FOOTBALL TAB: Johnson, team live with motto to 'rise as one' in 2016 season

By Justin Hayes
Published in Sports on August 19, 2016 1:48 PM

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By JUSTIN HAYES

jhayes@nwsargus.com

Bennett Johnson will take your questions.

Further, he will provide answers.

Against a backdrop of ambient, loose-change chatter at the east end of famed Norvell T. Lee Gymnasium, the Goldsboro High varsity football coach presides over the waning seconds of his new fourth period class.

As opening day pomp goes, it's loud.

In order to prevent his Q&A session from morphing into a jump-ball scenario, Johnson hunches over, angling his voice to ensure the audio deck will record at the proper kilohertz.

Call it a modified three-point stance.

"To rise as one," he says.

The answer, economical and sturdy, takes all the time of a rivalry-game hard count. No pre-snap read or audible necessary.

When you know, you know.

"That's been our theme since January," he explained. "The season (2015) didn't end like we wanted it to, and we were in a situation where we had no choice... but to rise as one."

Indeed.

Following consecutive losses to Ayden-Grifton and Greene Central, in which the Cougars were outscored 96-8, the school opted out of an appearance in the N.C. High School Athletic Association state 2-A football playoffs.

And with that, discord.

Whispers developed quickly into broadcast doses of innuendo and from there crystallized into a tempest of ill-shaped notions which loomed over the program.

Blame was assigned.

Hands were forced.

Ties were severed.

And had its leader not replied, and done so with a shrewd air beyond his years, the program could have remained in a siege.

So, Johnson went to work.

In the days and weeks and endless months after the season, the coach and his staff worked tirelessly to make culture out of crisis.

To make new out of noise. To make order out of oblivion.

To rise as one.

The notion permeated spring practice, then attached itself to summer workouts in the weight room. It was felt anew at mini-camp when the players ended each session with blue-and-gold pickup games, and through the dog days of opening week when up-downs were taking their toll.

As one, they weathered the storm.

"This group is really tight," Bennett said. "There's no cliques. Guys are collaborating, and a huge credit goes to our seniors.

"It's truly a unit... the way it's supposed to be."

But should problems arise again, as they are wont to do in a season which spans nearly half the school year, the Cougars will know exactly how to author a response -- together.

"It can't be done with a guy by himself," Johnson said. "And it's been fun to watch them kind of redefine the culture... we have 17 seniors, and all 17 of them have absolutely done their end of the deal."

So too has their coach.