Dennis Johnson has been a member of the St. Bonaventure community for over 24 years serving in a variety of roles but most notably as the 14 year Head Varsity Baseball Coach. Coach J attended St. Finbar School in Burbank before moving onto St. Anthony’s Boys Home in Arizona for the beginning of his High School education. He came back to California to attend L.A. Poly High School in Sun Valley where he participated in Football and Baseball. He describes himself talent wise as “just an average player with at best an average bat and good defense (shortstop)”. He moved on to Cal State Northridge where he received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Religious Studies with a minor in Classical History. He received his Masters from Mount St. Mary’s in the field of Religious Studies.
He came to St. Bonaventure in the summer of 1984 and has served as a fulltime Religion teacher for 25 years. He was the ASB Moderator for 3 years and has run the Seraph Scrolls for the past 19 years. He has also served as Religious Department Chairperson for the past 17 years.
He began his coaching career at SBHS as the JV Head Baseball Coach before taking over the helm of the program in 1988. In his 14 years of leading the Varsity his teams reached the CIF-SS Playoffs 13 times. He guided the Seraphs to the CIFSS Semi-finals four times (all consecutive from 1998-2001). He led the team to the CIFSS Quarterfinal another two times. His career was actually bookmarked by these runs as the Seraphs reached the Quarters during his 1st two seasons of coaching and he closed his career with the 4 consecutive Semi-Final appearances. He led the Seraphs to Five Tri Valley League Championships. He retired with an overall record of 188-131-2. The 188 wins represent the most of any coach in school history in any sport. His teams were even better in league play winning at a 64% clip while providing 109 wins to his total. He was twice named TVL Coach of the Year (1989, 1994) and was named Ventura County Coach of the Year in 1999 by the LA Times and by the Ventura County Baseball Coaches Association.
Mr. J has also served the school’s athletic programs in other ways. He has been the home game announcer for Girls Volleyball and Girls Basketball for the past 22 years; Boys Basketball the past 9 years; Varsity Baseball for the past 5 years and to top it off when the school started a Boys Volleyball program last spring, Mr. J was behind the microphone. In addition, he did the layout and Desktop Publishing of the Fall, Winter and Spring Sports books from 1988-2001 and has done the photography for the Sports Books from 1988 to the present.
Coach J list his highlights as too many to mention in the three areas of coaching, announcing and the sports books; but overall the major highlight is the honor and privilege of working with young people, both as an educator and as a coach. Any success I may have achieved is due to the efforts of these young student-athletes with whom I have been blessed to work. I could add that I particularly cherish the memory of the many players of seemingly average physical talents who never gave up on themselves, stayed positive, worked hard and excelled through sheer determination. I also wish to express my appreciation to the many parents, my fellow staff members and the assistant coaches who have aided me over the years in my various endeavors with athletics here at Saint Bonaventure. During the 2010 season, Coach Johnson was honored by having his uniform # 22 retired by the Seraph program. The first time that this honor has been bestowed upon a member of the baseball program.
Mr. Johnson has two sons and daughters-in-law and has four grandchildren
INDUCTED IN 2008.
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