Braves' football coach moves on

Country star Johnny Lee sings about looking for love in all the wrong places.

Not so for the La Conner High head football coach of the same name.

Braves mentor Johnny Lee has loved his six-year run on the local campus, a stint most agree has been a case of him being the right man in the right place at the right time.

Which has made it all the more difficult for coach Lee, 33, to accept a teaching post with the Sedro-Woolley School District starting next fall.

“It’s very hard to leave,” Lee, who guided the Braves to five straight State playoff berths, said. It’s equally hard, he said, “to have that conversation with the players.”

Lee, who resides in Mount Vernon with his wife, Lisa, and two children, 11-year-old Jadyn and 3-year-old Lincoln, will teach strength and weight training at 2A Sedro-Woolley.

“I told the kids that this isn’t a lateral coaching career move and that it doesn’t have anything to do with them,” Lee said. “I told them that at this stage of my life, I’m not looking at the responsibility of being a head coach. And with two young children and Jadyn getting involved in sports, that this boils down to a move that’s in the best interests of my family.

“It will cut down on my commute time,” he added, “and is better financially. Sedro-Woolley is doing some really progressive things academically, and I’ll be teaching in one specific area and not have the stress that comes with being a head coach.”

Lee said he would be open to filling a coaching staff role at Sedro-Woolley, preferably in football or track, should the opportunity arise.

Lee compiled a 50-19 mark at La Conner, bringing a string of post-season berths to a program that had gone without a league title for a dozen years.

His La Conner teams were noted for playing physical, error-free football while sporting multiple looks on offense and well-disguised situational defensive schemes.

The 2012 Braves advanced to the State semifinals at the Tacoma Dome. La Conner might have been even stronger the next year but had the misfortune of drawing perennial powerhouse Morton-White Pass in an earlier playoff round.

For Lee, though, the measure of success from 2010 forward has gone well beyond La Conner’s won-loss record.

He takes pride in the fact La Conner High during his tenure was the first football program in the state to equip all its players with special impact sensor helmets, and that the school district has developed in the past year a state-of-the-art fitness center designed to benefit all students, not just varsity athletes.

Lee has taken as much pride in his teaching as his coaching, noting that the two are intertwined. He has taught phys ed, health, college readiness, sports medicine, and sports journalism at La Conner, investing hours in research and curriculum development in each area.

He likewise did his homework when it came to building a football title contender from the ground up.

“I had two major goals when I came here,” said Lee. “One was that I wanted to help develop young kids into young men — well beyond football. Football was an avenue for teaching morals and values, and I think what we accomplished on the field reflects that.

“The other goal I had,” he said, “is that I didn’t want to coach a football team. I wanted to coach a football program.”

His efforts in that regard haven’t gone unnoticed — by fans, players, or colleagues.

“Johnny,” said Braves offensive coordinator Peter Voorhees, “did a tremendous job building a winning culture here.”

That and a strong returning senior class will benefit Lee’s successor. La Conner players are already prepping for summer seven-on-seven workouts and a team camp on the Oregon Coast.

“I’m leaving with seriously mixed feelings,” Lee stressed. “I will always be in love with the sport of football, but I need to be a dad, too. Maybe when our kids are a little older there’ll be another opportunity to be a head coach.”