Eric Johnson retires after near half-century of coaching

Jun. 8—The Class 2 District 12 championship game on Feb. 24 between College Heights and Marionville marked game No. 1,218 for head coach Eric Johnson.

Johnson figured 49 seasons of coaching — 47 as head coach — would be "enough."

"That was a decision I made during the season," Johnson said. "The program was going well. All the way from the elementary program up to high school. My assistants were good and the program was in good hands. I thought it was a good time to turn it over."

Taking over next year for the Cougars will be Stephen Harrel, who has been an assistant the past three years.

Johnson doesn't have any plans of picking up anything new. The 72-year-old says he might play a little more golf, but he's just looking forward to freeing up his schedule a little more.

Although, he did tell the school that he is willing to help out by doing some substitute teaching when they need him — just not every day. He will continue to coach the golf team at CHCS as well.

Johnson led the Cougars for 13 years. After going 1-20 in the first season, he and CHCS went on to make program history.

During the '20-'21 campaign, the team won its first district title in history. The very next year saw the Cougars win another district championship and reach the state quarterfinals before losing to Norwood, which went on to win the state championship. They fell to Marionville in the district championship this year.

Miller Long was a senior with College Heights during the run to the state quarterfinals and he talked about that run as well as coach Johnson's ability to build CHCS basketball into what it is today.

"It was incredible," Long said. "Boys basketball was basically non-existent at College Heights before coach Johnson. After he took over it kept getting better and better every year. I'm so happy just to have been a part of that (district championships, state quarterfinals)."

Long recalled always wanting to impress Johnson when he was younger.

"When basketball camp started in elementary school, I always wanted to impress him so I could play for him when I got to high school. I always looked up to him," Long said. "When I got to high school our relationship changed and we got closer. I will always be grateful for him letting me start and play a lot as a freshman. It means a lot that he trusted me that much as a freshman. By the time I was a senior we were even closer. I looked at him as a grandpa."

Johnson spoke about his opportunity to coach at College Heights and that turnaround for the program.

"We were able to establish a program," Johnson said. "We ended up as one of the better teams there in Class 2 those last few years. It was a great place to work, the teachers and everyone at the program were great people."

His final tally shows 681 wins and 537 losses. Those numbers were able to get him into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame back in 2008. He was also inducted into the Webb City Hall of Fame in 2019 — where he had spent 24 years coaching. In 1997, he was named the Coach of the Year in the state of Missouri for Class 3A after winning the state championship.

He also tallied 15 district titles throughout his entire career and two third-place finishes at the state tournament.

johnson's JOURNEY

Johnson's journey began long before his coaching days. He talked about having pictures of himself shooting hoops at two or three years of age.

"It was the biggest part of my life outside of marrying Mary Sue," Johnson said. "My dad coached so I grew up in the gym. It was all I knew."

He attended and graduated from Pittsburg (Kansas) High School — where he played his prep basketball. From there, he went on to Highland Community College in Highland, Kansas. After two seasons there, he came back to Pittsburg for his final two seasons.

Johnson would end his career playing under Pittsburg State head coach Bob Johnson, his father. During his senior year, the Gorillas went to the NAIA national tournament and won their first-round game before falling in the second round.

His coaching began as a grad assistant, so to speak, after graduating. That wasn't a position in 1973 when Johnson began helping at PSU with his dad, so, he was known as a volunteer. The next season began his head coaching career.

He packed up and went more than 200 miles from home with his wife, Mary Sue Johnson. The two spent one year at Holton High School in Holton, Kansas. Mary Sue decided the couple should get back to home, and so they did.

Johnson spent his next nine years at Columbus High School.

"Very good place to coach, teach and live in Columbus," Johnson said.

He won one district championship with the Knights in 1978. At that time, a district title would send the last eight teams to the state tournament.

Columbus would lose its next game to Kapaun Mount Carmel Catholic High School out of Wichita. Kapaun went on to win the state championship that year and had former 7-foot NBA player Greg Dreiling on the team. Johnson noted that Kapaun was so talented that Dreiling didn't have to start for them that particular season.

Johnson also coached Joplin High's current superintendent, Kerry Sachetta, at Columbus.

His next stop was in Webb City where he would coach guys such as John Roderique, Dan Stanley, Blake Bard and Grant and Tracey Wistrom. Stanley, Bard and Tracey Wistrom were on the '97 state championship team.

Johnson seemed to turn around the Webb City program a bit as well. He won the state sectionals in 1992, 1996 and 2007 before falling in the quarterfinals. He reached the Final Four in 1998 and 2008 and took third place with wins over Mexico (Missouri) and Lincoln College Prep, respectively.

But it all began in 1984 with Roderique and company.

"We got a winning tradition going there with those guys," Johnson said. "You have to be good (to win a state championship) but you also have to be a little lucky.

"We had lost to Bolivar the year before so some of that luck for us was not having to meet them again."

Johnson added that some of what helped grow the Webb City basketball program was the weightlifting program that others began around the time Johnson came in to coach.

He won 12 district championships with the Cardinals and finished with a 422-242 record.

Johnson took a two-year hiatus from being a head coach after retiring from Webb City in 2008. For those two seasons, he was an assistant at Carl Junction. The first year was under his former assistant at Webb City, Ryan Odaffer. The next year he helped coach girls basketball at CJ.

Then, it was College Heights where he spent more than a decade in what he called a new culture.

"Knowing you're going into a school with a Christian background is a culture change," Johnson said. "It was a good one. You feel like you're a good Christian going in, but, you're an even better one when you walk out of there every day."

He added that he will miss coaching after "giving it up to the younger guys" but that College Heights was a great place to end his career.

"The memories I have... in 1,200 games, there's no way I can remember them all. I have a lot of great memories. I've been fortunate to coach for 49 years. It's not all about the wins and losses but relationships built with players, coaches, officials and many others in all those games."

COUGAR CONNECTIONS

Johnson may have finished one year shy of coaching for a half-century, but his career still stands out to his former player.

"To me, that's crazy that he's coached that many games," Long said. "To coach that many games you have to be good at what you do, especially at that many different schools."

Johnson's coaching impacted Long and many more. It may still continue to impact others like it will stick with Long for years to come.

"That's pretty important," Johnson said. "Got to pass down all of the knowledge I learned from my dad down to these young men and ladies."

Long will be the head middle school basketball coach at College Heights this coming winter and plans to implement things he learned from Johnson.

"What stood out most was his style," Long said. "The way he would keep his cool. He never got his feathers ruffled and I'm going to try and do that same thing. When he did get onto us (players) we deserved it. We knew that meant we needed to fix something."

Johnson added that John Blankenship was a great person, friend and coach that he was able to meet at College Heights. Blankenship coaches the Cougars' girls basketball team. Blankenship made Johnson "a better person, Christian and coach" as Johnson noted.