Jack of all trades, masteJack of all trades, master of none goes the old saw.

Not exactly a compliment for an athlete.

When the full original saying is used, however, it better captures the Bismarck High athletic career of Tyler Johnson.

"Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one."

That sums up well the accomplishments of Johnson, a wrestling All-American, a two-time football all-stater and an all-region baseball player.

Last week Johnson, an A student in the classroom, decided to attend North Dakota State University. At Fargo it will be wrestling only for Johnson, who won three state titles and went 50-0 in a senior season that included 36 pins. Just days before committing to the Bison, he placed second at 152 pounds in a huge national tournament for high school seniors in Virginia.

When he gets to NDSU, Johnson won't be looking back over his shoulder, wishing he'd spent more time on the mat at the expense of football and baseball.

To the contrary, Johnson said he wouldn't shuffle any of the five seasons he devoted to wrestling, the four he invested in baseball or the three he put into football.

He was happy with his athletic path at BHS.

"I enjoy all three (sports),"Johnson said. "I enjoy competition. I wouldn't do it any different. I've enjoyed every bit of every sport I did in high school."

Johnson concedes he wasn't able to devote as much time as single-sport athletes to camps and sport-specific offseason workouts. However, he said he reaped benefits that don't come the way of one-sport athletes.

"It did keep me from focusing on an individual sport, because when other people are doing offseason preparation I was involved with other sports," he said. "… But I'm a lot more rounded athlete, and there's the competition factor.Doing different sports prepares you for competition that's common to any sport. It brings a mature approach to competition. I've been in so many situations that Iknow how to react."

Indeed, the phrase "been there before" could have been invented for Johnson. Add it all up and he's experienced nine seasons of state-level action among the three sports.

When it comes to pressure situations, he's been through the mill.

Johnson expects all those showdowns to serve him well as he devotes his energies solely to wrestling. Athletics will still be a 12-month endeavor for Johnson, it's just that all that time will be devoted to one sport.

So the two dozen or so baseball games that lie ahead this spring will bring an end to discretionary athletics for him. Even Legion baseball is a luxury he won't be able to enjoy.

Johnson obviously has no intention of giving DivisionI wrestling anything less than an all-out effort.

"It's going to be a change of pace, but I think I'm going to like it. It will be a different level of competition," he said of a wrestling-only focus.

Trying to push Johnson into a corner and get him to pick a favorite sport is not an easy enterprise. Wrestling, however, has one clear advantage over baseball and football.

"Iwon't say wrestling is my favorite sport, but it's the most satisfying," he said. "You're out there alone and you have nobody else to blame when things go poorly, and when you succeed it's really self-satisfying. All the preparation pays off in the end."

"Ilike baseball and I like football, but the team aspect sometimes gets frustrating,"he continued. "With wrestling you get out what you put in."

(Steve Thomas is a Tribune sportswriter).