By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Funeral services for Johnnie Colson Machlitt will begin Sunday with visitation from 3-6 p.m. at Dixie Heights High School, the place where he excelled as a student and football player.
Machlitt, 18, of Villa Hills, died from a traumatic brain injury he sustained last weekend while attempting to jump from a stairwell at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house on the campus of Georgetown College.
He had just started his sophomore year at Georgetown and was looking forward to his second season on the Tigers football team.
“Colson had a dynamic personality,” Dixie Heights head football coach Dave Brossart said in a prepared statement. “He was always smiling and eager to please his coaches and teachers. On the football field, his personality would shift and he was intense and played the game very hard. He was a 3.0 plus (grade point) student and treated people with kindness and respect. He loved his family and was a great friend to everyone. He always played and wanted to make his father proud on the field. “
Machlitt’s father, Dave, is a member of the Dixie Heights football coaching staff. He and his wife, Beth, asked to have their son’s visitation in the high school gym and the request was approved by school officials.
Mass of Christian burial will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. Joseph Church in Crescent Springs. Burial will be at St. John Cemetery in Ft. Mitchell.
Machlitt was a senior captain and two-way starter on the 2014 Dixie Heights football team that was runner-up in the Class 6A state playoffs. He was a right guard on offense and left end on defense for the Colonels, who lost to Louisville Trinity in the championship game and finished with a 13-1 record.
That was the first time that a Dixie Heights football team made it to the state finals and Machlitt was one of the reasons behind the Colonels’ success. He was the third leading tackler on defense with 67 stops and he helped the offensive unit average 394 yards per game.
When local coaches turned in their ballots for the All-Northern Kentucky Team at the end of the 2014 season, Machlitt was voted second-team defense. He decided to continue his career at Georgetown College.
“He played the game the way it was meant to be played,” coach Brossart noted. “His effort and leadership brought great toughness and pride into our 2014 defense, a defense that was rated fourth in the state. I’ve coached 16 seasons now and, without a doubt, he is the toughest player I have ever coached.”
Machlitt never missed a weight training session or a day of practice when he played at Dixie Heights, according to Brossart. The coach said he was “everything I want my players to model.”
“When you coach a kid for four years, you get to know them so well,” Brossart said. “They become like sons to you. Our kids (on the current team) and coaching staff were shocked by the news (of his death). I love Colson and will miss him dearly.”
Students at Dixie Heights are selling red t-shirts with Machlitt’s jersey number 58 printed on them to wear during the current team’s season opening game at Scott on Friday. Proceeds will go into a www.gofundme.com account that was started by one of his former Dixie Heights teammates.
The family has requested donations instead of flowers to be made to the Johnnie Colson Machlitt Memorial Trust Fund care of any PNC Bank.