Reins of Whitefield program handed to former rival coach

 Adam Carrington  Mar 31, 2017

After 15 seasons at the helm of Whitefield Academy’s boys basketball team, building it into a perennial Class A power, Tyrone Johnson, left, gave way to one of the men he often coached against, former Southwest Christian coach Courtney Brooks.

Former Tech and NBA star Mark Price resigned in 2001, following his lone season as Whitefield Academy’s boy’s basketball coach, and said he was “turning over the program to more than capable hands.”

Price was referring to the newly hired Tyrone Johnson. And for most of his 15 seasons at the helm, Johnson and the Wolfpack were constant state playoff contenders, with three state championships to show for, along with five runner-up finishes, four semifinal appearances and three trips to the quarterfinals.

Following 369 victories at Whitefield, Johnson announced Friday that he would be stepping down to concentrate on his administrative duties at the school.

Like Price 16 years before, Johnson did not want to walk away until he knew the program was left in capable hands, and those came from Courtney Brooks. The former coach at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy — often a postseason rival of Whitefield’s — will succeed Johnson as coach.

“The Wolfpack is thrilled to bring Coach Brooks on board,” Whitefield athletic director Danny Ryan said in a release. “Coach Johnson would not step away from coaching our varsity boys until he knew the right replacement was available. Courtney Brooks is absolutely hand-picked by him.”

Whitefield will lean on Brooks, who led Southwest Atlanta Christian to two state championships and two runner-up finishes, along with two state semifinal and two state quarterfinal appearances from 2001-08.

Among Brooks’ standouts at Southwest Atlanta Christian were current Atlanta Hawks center and former standout Javaris Crittenton.

“The people who have not been around Whitefield the last 15 years don’t understand how intense our rivalry was,” Johnson said. “We battled SACA pretty hard, and I never bonded with someone as well as I did with Courtney, considering we battled each other in intense fashion. It was a relationship forged by competition.

“Courtney is a special individual. He’s God-gifted in many ways and is also a Godly man.” Whitefield beat Southwest Atlanta Christian for the 2003 state title before the Warriors avenged the loss a year later, in Howard’s senior season. Southwest Atlanta Christian also beat Whitefield in the 2006 championship, led by Crittenton.

After leaving Southwest Atlanta Christian in 2008, Brooks spent one season as a college assistant at Charleston Southern before returning to the high school ranks for five seasons as the head coach at Banneker.

Before taking the Whitefield position, Brooks had served an assistant at Tri-Cities, while working with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Now, Brooks is eager to start a new chapter as Whitefield’s head coach.

“It’s a big-time blessing to do something you love and enjoy doing, and to do it at a program like a Whitefield, where coach Johnson does a tremendous job,” Brooks said. “I was yearning to be a head coach again. I feel like I still have something to offer to the game and God opened an opportunity for me at Whitefield.”

Brooks will inherit a group graduating three seniors, including guard and leading scorer Isaiah Hart. He plans to instill a triangle offense designed to get all five players on the court at one time involved offensively.

Brooks also said he will lean toward a mid-tempo style of play and push the ball in transition when needed.

“We want to continue with the Whitefield tradition,” Brooks said. “We want to compete for region championships and make runs deep in playoffs.”