November 29, 2006
Texas A&M assistant men's basketball coach Al Johnson is taking a medical leave of absence while undergoing treatment for an undetermined illness, Head Coach Billy Gillispie said Wednesday.
"Al's been out for a while trying to get a complete and comprehensive answer to what is ailing him," Gillispie said. "We are praying that he has a uick and complete recovery and will do all we can to support him."
The 29-year-old Johnson was elevated to assistant coach this fall after serving two seasons as A&M's video coordinator.
"We will miss Al tremendously while he is away, but we are fortunate to have capable people in place who can fill in adequately for him," Gillispie said. "Unfortunately, we were already one coach short because we chose not to fill a position last summer, so we may need to bring in someone sooner than we expected."
Before joining Gillispie's staff in 2004, Johnson served as an assistant coach at Bartlesville (Okla.) High School in 2003-04 and also was an assistant coach for the Dallas Mustangs AAU team. He served as an assistant at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in 2002-03 and was an assistant coach at John Marshall High School (2001-02) and at Douglass High School (1998-99) in Oklahoma City.
From 2000-02, Johnson coached Athletes First, a highly-successful AAU team in Oklahoma. Several of the players he coached have gone on to play basketball in the Big 12 Conference -- Byron Eaton and Terrel Harris (Oklahoma State), Jeremy Case and Darnell Jackson (Kansas), David Godbold and Keith Clark (Oklahoma), Wesley Johnson (Iowa State), Clent Stewart (Kansas State) and A&M's Donald Sloan and Derrick Roland.
He served as a physical education teacher at Fairview Elementary School in Oklahoma City in 2000-01, earning the school's "Teacher of the Year" award. He also served as a physical education teacher at Columbus Elementary in Oklahoma City in 1999-00.
Johnson played college basketball at Langston University, where he was named the school's "Scholar-Athlete of the Year," received the team's "Mr.Hustle" award and received a physical education degree in 1998.