Indian Land’s new basketball coach ‘sees opportunity’ there. He also sees home
LJ Johnson heard all that he needed to hear. He was sold.
A few weeks ago, Johnson remembers having a conversation with IL’s head football coach Adam Hastings. The two were familiar with each other. They’d run in similar circles in Charlotte: Hastings coached football at Ardrey Kell and Providence Day before arriving at Indian Land in 2020, while Johnson coached basketball at Butler and Harding University High School.
“We played each other a couple times,” Johnson told The Herald in a phone interview last week. “So we were just talking. And he was like, ‘This area is yearning for something to root for, somebody to root for.’ ”
Johnson thought to himself: “I think that I can provide that.”
Indian Land thinks he can provide it, too.
Johnson will be Indian Land’s next head boys basketball coach. He’ll be taking over for Nate Smith, who retired in March. Smith served as head coach for the Warriors for 16 years, notching 13 playoff bids and a record of 163-156 in that span.
Last season, the Warriors went 7-15.
Johnson is coming to the Lancaster County panhandle from Harding in Charlotte, where in three years he helped turn a .500 program into a SoMECK conference champion. The Waxhaw, N.C., native will now work seven minutes away from his childhood home, where his mother still lives, he said.
At Indian Land, Johnson “sees opportunity” — to build a program in a community that is rapidly growing and rediscovering its identity.
He also sees home.
“Just growing up in that community and seeing how it has grown and boomed the last 20 years has (been special),” Johnson said, adding, “I really like what the community has to offer. I like the competitive nature of the athletes who come out of the area. … It could be a really good environment to grow — not only from the knowledge standpoint but also as a South Carolina powerhouse.”
Johnson, 34, has been around sports in the Carolinas all his life. He graduated from Parkwood High in 2005 as a three-sport athlete (football, basketball and track) and earned a scholarship to play basketball at UNC Pembroke.
One year into his time at UNCP, the school started its football program, and Johnson was a big part of the program’s first three years of success. His college football career opened up a bunch of opportunities for him professionally — including a brief stint with the Orlando Predators, an arena football team, and a slot on the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad.
While with the Panthers, he got his start in coaching. He was an assistant football coach at Providence Day for a few years before moving to Butler High School, where he was an assistant football and basketball coach from 2012-17.
Johnson got his first chance at a head coaching gig at Harding in 2018.
After his first season, which the Rams went 11-15, Johnson saw his program sustain success. In his final three years, his teams notched three winning seasons, three playoff appearances and an overall record of 45-11. (He also sent four basketball players to college in his four years at Harding, he said.)
Johnson described himself as a “player’s coach.” He likes to play “aggressive” and fast on offense — because, he explained, “controlling the pace of the game ultimately controls the outcome of it.”
Johnson said he is finishing the school year at Harding and is looking forward to working with the Warrior basketball team. He’ll also be an assistant coach on the football team and is ready to meet those players, too.
“He has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the field of basketball as well as football,” Indian Land athletic director Vernon Hunter said. “We feel like he’ll be a great asset to the Indian Land community.”
Johnson sees opportunity in Indian Land. And it’s clear, too, that Indian Land sees opportunity in him.
This story was originally published April 13, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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