Terry Johnson, with 19 years of coaching basketball to his credit, has taken the reins of the Enumclaw High boys hoop program.
The Hornet post was appealing, he said, primarily due to the program’s solid tradition of play on the court and support from the community.
Johnson met his squad for the first time last week and is spending this week with his players at summer camp on the Central Washington University campus in Ellensburg.
Johnson most recently coached college players as an assistant to the mens team at St. Martin’s University and, prior to that, coached one season in Tennessee. But he’s no stranger to prep programs in the immediate vicinity.
After working at the University of Washington and Pierce College and making a brief stop at Prairie High in Southwest Washington, Johnson’s first head job was as the boys coach at Lake Washington High School. He ran the program from 2003 to 2009 and, while in Kirkland, he led his team to two Kingco Division championships and four playoff appearances. He left to take the girls basketball coaching job at Auburn Riverside High where led the Ravens to a 69-11 record during three seasons and guided the girls to a pair of South Puget Sound League North 4A titles and a West Central District championship.
He departed to take the boys basketball job at Auburn Mountainview High, where he led his team to a 2012-13 league championship and made the district quarterfinals in 2013-14. He finished his tenure with a 23-25 record before moving, for family reasons, to Tennessee.
He coached Centennial High for one season before the family returned to Washington. He spent last season as a St. Martin’s assistant while looking for a permanent job.
Johnson said Hornet fans can expect to see an emphasis on defense while he’s in charge.
“We’ll be a great defensive team,” he said. “We’ll expose weaknesses in our opponents and then take advantage of those.”
When the Hornets have the ball, he said, “we’ll focus on great execution and getting great shots.”
Johnson will be shuttling in two directions during the coming school year, with his Bonney Lake home in the middle. While landing the coaching position at EHS, he was hired as a teacher at Rogers High School in the Puyallup district.
