At the turn of this decade, there wasn’t a team in Georgia that wanted to face the Cook High School Hornets.
The Cook High co-stars of Kaleb Cowart and D.J. Johnson wreaked havoc upon their competition in every phase of the game, proving to be one of the more dominant duos that South Georgia has ever seen.
Both stars were drafted into Major League Baseball straight out of high school, and Cowart immediately signed on with the Anaheim Angels as the 18th overall pick, but Johnson declined his 21st round offer to sign with the New York Mets in order to play college ball at the University of Mercer.
While Cowart continues to battle to find his place in the Majors, Johnson has taken his talent and love for the game in a different direction: coaching back in his hometown of Adel, Georgia.
Drawing upon his four years of starting experience as a second baseman and pitcher at Mercer, Johnson felt that returning home was the best path to pursue his love for baseball.
“I knew that this would be the best place that I could get a teaching and coaching job, but it was also important to me that knew most of the kids,” Johnson remembered. “They watched me play baseball when I was in high school, so I wanted to come back and give back to these kids. I knew that helping them out would mean a lot to them because they looked up to me, and I wanted to help them get to the level that I was at and beyond.”
As a hometown hero who knew what it took to play ball at the next level, Johnson’s experience and insight was immediately welcomed. He found, however, that playing and coaching are two very different things.
“Coaching is definitely more difficult than playing because I can’t do it for them,” Johnson admitted. “I never really saw the amount of stuff that coaches have to deal with, on and off the field; I developed a new respect for coaches, for sure.”
As a coach at Cook Middle School, Johnson helped to elevate the Hornets to an unprecedented level. After being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2016, the 2017 Hornets made it all the way the to the championship game, losing by one run in the final inning to Pine Grove Middle School.
But not only does he coach at the middle school and aspire to coach at the high school in a few short years, Johnson also coaches the 10-year-olds at Top Guns Academy, a local travel baseball team in Adel. The team travels across South Georgia to compete nearly every weekend during the school year, and now that it is summer, the team will expand their geographic reach as well. The travel ball program, which has existed since the time that Johnson first graduated, is now building on its success and benefitting from the physical, mental, and arm health expertise of Johnson.
Through both programs, Johnson simply wants to coach his players toward their goals.
“I am just trying to teach these kids what they need to know in order to get to the next level, whatever that is: middle school, high school, or beyond,” Johnson said. “I want to help them have an edge, so I teach them the things that I know they will need to compete at their next level.”
Having endured the expectations of excellence in high school, the rigors of being a collegiate student-athlete, and the unfortunate arm troubles late in his career, he hopes to share his wisdom from these experiences with his young players.
“I try to teach my players to just grind it out,” Johnson confidently stated. “Life’s tough. Not everything is going to go your way out on the baseball field or off of the baseball field, so always be a step ahead.”
So while his playing days may be over, D.J. Johnson has not left the game of baseball, nor does he plan to any time soon. Rather, instead of pursuing his own career as a pro, he has returned to where it all began for him and now channels his love for the game into investing into the next generation of players.
In the Game Magazine / South Georgia / June-July 2017
D.J. Johnson / Cook County High School
Giving Back to Baseball: Johnson Returns to Adel to Lead Future Hornets
Written by Cole Parker
Photo courtesy of Top Guns Academy
