New Dragons coach vows rise. ‘High school football is better when Sac High is good’
Josiah Johnson has come full circle with a plan — and bursts of optimism and good cheer.
Fourteen years after shattering passing records for the Sacramento Dragons, Johnson returns to the Oak Park campus to be the charter school’s high school football head coach. He recently met with community and football family members to discuss his visions for the storied football program, saying amid laughter to The Sacramento Bee that his introduction might be, “a red-carpet deal.”
In truth, there was more school-color purple and a lot of smiles to match his.
“I’m excited about the opportunity, to return to Sac High,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of work to do. There are rumors that kids want to transfer out. We need to keep them at Sac High. The kids don’t know who I am and what I bring to the table or my resume, the style I’ll bring. With transition, there’s change, but we want to keep our kids at Sac High.”
Johnson’s resume includes passing for a then-school record 3,522 yards and 42 touchdowns in 2012 and leading the Dragons to their first-ever home playoff game (the Dragons for decades played games at nearby Hughes Stadium).
Johnson later got into high school coaching and quickly got hooked on the idea of working with players, developing quarterbacks and devising game plans to attack defenses. He coached several seasons with the Northern California heavyweight Folsom Bulldogs under head coach Paul Doherty, who coached Johnson at Sac High.
He then became the quarterbacks coach and play caller at another regional powerhouse program in the Grant Pacers, helping the city-school program produce seasons of 12-2, 12-3 and 12-3.
Those seasons were revival campaigns for the storied Pacers after decades of dominance was followed by a down cycle. The rebirth was punctuated by three consecutive CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championships and three CIF Northern California titles and two CIF State crowns.
City school pride
As a player, Johnson soaked in the city school football life, where gritty kids from hard-scrabble neighborhoods come together in a “we against everyone” mantra on a football field. In the Sac High players he now mentors, Johnson sees players that were a lot like him — motivated with a lot to prove.
“Sac High really matters to me,” Johnson said. “City schools can have success. We’ve had it at Sac High, and Grant’s had great success as a city school forever. High school football is better when Grant is good, when Sac High is good.
“I’m coming back to Sac High to establish something that I know can be done. This is Sac High. We need to get our kids to fall in love with the process of how to be great. We’re the oldest (co-ed) high school West of the Mississippi. We’ll represent Sac High, and we’ll be rocking.”
The Dragons this fall will return some of the top players in the region in quarterback Laron James-Radcliffe, running backs King Martin and Cordell Radcliffe, tight end/linebacker Zion Jamison and defensive linemen Jayce Salazar and Ta’ron Sago.
Said Elisha Ferguson Parsons, interim superintendent of St. Hope Public Schools that oversees Sac High, in a statement: “We are thrilled that Josiah is returning home to Sac High as not only is he an outstanding coach, but he is also a role model who understands the positive impact athletics and mentorship has on our scholars.
“Having another alumni join our team demonstrates the lasting connection our graduates have to Sac High and their commitment to uplifting the Oak Park community.”
‘Football saved my life’
Johnson didn’t like the idea of playing quarterback when he was entering his senior season at Sac High. He preferred rocking opponents as a hard-hitting defensive player, something he had done in shoulder pads since his youth.
But Doherty, the former Sac High and current Folsom coach, saw something in Johnson that he didn’t see in himself.
“Josiah had so much life and so much passion and so much vindication, driven, but he didn’t want to play quarterback,” Doherty said. “He was a defensive guy, a hitter, but we needed a quarterback. He was so intelligent, super athletic, and he could really throw the ball. He was really the whole team. When we were short a guy on kickoff returns, he’d try to run out there, and I’d say, ‘Not you!’
“Josiah made me a better coach and our team a better team. I’m thrilled for him. This is a great opportunity for him. In a world where there’s so much fake and frivolous, social media and talk, there’s real substance with him. There’s real substance at a city school.”
Johnson said he needed football. He was a foster kid who craved something constructive, something positive, so he poured himself into football. The man who would adopt him, Jose Guzman, helped shape his life as a coach, a mentor and as a father.
“Youth football saved my life,” Johnson said. “I call Jose Guzman ‘Dad,’ and he’ll be around our program.”
Johnson understands there will be challenges as the program’s head coach. The Dragons have been a playoff regular since the Doherty years, including three consecutive postseason berths under Kimbbie Drayton and staff in recent years. The contracts of Drayton and staff were not extended as coaches in California for decades work under year-to-year, at-will contracts.
The Dragons play on natural grass with limited seating. Saturday afternoon games in Oak Park have been a thing in the past, and Johnson aims for it to be a thing again. There is a unique, quaint setting for Dragons home games. Johnson lived it. He wants to maximize it.
The field needs constant work: irrigation, mowing, trimming and the painting of yard markers, hash marks and end zones. Johnson said he isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves to get to work.
“I love our field!” Johnson said excitedly. “I love the stadium. I’ll paint those lines and add the chalk. I look forward to the fresh smell and look of cut grass.”