Newest McKean basketball coach Johnson aims to make program Delaware’s ‘premier public school basketball team’
WILMINGTON, Del. (BVM) — It will have been over a year since the McKean High School boys basketball team has taken the court in an official game when the team returns this fall. Not only will there have been a long delay, but the Highlanders will also be under new management as the team introduced local product Stephon Johnson as the program’s newest head coach on April 7.
We are excited to welcome @StephTheCoach as our Head Coach for McKean Boys Basketball! ⚔️🏀 #ITSAGREATDAYTOBEAHIGHLANDER pic.twitter.com/IsHEHHKAZp
— McKean Athletics (@mckeansports) April 7, 2021
Johnson comes to McKean as an assistant coach from the Highlanders’ crosstown rivals The John Dickinson School, adding some flair to the matchup. A big reason why Johnson was lured from the rival school was his relationship with McKean athletic director Matthew Carre. Both Carre and Johnson graduated from Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington and were coached by Al Booker which means they brought similar philosophies to what it took to be a successful coach.
“Watching from afar the passion and the goals that Matt has for athletics as a whole at McKean are in line with what I want to do with the basketball program,” Johnson said. “It inspired me to want to come over to McKean. Just having that prior relationship … having those similarities and passion and being goal-oriented it was a no brainer for me when I saw the job opening.”
When Johnson’s resume crossed the table, Carre knew he’d be the best fit to take the team in a new direction.
“I think Coach Johnson is a great fit for McKean,” Carre said. “We knew that we had a challenge in front of us the way the pandemic affected the basketball program and we needed somebody to come in and bring a spark, reenergize the program and be patient in the process because we knew that coming in day one he wasn’t walking into the best situation so who’s going to have the patience and determination to turn it around and rebuild it and at the end of the day we felt Stephon was our guy.”
At only 28 years old, Johnson does not come in with a wealth of experience that some of his older counterparts may have, but the stops he has had have been fruitful. In addition to his play at Howard, Johnson also held a coaching graduate assistantship at Delaware State University for its Division I men’s basketball program and has been a coach in the CheckRock League where he coached elite talent from Delaware and the nearby states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Johnson plans to take the lessons he’s learned from each experience to morph his coaching style with the Highlanders.
“I try to grab from each coach I have either played for or coached under,” Johnson said. “I try to take a little bit from each of those coaches and it definitely did start under coach Booker at Howard and that experience at Delaware State at the Division I level and just being around that environment and those coaches and how they dealt with certain situations on and off the court I think that played a big part for me.”
Johnson is aware of the tough task ahead of him. Not only does he have to work his team back into playing form, but he also needs to convince them to buy into what he’s selling, no easy task for any new head coach let alone a novice one. However, Johnson is up to the challenge and he wants his team to bring a different attitude to the team. He doesn’t want the team to be ignored because it is a public school in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association where private-schools reign supreme.
“I want to bring that competitive edge back to McKean,” Johnson said. “I want to be the premier public school basketball team in the state. Delaware as a state, when it comes to basketball, is pretty much dominated by private schools and we all play in one league. … That would be my biggest goal as the head coach of McKean, making it the premier public school basketball team in the state of Delaware.”
That’s the attitude Johnson brings with him. He envisions his team being near the .500 mark despite not being on the court in over a year. He sees the team competing for a conference championship by year two and he sees his team developing an all-state caliber player. That’s what he believes he can do and one can hear his belief when he says it.
“Howard was a school that is very cultured and very competitive and I want to bring that swagger into McKean, that will to compete,” Johnson said. “You’re not going to come into McKean and walk all over us. You’re going to get a fight every time you step into the building.”
Though it may be his first time being at the head of a team, Johnson is exactly what the Highlanders and their faithful have been looking for. Now he needs to translate that energy and that belief onto the court come fall.
