Coach’s ailment brings Boone closer
Players, staff unite with Johnson undergoing chemotherapy
Andy Johnson’s most recent round of chemotherapy was the most overwhelming of all thus far for the Boone High School football coach.
Just three days after undergoing the ninth of 12 scheduled treatments in his fight against classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Johnson summoned enough fortitude to blow the whistle on the start of his seventh preseason camp with the Braves.
Non-contact football practices opened statewide Monday morning for prep programs under the Florida High School Athletic Association umbrella.
Johnson, feeling fatigued but in good spirits as temperatures surpassed the 85-degree mark, utilized a golf cart to maneuver through workouts while his assistant coaches led the way.
“I’m just really proud of my coaching staff and the players for carrying on,” Johnson said. “They didn’t miss a beat, and it goes all the way back to April when we told the kids of my diagnosis, and told them there would be a different level of responsibility for them.”
Returning players have stepped up ever since.
“I almost cried. It was that sad,” recalls defensive lineman Shambre Jackson. “It brought us closer and made us work harder for him.”
“It inspired us to want to do better and ball out for coach this whole season,” said wide receiver Parker St. John.
It was a lump in the lower left side of Johnson’s neck that prompted a doctor visit and then a litany of tests in mid-March. The chemo treatments began shortly thereafter. They’ve proven to be effective.
Johnson continued to teach and coach throughout the spring, just as he plans to do this fall. He said a positron emission tomography (PET) scan following his fifth treatment showed no traces of the cancer. That doesn’t mean he’s in the clear just yet, but it’s a promising sign as he prepares for the busy weeks ahead.
“You kind of feel the end in sight, but it’s daunting, because there’s the potential for these last three [treatments] to be rough,” he said.
The final treatment is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 6, during a bye week for the Braves.
“I’m hoping to be feeling good and like myself again by Oct. 1,” said Johnson. “It’ll be another three or four months before all of this stuff is out of my system, but it’s reasonable to think three weeks after the last chemo that I’ll be feeling a little more froggier.”
That means a coaching staff with several new additions will be tasked with continuing to oversee a young and promising group this season. That’s how it played out for much of the summer, with assistant coaches stepping up as Johnson tended to his well-being with the unwavering support of his wife, Giovanna, and young son and daughter.
“The biggest thing is the support system,” Johnson said. “And not just the obvious people like family and friends, but the people coming out of the woodwork to show their support. They’ve helped make it manageable for all of us.”
That includes those managing the football side of things in his absence.
Former Hagerty assistant Charles Nassar, head coach at Leesburg from 2002-10, became Boone’s defensive coordinator shortly before Johnson heard back from doctors. He had hoped to land the vacant Hagerty job following Phil Ziglar’s retirement in December, but that opportunity was handed over to former Oviedo coach Wes Allen.
“I was disappointed by it, but then I started to think that maybe this was meant to be for me,” Nassar said.
He joins offensive coordinator Gregory Odierno, who has been on staff with Johnson since 2011, as part of a group implementing new schemes on both sides of the ball. Filling so many holes on the staff became a priority for Johnson early this year following a 5-5 season as Boone has seen three assistants go on to take over programs in Orange County in recent years.
Vernon Mitchell, in his first year at Evans, is one of 12 new head coaches this season in the Orlando Sentinel coverage area.
Mitchell was an assistant under Johnson at both Boone and Freedom from 2004-14. He joins Donny Hodges, in his third year at Colonial, and second-year Olympia coach Travis Gabriel as recent Braves assistants to land head coaching gigs.
“It’s hard to replace quality coaches,” Johnson said. “It’s really been a Godsend for me [this year] because of everything that’s been going on with me and my health.”