Highland Springs football coach Loren Johnson honors late father with daily wisdom
As he prepares for his 19th season in charge of the Highland Springs High School football program, head coach Loren Johnson has learned a thing or two about communicating with today's players.
He says he has had to change how he reaches each individual athlete.
"I communicate a lot more with kids than I did early on," Johnson said. "Early on I would say it once and expect it to be done. I still had the same standard, but it's also with some explanation or a reasoning of why."
Johnson grew up in Miramar, Florida and played college football at Virginia Tech.
Johnson said one of the first coaches that reached him was a Polish biology teacher from Upstate New York.
"He was the first coach in a building that said, 'Hey, what you're showing me is not good enough, and you got to be better in that regard," Johnson said. "I started to realize that he really, really cared about who I was as a person and what I needed to do to be successful at that point in time in my life."
That also showed Johnson just how influential a coach or teacher can be for teenagers.
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