Following a 10-year professional playing career, a successfulcareer at the University of Tennessee, and spending two years as anassistant coach for two Johnson City area schools, Damon Johnsonlanded with one of his mentors as an assistant coach for TornadoMen’s Basketball. A man strong in his beliefs and passionateabout Northeast Tennessee, Johnson enters his second season withthe King College men’s basketball program.
In his first season with the Tornado, Johnson aided King in aseven-game improvement from the 2010-11 season. He helped lead theTornado to a Conference Carolinas Regular Season Championship inits first year as a league member behind a stout defense thataveraged 6.8 steals per game, held its opponents to 65 or fewerpoints 11 times throughout the season, and was backed by an offensethat finished No. 1 in the country in three-point field goals pergame, averaging 11.0 per contest. After a year that put a Kingprogram into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in theCollege’s history, Johnson witnessed two players be named theAll-Conference team and one represented on the All-Southeast RegionTeam.
Johnson played professionally in Europe for ten seasons beforereturning to the United States. He began his professional careerplaying in Iceland where he was crowned Iceland League MVP inconsecutive seasons from 1997-1999 and led his team to threeIcelandic Regular Season Championships. In 2003, he guided his teamto a 2003 Icelandic Cup championship and was named to the All-Starteam twice. In addition, Johnson earned a silver medal playing withIceland in the 2002 Small Nations Olympics.
Johnson then moved on to play in the Spanish professionalleagues for Cantabria, Huelva, L’Hospitalet, Lleida, andGescrap BB. While playing in Spain, he was named to oneAll-Star team, won a league championship and was named to theSpanish All-Defensive Team in 2006. He concluded his professionalcareer playing for the Smoky Mountain Jam of the ABA in theirinaugural season in 2008-09.
Prior to going pro, Johnson played one season at Hiwassee JuniorCollege (Madisonville, Tenn.) where he was named a First TeamAll-American. He then transferred to the University of Tennesseeand played for the Volunteers from 1994-96. In his three years atUT he was a two-year starter, voted Best Team Player in 1995 andMost Versatile Player after his senior season in1996.
In 2009, he returned to Tennessee and began teaching in theJohnson City school system. Upon his return he taught at SouthDoyle High School and was the assistant coach for the boys'basketball team. He spent 2010 teaching in special educationclassrooms while serving as the seventh grade boys' basketballcoach at Indian Trail Middle School.
As a Johnson City native, he played for current Tornado headcoach, George Pitts while attending Science Hill High School from1989 to 1992. Under his tutelage, Johnson led his team to a statetitle in 1990 and a state runner-up finish in 1991 under Pitts. Histeams won the conference title all four years of his playing careerplus won three district and regional titles. He also has a place inthe Science Hill High School Hall of Fame.
Johnson graduated with bachelor’s degree in childpsychology from Tennessee in 1996 and currently resides in JohnsonCity. He has a daughter, Shydasha (18), who played for TennesseeGirls’ Basketball State Runner Up Science Hill High Schooland was named to the All-Tournament Team as a junior.
