27

run my own program, but to build one from scratch, that to me was the most exciting thing. “From a recruiting standpoint, we’re 30 minutes from Raleigh. We’re 40 minutes from Fayetteville. We’re not that far from Greenville, so we get some Down East kids. It’s right in the middle of some very fertile recruiting ground. “My hair was on fire a little bit. Sometimes, I didn’t see my family that much. But I’m better for it, and I enjoyed it.” His experience working as an assistant with Methodist University in Fayetteville meant that he had an extensive list of phone numbers for area high school coaches. “I had them and I called them all,” Johnson said. “But this is not a hard place to sell. You can ask my guys, I don’t talk a lot in recruiting about basketball. I saw (a recruit) last night, and I told him, ‘I’m not going to talk to you a lot about basketball, but you’re going to get a high quality education at Johnston Community College. We’re going to get you a degree. Now, basketball is going to be hard work, but you’re going to take care of that.’” Starting junior college basketball programs from scratch isn’t easy, and both the men’s and women’s teams struggled at times during their inaugural seasons. But it’s only one brick in what the school hopes will become a strong foundation. “This year has definitely been a learning year,” Jones said. “Not only for the coaching staff, but for those young ladies out there playing. They’ve taken their bumps and bruises, but what we tell them in the locker room and during games is that through adversity you can find out a lot about yourself. “I use the game of basketball to teach them about the game of life. You’re not going to win everything you attempt. You’re going to lose, but the main lesson to learn is to never give up.” The same was true for Johnson’s squad. Johnston Community College had a chance to play North Carolina’s JV team on Jan. 12 at the Smith Center. The Tar Heels came away with an 87-62 victory.