AHSAA STATE FINALS: Johnson's journey nets Generals state title
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM – Bryant Johnson remembers the day he was hired by then-Robert E. Lee principal David Sikes.
“I got hired as a basketball coach,” Johnson said. “I ended up coaching quarterbacks, but I initially was hired as a basketball coach.”
Johnson led the Generals to the first-ever state title in school history on Saturday, defeating Mountain Brook, 40-38, at the BJCC Arena.
Getting the Generals to that point has been an interesting journey for Johnson and the program.
At Lee, tradition meant football came first. When the Generals went looking for someone in the late 1980s to replace longtime basketball coach Bernard Boyd, they settled on Ron McCall, a linebackers’ coach who happened to know some basketball as well.
Almost two decades later, in 2004, when Johnson stopped in for an interview. Lee’s basketball program had had some success, but also some turnover as David Thomas, Mike Curry and Toriano “Tito” Baker had followed McCall in the nine years since he left the program for a job in north Alabama.
“I played quarterback at T.R. Miller,” Johnson said. “I was the second black quarterback at T.R. Miller (after Alabama standout Walter Lewis). Of course, I thought I was going to the University of Alabama but that never happened. So I ended up going to Troy and playing basketball.”
Lucky for the program, Johnson’s love for basketball led him to Ann Street, where he completed his 16th season with the Generals on Saturday night by bringing home the basketball program’s first state championship.
“I thought I could win there because of the talent pool,” Johnson said. “It was never down. I always had enough pieces where I could compete but it was always hard because of Montgomery basketball – with Carver, Lanier and Jeff Davis, Lee was always on the backside of that. But eventually it turned. And it kind of turned when we made the final four (in 2015).”
There was never any dispute that Johnson was a player’s coach who could get his players to compete at a high level. But while G.W. Carver, Sidney Lanier and Jeff Davis had all won state championships over the years, Lee always fell short. Just when it seemed as if the Generals were ready to break through, they would underachieve again.
“I think when St. Jude closed (in May 2014), that helped us out a lot,” Johnson said, “because then players started wanting to come to Lee because they saw the style of ball we played. I think kids like to play freely.”
Five years before St. Jude closed – when there were only six classifications that often left Lee in areas with multiple local teams – the Generals never made it out of the area tournament. Since the closing of St. Jude and the expansion to seven classifications where a top-two finish in area play assures Lee of a regional berth, the Generals are six for six on trips to the regionals, made four trips to the regional finals, three trips to the state tournament and finally broke the barrier this year with a state championship.
“I think it’s the start of something new,” Johnson said. “Lee can keep something steady going and maybe be back here soon. We’ve got a big talent pool to choose from, it’s just a matter of choosing the right guys that fit your program. I want guys that are disciplined and are going to play hard and play for their teammates. With that, you can be successful.”
Boyd is the undisputed king of Lee basketball, taking Lee to the 4A state quarterfinals in his second year as a coach in 1964 and following up a decade later with two trips to the quarterfinals and another to the semifinals (back when the state tournament featured the top eight teams at Alabama’s Memorial Coliseum). But while Boyd coached the Generals to nearly 400 wins in 25 seasons, there’s one thing he never did.
Johnson, who has 307 wins in 16 years and owns the school record with six consecutive seasons of 20 or more wins, brought back to Montgomery on Saturday something that Boyd – and every other coach at Lee – never won.
It’s been 28 years since a championship found its way to the trophy case on Ann Street. That will put Johnson on a pedestal in an athletic program with a storied tradition since its opening in 1955.
“Right now, I can’t speak on it because who am I to say I’m the greatest,” Johnson said. “I can’t do that, I’ll never do that. Those guys that came ahead of me, I respect them as coaches. I know they were great coaches. I’m just happy these guys got a chance to win a state championship because that’s something I always told them they could do.”