),” he emphatically explained. “I’m so glad that I came here; the people are all amazing in different ways. Everyone talks about the high pressure of this place, but I feel like you don’t really see that as much as it’s portrayed. If you smile at someone, they’re going to smile back and talk to you. There are a ton of different people here for a ton of different reasons.”Caleb will be back in shoulder pads and a helmet soon, but will be playing defensive line this season. He explained that there is a ton of energy and camaraderie around the Harvard football program. Johnson wanted to give a shout out to all of his former coaches at Northern Lehigh that helped mold him into the complete player he is today.“I’m going to try to help the team reach another championship,” he said. “We’ve been a very successful team over the past couple of years and I’m to do whatever I can to help for the team succeed.Caleb’s friends, family, and supporters will have an opportunity to watch him back in action when Harvard travels to take on Lafayette on October 17.