Cribb likes direction of Johnsonville athletics program
Ken Cribb is the Johnsonville high school’s athletic director and also is the head football coach.
By David Shelton
Senior Writer
Johnsonville – Johnsonville High’s athletic success is well-known among Class A schools in South Carolina.
Not every team can win a state championship but being competitive in the region and getting a playoff opportunity is a good measure of success.
Johnsonville has long been an athletic program that competes well. There have state champions in various sports and nearly every varsity team at Johnsonville is in the mix from year-to-year.
Ken Cribb is the school’s athletic director and also is the head football coach. His own football program won Lower State championships in 2022 and 2023 before losing in the state championship game in each season.
Cribb came to Johnsonville in the 2018-19 school year, inheriting a football program that had struggled to post wins for several seasons. His first two seasons netted just four total wins. But the Flashes have become a strong program, winning 39 games over the last seven years with the seasons of 2020 and 2021 cut short due to Covid-19.
While football is obviously a major focus of Cribb, being the athletic director is something he takes seriously. His goal is for every team to get rewarded for their hard work and commitment.
“I thought we had a good year last year and we are looking to build on that,” Cribb said. “Our kids work hard. They take athletics seriously. A lot of them play more than one sport and some play three sports. They love to compete. Our community is very supportive also. The people here want to see our kids do well.”
In a perfect world, every athletic team would have the very best facilities, the best uniforms, the best culture. Cribb says Johnsonville is solid in every area and says the coaching staff at the school takes full advantage of what they have instead of complaining about what they don’t have.
“Our coaches do a good job working with what they have,” Cribb said. “We try to give them what they lead to be competitive and successful. Some of our coaches coach more than one sport so they are very dedicated to doing right by the kids.
“Our coaches are good role models. We stress that it’s more than just wins and losses. We want to win but we want to build character is our athletes. It’s more important they leave here ready to contribute to our community. Working hard in sports, being a part of a team, helps to develop that in our athletes.”
Avoiding major turnover in the coaching ranks is vital to building a strong athletic program. Johnsonville may have coaches leave occasionally but most stay and build. The only new varsity coaches on the staff this year are in cheerleading where Shanda Poston and Paige Hayes will team up as the coaches.
Walter Clark is expected back as the head softball coach with Sally Coker being a key assistant. Coker also assists in volleyball with head coach Latima Hannah.
Casey Geter is the boys basketball coach and works with the track team in the spring. Carson Carroll is the head baseball coach and a football assistant coach.
Jakob Marlowe and Joedy Cook assist with the football team while Peyton Hill assists in football, basketball and baseball.
Kacey Lambert heads up cross country and girls track while Brian Welch coaches girls tennis in the fall and boys golf in the spring. Former boys basketball coach Harris Avant, though retired, does assist with the football program as the b-team head coach. MD Coleman also is a football assistant.
