Joel Johnson earned his 300th baseball coaching victory when Chattanooga Christian School beat Notre Dame this week.
"It made me realize I'd been doing this a long time," he said.
A former college coach, Johnson is in his third year as head coach of the Chargers. He served as an assistant to John Visser for six seasons at CCS, and it was Visser's decision to hand the program over.
"In the professional ranks, they'd call him a player's coach," Visser said. "He has some of that laid-back disposition, which has been a real value. I thought it was a natural hire. He knows the game and has a passion for it."
Prior to joining the Chargers, Johnson coached at nearby Bryan College, at Crown College in Minnesota and at Toccoa Falls, a private Christian college in northeast Georgia. He averaged 17 victories in five seasons spent rebuilding Bryan's program, and he considers a win with the Lions one of his favorites.
"We were playing Berry College, down 12-0 in the fifth or sixth," Johnson recalled. "I called the guys together and said, 'We've all heard about amazing comebacks. Why not us? Why not now?' We ended up winning 13-12. Something clicked."
Of more recent vintage was a CCS region semifinal win against Upperman.
"We did some unconventional things like bunting with our power hitters," he said. "We won 3-2. It was an amazing win."
In that same season, though, he was left with a loss he'll long remember.
"It was the game we lost vs. Lenoir City - 11 innings, 4-3," he recalled. "I have tried to forget it. We had the bases loaded a couple of times. We just came up one hit short. That was tough."
Johnson, who took his first head coaching job as a 24-year-old, left Bryan for CCS primarily because he and his wife wanted their children to attend school there. His eldest son Warren played football for the Chargers and now plays at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Fla. Another son, Dylan, is a freshman in college, and Johnson's two daughters are still at CCS.
He confided he owes much to Sandy, his wife of 24 years.
"She's a lifelong baseball fan and has been a very good supporter," he said.
There were times he needed that support when he first moved to CCS and gave up a role as a college head coach to be a high school assistant. He made adjustments.
"It was a big change, but Coach Visser made it work. He taught me a lot, and I grew as a coach under him," Johnson said.
"The thing I noticed right away was most high school kids want to learn. They're much more coachable. A lot of college kids feel they've learned everything. What I'm trying to do now is help young guys grow into men."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.