Coach fired after championship season at Sacramento High School. ‘What is the real truth?’
Matt Johnson turned in his keys on Wednesday, and it boiled him as much as it broke his heart.
Now, Johnson wonders if he will ever again set foot on the Sacramento High School campus, a school that helped mold him as a teenager and “saved me from the streets,” and also a place that crippled his spirit in recent weeks.
Eighteen years after graduating from the school as a promising college basketball prospect and 20 years after nearly bombing out academically, Johnson’s triumphant return to Oak Park as the Dragons boys basketball coach lasted just one season. It was a magical campaign, “a dream come true for me,” Johnson said.
Sac High won a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship in 2022-23, punctuated by images of giddy players, coaches and scores of alums dancing in the Golden 1 Center seats. Johnson was named The Sacramento Bee’s Coach of the Year.
But on Sept. 1, Johnson was terminated as coach after a falling out with school administration, tied mostly to gaps in communication. It is also a stark reminder that most all prep coaches in California are under year-to-year, at-will contracts. There is no binding paperwork that assures a coach has longevity on the bench, not even for championship-winning ones. No amount of protests, including the small, peaceful one on campus Tuesday in support of Johnson, was going to change the minds of the Sac High administration.
And Johnson, an off-campus coach who works in real estate, made it clear he would not return even if the school had a change of heart.
“I could never go back now,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Losing that job devastated me, hurt me, but I’m doing good. My mental health is good, my spirits are good. I’m in a good place.”
He added: “The support has been overwhelming. It’s touching. When I was feeling down, I read every note, every message, and literally had tears coming down. It let me know that I was doing something good for these kids, something positive.”
Sac High is firm on decision
Johnson said his dismissal was “petty” and “unfair,” though school administrators countered those claims.
“At our school, we expect our staff to embody the highest standards, and we have a code of conduct,” Sac High athletic director John O’Con told The Bee. “Our kids deserve that. After a series of interactions with Matt, we had to make the decision to terminate his coaching contract. It wasn’t like I woke up one day and decided to fire him. It was a pattern of behavior.”
Shani Melinda Drake spoke at the rally in support of Johnson. She went to Sac High, had classes with Johnson, and praised his character. She said she is upset that Johnson was “wrongfully terminated.”
“We are seeking answers,” she said. “What is the real truth behind his firing?”
O’Con said he has not heard from disappointed or angry Johnson backers.
“Parents of players have not come to me with any complaints or concerns,” he said. “No calls. I have a good pulse of what students feel since I’m on campus all of the time. I haven’t received any negative feedback from any of the students, none of the basketball players. The players are very focused, with something to prove as a team. This shows what type of kids we have here — high character.”
Lisa Ruda is superintendent of St. Hope Public Schools, which oversees Sac High. In a statement to The Bee, Ruda said: “We expect all of our staff — including our coaches — to embody the highest of standards of ethics, trustworthiness and responsibility. This includes the way they interact with our scholar-athletes, parents and other Sac High staff and coaches. Our decision to replace Mr. Johnson was not made quickly or lightly. But after a series of interactions, communication and conduct that were inconsistent with our school’s core beliefs, values, and operating standards, we unfortunately made the decision to not continue his contract as head coach.”
Longtime Sac High assistant basketball coach Sidney Duplessis has been named Johnson’s replacement, providing the program with “great stability,” Ruda said.
No other coaches and no varsity players have left the program, O’Con said. Kendahl Hearne, a senior two-sport star in football and basketball, said the Dragons appreciated Johnson’s mentorship, but they still have a mission to repeat as section champions with the goal of winning the program’s first CIF state championship.
The Dragons will play a national schedule this winter, the perks of winning a section championship with a roster dotted with college recruits. This includes a tournament in Las Vegas.
“I’m not worried at all about our season,” Hearne said. “We have a ton of guys back. We all get along great. We’re bonded. Losing coach Matt was hard, sad, but we can be the same team, even better. Our new coach has been around. He’s helped me develop and grow, and he knows us. It’s not something uncomfortable. ... We’ll be just fine.”
‘Ready to explode’
Johnson told The Bee he had informed school administrators and the team weeks ago this would have been his final season as coach, sensing a build-up of tension with O’Con, who came aboard late last fall after working at a charter school in Sacramento.
“It got to a point in the last week or so that I knew I’d never come back and that I was going to explode on the school and give them a real reason to fire me,” Johnson said. “The way things were boiling up, not agreeing on things, I was getting ready to explode. I’m an emotional guy, but I wanted this season with the boys after all we had done together.”
One point of emphasis in the dismissal was Johnson allowing a suspended Sac High student to work out in the gymnasium. The school administration stressed that a suspension meant a student could not be on campus. Johnson argued the student is an at-risk child and sending him out on the street was a dangerous path.
“The kid was not supposed to be in the gym, but we let him sleep in the locker room,” Johnson said. “He needed to be around the boys, something positive.”
Johnson said he didn’t fully understand what an “at-will” contract meant, that they really are year-to-year deals and anyone can be cut loose. It’s happened at Sac High before. Longtime assistant basketball coach Earl Allen took over for the program’s winningest coach, Derek Swafford, and lasted just three playoff seasons. His contract was not renewed following the 2018-19 season when a new AD came aboard.
Allen was a mentor to Johnson when he played for the program.
“I’m in real estate, could coach anywhere, but I chose to come back to Sac High,” Johnson said. “We win the section championship last season, and later O’Con tells me, ‘We decided to bring you back.’ I didn’t know it was even up for debate. That was an awakening to me how cut-throat this can be, a gut punch, that these contracts don’t mean anything. It’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Johnson paused and added in reflection: “I feel a lot of this could have been prevented and avoided. I know I could’ve taken a deep breath, swallowed my pride, put my ego to the side and made this work for another year. But I didn’t want to jump through hoops and play politics. I just wanted to coach. I’m a guy who keeps things in perspective. I count my blessings. I think about my own two kids, who I had when I was a student at Sac High, and they’re happy and healthy, in college, and that makes me happy. That reminder has helped me through this.”
Sac High’s road back
O’Con said he wanted to be at Sac High to be around kids who are a lot like he was. He grew up in Solano County and played multiple sports at Fairfield High School. His role models were his teachers and coaches. He wanted to be one.
“I wanted to be in a community with kids that look like me — a Black man who knows what school and sports can do for a student,” O’Con said. “And the tradition here. You look at the rich tradition and I wanted to be a part of that.”
But that tradition has been tainted over the years with a high rate of coaching turnover. Some athletic programs have held on and others have folded. Sac High has had declining enrollment, down to just under 400 now, and the athletic facilities do not reflect the school’s strong academic standing.
The football field is real grass, unlike most others in the region, and it takes a real effort to groom it. O’Con said the school brought back cross country this fall, and there is an effort to bring back wrestling and soccer. The school will field baseball, softball and track and field teams in the spring.
Next fall, O’Con wants the Dragons to have a girls flag football team.
“We’re working on public funds, private funds and fundraising for facilities,” O’Con said. “This school is a hidden gem. There’s a lot of pride here, a great place to be. Being the AD is a thankless job, but I know what I’m doing. I know the impact I have on a daily basis. If it means coming to practices, helping run a drill, offering an ear, I’m here for them.”
O’Con said that, in time, Johnson would be welcomed back as an alum, if not a coach.
Johnson said he will take this year off from high school coaching. He aspires to be a college coach.
Johnson leaves Sac High with a strong message for his former players.
“I love them and I told them to stay focused, and don’t let any of this be a reason why you can’t win a state championship,” Johnson said. “Show up every day to school, work hard, listen to your teachers and coaches, and go get it.”
About that wad of keys Johnson carried with him, the ones to the gym, the locker room and the coaches office? The ones he turned in with a clenched jaw and clenched fist?
“I kept thinking of that in-gym feeling — the first guy there, turning on the lights, lowering the rims — a great feeling,” Johnson said. “For me, that’s all gone now.”
