Submitted photo
Though it was just a little more than eight years ago that Jess Johnson earned her degree from Franklin College, it feels as though she’s crammed half a lifetime’s worth of coaching experience into that stretch.
Now, she’s bringing it back to her alma mater.
Late last week, Johnson was named the Grizzlies’ new women’s basketball coach. She succeeds Dana Haggenjos, who posted a 94-95 record in eight seasons at the helm.
Johnson spent last winter as the lead assistant at Marian University, helping guide the Knights to a 30-5 record and a trip to the NAIA national quarterfinals. Though it’s her only season on a college bench to date, Johnson feels as though she got quite a bit out of it.
”Behind the scenes, coach Brooks allowed me to do so much … in terms of running a program, so I feel like that was very beneficial,” she said. “Just learning to operate a budget — we were doing scholarships last year — and running camps, recruiting and all that kind of stuff. He allowed me to have a major part in it.”
Prior to her time with the Knights, Johnson had also established herself as a winner on the state’s high school basketball season. She worked as an assistant at Greenwood and Center Grove and then began her head coaching career at Clinton Prairie, where she posted a 51-21 record in three seasons (2015-18), and then moved on to spend two years at Martinsville, going 37-11 there and winning a Mid-State Conference championship in 2019.
Johnson spent the 2020-21 season at Perry Meridian, her former high school, and led the Falcons to a spot in the sectional championship game.
Those who’ve coached against Johnson in recent years are confident that she’ll be successful at her new post.
“She’s a go-getter,” Greenwood coach Justin Bennett said. “I talked to her this summer, and she was talking about how she was ready to … lead a college program, and if there’s anybody who can do it, it’s her.”
Johnson hopes that those connections from the high school circuit will benefit her at Franklin College — not just on the recruiting trail going forward but in establishing a rapport with this year’s team. None of the 21 players currently on the roster committed to play for Johnson, so she considers building those relationships her first priority.
“There are several girls on the roster that I know or have coached against in the past, so that helps a little bit, and just being on the recruiting scene last year I know a few of the kids,” she said. “The most important thing for us is going to be creating these new relationships and all just seeing how we can all work together to just — to win, honestly.”
That shouldn’t be a problem for Johnson, according to Bennett.
“I don’t want to say ‘player’s coach,’ but she has something about her that draws kids to her and wanting to play for her,” he said. “I think she’ll get a ton of kids that want to come play for her, because she knows what she’s doing, she puts players in the best position to make them successful, and her energy feeds into the rest of those kids to give everything they’ve got for her. So I think she’s going to do great at Franklin.”
Johnson doesn’t expect to make too many obviously noticeable schematic changes on the court, though she says she’ll look to push the tempo a little bit more and perhaps make some tweaks on the defensive end.
The end result, she hopes, will be a nice long run of success for the Grizzlies within the HCAC and eventually beyond. Johnson and her family are eager to settle in here for the long haul.
“Getting to be a college head coach,” she said, “especially in a town and at a school that we love and have connections to, this is kind of where I want to settle down and hopefully build something for the future.”
