Johnson Leaving Longhorns After 4 Years

W.T. White football coach and athletic coordinator Tony Johnson announced Tuesday he is leaving the school for a job in central Texas.

After a successful four-year tenure with the Longhorns, Johnson will become the head football coach and assistant athletic director in Copperas Cove ISD.

Johnson tallied a record of 17-25 at WTW, including postseason appearances in each of the last two years. Before that, the Longhorns hadn’t finished with a winning record in consecutive seasons since 1991 and hadn’t made the playoffs in back-to-back campaigns since 1980.

Johnson also oversaw an athletic department that has progressed in other sports, most notably basketball and soccer, and has introduced facility improvements throughout the campus.

Copperas Cove, which was a state powerhouse in the early 2000s, has struggled in recent years, enduring three straight losing seasons at the Class 6A level.

“My family is excited about this new journey and promotion for our career and we know we are leaving the Longhorn family in great hands,” Johnson tweeted.

Johnson has been well-traveled in his 30-year career, with previous head coaching stops at Maypearl and Bonham in addition to multiple schools in his native Kansas. He’s also been an assistant at Duncanville, South Grand Prairie, Cedar Hill, and at the college level.

Last year, he wrote a self-published book, Faith on the Field: The Pastoral Ministry of a Football Coach, with his son Anthony, an assistant coach at Arlington Martin.