THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408260221
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: I03 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Football Special '94
SOURCE: BY JULIE GOODRICH, CLIPPER SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
TAKE A LOOK AROUND the locker room at the Western Branch football stadium. Even a brief glance will do. Everywhere you turn you will see the mark of head coach Lew Johnston.
Johnston is there, over the huge mirror facing the weights, in the sign that proclaims ``UNITY . . . PRIDE . . . TOTAL EFFORT.''
And over there, in the poster that depicts famed UCLA basketball coach John Wooden's Pyramid of Success - in which loyalty, enthusiasm, confidence, and team spirit leads to ``COMPETITIVE GREATNESS.''
And finally, over the door that leads out to the field, in the sign that each player taps with a hand before going out to battle, a sign that shouts ``NO EXCUSES.''
Lew Johnston is a big believer in the power of motivational tools.
``I consider myself a student of the game,'' he says. ``Reading, studying, or going to clinics . . . whatever it takes to improve.''
Johnston is the elder statesman of Chesapeake football - not in age, but in tour of duty. The 1994 season marks Johnston's 10th year as head coach of the Bruins, the longest tenure of any football coach in the city.
According to Johnston, a lot has changed in that time.
``The quality of football has always been strong in this area . . . but it's not the thing to do on Friday nights anymore,'' he said. ``The kids are different, too. They're a product of their environment - times have changed and so have they.''
Indeed. Kids go to school and get slapped in the face with a new threat every day. AIDS. Drugs. Gangs. Guns. Johnston thinks that for some, football is a welcome retreat - a way to make order out of the chaos.
``We are intense, and we'll occasionally jump on the players, but it's not a chew-out kind of thing. You've got to be disciplined,'' Johnston said. ``But kids in football expect that. They expect you to be hard on them, and a lot of the kids actively seek that out.
``But it's not punishment. Discipline comes from the Biblical word ``disciple,'' which meant ``one who is taught.''
Johnston's football roots in Chesapeake run deep. He played running back and linebacker for the legendary Billy O'Brien at Great Bridge High School in the mid-'60s. He didn't play on a losing team.
Straight out of William and Mary, where he majored in psychology, in 1971, Johnston spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach at Western Branch. After two years in the insurance industry and a brief stint as the girls tennis/boys junior varsity basketball coach at Oscar Smith, Johnston found his way back to the Bruins in 1984 as junior varsity football head coach.
A year later he moved into the top position.
``My plans had always been to be a head coach somewhere, but you're never really prepared for being at the top until you're actually there,'' Johnston said.
``When I started I had a real lack of patience - I expected us to be instantly successful, but it took some time.''
Johnston went 3-4-3 his first year, 5-5 the next year, and notched his first winning season in 1987 at 6-4.
``The hardest part is when all the responsibility for winning or losing falls directly on your shoulders,'' he said.
If there was ever such a thing as learning to coach through osmosis, Johnston has impressive qualifications. In addition to O'Brien, Johnston played at William and Mary for Buffalo Bills coach Marv Levy and Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz.
In fact, Johnston might have a little bit more in common with Levy than he'd like. Levy's Bills have made it to the last four Super Bowls, but have yet to take home the trophy. Johnston's Bruins have failed to make the playoffs the past three years, despite winning records and loads of talent.
``I feel like we've been so close, and then a few things happen here and there, and we don't make the playoffs,'' he said. ``The only thing we're doing different this year is we're cutting back on the number of hours of preseason practice.
``We're not going to prepare so much, to try and avoid burnout.''
These days, professional athletes and coaches wield a great deal of influence, some good and some bad, over kids. But unlike the NBA's Charles Barkley, who happily proclaims ``I am not a role model'' in a TV ad, Johnston firmly believes that his obligations to a player extend beyond the football field.
``There are already too many negative role models out there. Some of these kids don't have a father figure at home, so we have to be there for them,'' he said.
``One of my main objectives is that a kid will leave this program a better person than when he came in.''
Robert Decker, a Bruins assistant coach the past four years and one of Johnston's former players, knows firsthand the kind of impact Johnston has as a coach.
``As a player, he's the kind of guy you can trust and confide in. For me, he was really more than a coach, he was like a second father,'' Decker said. ``I spent a lot of time in his office just talking.''
In an age when athletes have the same kind of fame once reserved for movie stars, Johnston says one of his biggest challenges is keeping his players focused on the team concept.
That is more difficult than you'd think.
During the summer, after several heart-rending pleas from his players, Johnston special-ordered several Emmitt Smith-type face masks, which are all the rage after Smith's Super Bowl successes for Dallas.
``We have to remind them that when you play football, it's a team. There are no superstars,'' he said. ``Luckily we still have a sense of community at Western Branch. Kids come in here knowing what's expected of them, and if they don't toe the line they either get out or we cut them.''
Johnston is not a rah-rah type of guy. He's not a screamer, either, and he doesn't intimidate his players through silent glares. Instead, he relies on a fairly radical way of coaching football players - he treats them like young adults.
``Vince Lombardi really said it best. . . . `We call it coaching, but it's really teaching,' '' Johnston said. ``The best way to motivate people is to encourage them. And this might sound cliche, but with kids, you really have to be able to relate. You must be able to communicate.
``We're hard and tough on them sometimes, but they always know that we care.''
In a perfect world, football at the high school level would be about sportsmanship, working towards a goal and learning to play as a team. Maybe on some level it is.
But in the end, after the game is over and the season is done, the first thing people remember is if you won or lost. Although Johnston understands that, he tries to put a different spin on it for his players.
``Winning is what we're here about . . . but I like to push more the idea of success through effort. If you give total effort, winning takes care of itself,'' Johnston said.
``If you can walk out the door knowing you've given your best, you can be proud.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
``With kids, you really have to be able to relate. You must be able
to communicate,'' says Western Branch coach Lew Johnston,
instructing quarterback Daryl Walton.
Johnston talks with Paul Willford, who asked him at church about a
kicking job. ``There are already too many negative role models . . .
we have to be there for them,'' the coach says.
Johnston, entering his 10th season at Western Branch, played for
Marv Levy and Lou Holtz at William and Mary. He makes a point to
Malik Cook.
by CNB