Reidsville Rams’ Derrick Johnson(Smith High School) named Mid-State 2-A Conference Girls Basketball Coach of the Year

from Rockingham County Now correspondent Jim Sands on Derrick Johnson, the former Smith Golden Eagle coach and supporter, and his now rise-to-fame, as the girls basketball coach at Reidsville High School….Johnson built the baseball program at Smith High School, as he coached the Ben L. Smith Golden Eagles, he also coached girls and boys basketball at Smith High School…Johnson has done it all in Geensboro and with the Guilford County Schools, but all of that changed when he took his game to Reidsville, and he began coaching the Reidsville Rams’ girls basketball team….

Now here is Jim Sands on Derrick Johnson today and his game and now achieved fame on the basketball court, by the girl’s bench in Rockingham County/Reidsville…..

Reidsville Lady Rams head man Derrick Johnson has been selected as the Mid-State 2A Conference Basketball Coach of the Year for the 2018-2019 season.

“I was honored, but very surprised that my peers had voted for me for coach of the year. It’s a great honor. We put in a lot of hard work in, and credit the coaching staff and the players. They made it possible,” the coach said.

In many ways Reidsville hit the jackpot when they hired Johnson, a man with over two decades of coaching experience at both the high school and collegiate level.

Johnson got his start learning from a sports legend, former Winston-Salem State University head basketball coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines. The Hall of Fame coach, who won more than 800 games while claiming eight CIAA championships in the process, had a profound effect on Johnson.

“The one thing about coach Gaines is that he demanded discipline, without a doubt. He liked to play fast, but he wasn’t going to let the defense suffer because of that. I learned a lot from him and he was a great guy, but you had to earn everything you got. I learned a lot – he was great, but he was tough.”

Johnson served as the WSSU team manager and later spent more than 20 years at Smith High School where he coached football, girls and boys basketball in addition to being the head baseball coach for nine years.

CLICK HERE for more on Derrick Johnson and how he rose to the top of the basketball ladder, in the Mid-State 3-A Conference….Congrats to Derrick Johnson, a long-time reader and supporter of GreensboroSports.com….
(Derrick Johnson attended and graduated from Page High School.)