Early Monday morning I received the awful news of Chris Johnson’s death from Michael Minnich, an editor at the Exponent Telegram in Clarksburg.
Minnich received a call from Chris’ wife, informing him that he suffered a heart attack and died over the weekend.
I’m not sure where to start.
Chris was the backbone of the West Virginia Sports Writers Association and acted selflessly in numerous ways. He advocated and stood up for hundreds of kids he had never met, nor did many of them have any idea of who he was.
When I started at the Register Herald in 2017, I represented the Beckley-Bluefield area in the football all-state meeting. Chris, who served as the all-state chairman for football, girls basketball and boys basketball at the time, was incredibly welcoming to a rookie sports writer.
When I walked into that first meeting on the morning of Dec. 1, 2017 Sean McNamara, who was working for our sister paper in Fairmont, and Chris Johnson, were the first people to greet me and introduce themselves. Despite the warnings I that these all-state meetings could get testy, those introductions were a reassurance we were all on the same page and actively working toward the same goal, even if we saw it differently.
It was at the girls basketball state tournament where I really got to know Chris. Spend four days covering over 20 games and you get to know somebody. It was the first glimpse into who he was. He had recently left the sports writing business in favor of a public relations job for a plumbing company. I asked why he did it.
To a 23-year-old, getting paid to cover sports for a living was the life. But there are drawbacks which led to his exit.
Chris loved his family, including his dog Oliver who he couldn’t wait to see after a long week in Charleston. In the newspaper business you’re working most evenings when regular people are getting off work. Married with a daughter, Chris recalled a conversation with his daughter after a fun weekend. They both acknowledged they enjoyed it and she said, “Well, I’ll see you next weekend.”
It hit him hard, so he found his exit. But despite no obligation to do so, Chris carried on as the chairman of three all-state committees and for those unaware it’s difficult to do just one. The job requires getting ballots to every head coach and WVSWA member in the state and tallying those results while adding stats.
I chaired softball from 2021-25 and each year the job took around 24 hours in total. All volunteer work. He did boys and girls basketball in back-to-back weeks for years. I don’t know how he did it.
When the plumbing company was sold to somebody else, Chris was out of work and still made the annual trips to Wheeling or Charleston on his own dime to fulfill his all-state obligations and provide coverage.
He was always the voice of reason in those all-state meeting keeping us on track. I lost count of how many times he’d say something to the effect of, “Hey, this kid from Montcalm has gotten a lot of votes which doesn’t usually happen, we should probably make sure not to forget them.”
Over the course of his career he advocated for thousands of kids that will never know who he was or what he did for them but he did it anyway because that’s who he was. He did his due diligence to provide proper context in those discussions, occasionally mentioning that multiple coaches who had coached historically great players went out of their way to put a kid from a two-win team on their ballot.
He was a champion of female athletics and sports such as swimming that don’t get the same notoriety as others.
When Gabby Lupardus and Hannah McClung were the co-winners of the Mary Ostrowski Award, he made sure that I was able to introduce Gabby at the Victory Awards Dinner that year.
This job is a dream and part of that is because of the relationships you form. Covering the basketball state tournaments each year was exciting in part because the event is spectacular but also because you get to see your fraternal brethren who share many of your experiences. Chris was one of the highlights of any state tournament event for fellow sports writers.
He was what we should all aspire to be – universally respected because of what he did and how he handled himself. When we held the 2024 football all-state meeting and got to the triple-A portion, he opened by saying, “I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Bridgeport probably has six first team all-state players.” That statement held weight because of the years of correspondence with Chris when he didn’t feel as though his area had players that merited certain honors.
His consistent actions provided credibility.
Bridgeport proved him right, something it did a lot of throughout the 2024-25 school year. He spent his final few years covering the Indians for Connect Bridgeport and enjoyed it. It’s almost poetic that the Indians were the standard last year, winning titles in volleyball, football and boys basketball. I’m glad he had that experience, though I’m sad it was his last.
His death leaves a massive hole in the fabric of high school sports across the state – one that can’t be replicated.
The state lost an icon and a selfless advocate.
Independence holds strong
My prediction on Independence-Bluefield held with Indy pulling away late but the game didn’t play out the way I thought it would.
Bluefield’s passing attack held up well and I thought its offensive line was undaunted by Independence’s pass rush (I had Indy picking up just one sack). What hurt Bluefield was its lack of execution. Often the QB and receivers weren’t on the same page.
The Beaver offense was also ineffective in the red zone, held to just 1.6 yards per play inside the 20, coming away with just three points in four trips.
I felt the personnel reflected as much, but the Patriots have a championship defense that picks up the slack when the offense stalls.
Going back to the Hoover game the defense held the Huskies to just seven points in the second half, giving the offense the chance it needed to match that total and win.
On Friday two separate Independence fumbles recovered by Bluefield set the Beavers up in the red zone. They came away with just three points. Those positions are hell for a defense, yet they held over and over again. It’s the ultimate equalizer when you have a unit that can execute repeatedly under those types of situations.
This isn’t to say Independence’s offense is bad. It’s very good. The defense is just playing on another level right now. I thought they’d win this one by pressuring Bluefield QB Max Simpson all night long, but they proved yet again they can beat you in numerous ways.
They can pressure you, they can bend but not break and they can generate turnovers. It’s so hard to beat a team that’s comfortable playing and winning any style of game.
On the other side of the ball, Sylas Nelson did his best to remind every one why he’s in the thick of the Warner Award conversation. Before Bluefield could blink the senior all-state running back found the end zone twice. Indy head coach John H. Lilly has been adamant that despite their success in the passing game, the Patriots are a single-back run-favoring offense. That was on display Friday.
It was obvious Bluefield committed to stopping the passing attack before the run game. Unfortunately for the Beavers, Independence’s RPO style offense is comfortable letting opponents pick its poison. It’s as simple as counting box numbers pre-snap to one side or the other and letting the sum dictate the play. Bluefield elected to put six in the box on the first drive so Sylas Nelson utilized the six blockers in front of him for runs of 13, 4 and 32 yards for a quick six. The exception was the 32-yard touchdown run, one where the Patriots utilized a pulling tackle to redo the math.
It’s a deadly combination when paired with a tempo offense that doesn’t give a defense much time, if any, to change its structure from snap to snap.
It’s optimized to take advantage of what the defense shows no matter what.
I do believe we’ll see this game again and both teams will feel good about what happened.
Independence will point to an unlikely fourth-and-18 touchdown pass allowed and the fact two turnovers gave the Beavers the ball in the red zone.
Bluefield will likely focus on its failures in the red zone and short yardage situations and lack of execution and devise a plan of attack as a result. I believe it all comes out in the wash.
In a game where the quarterbacks were anticipated to be the headliners, the defense and running game of Independence stole the show.
The Willis Wilson injury
Bluefield running back and linebacker Willis Wilson broke his leg in the loss to Independence and there were tense emotions on both sides.
I don’t believe the player that collided with Wilson meant to hurt him. I do understand the frustration and anger coming from the Bluefield side which boiled over into a social media war. Wilson had other area suitors seeking his services this past offseason but the Beavers were able to retain him.
He put in the work to help turn the program around, an effort that’s clearly paid off through five games. He was the leading rusher on last year’s team but missed the two playoff games because of an ankle injury sustained in the regular season finale.
Now he’ll miss what figures to be an even deeper playoff run for the Beavers with a more devastating injury. It’s a tough situation for a very talented player.
I don’t think it knocks Bluefield from contender status but forces it to find a steady replacement at linebacker and lean on Jeremiah Jones at running back instead of platooning as much to keep both fresh.
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