New Coaches Greeted At James Clemens

MADISON- James Clemens High has filled the diamond vacancies within the school’s athletic program.

Johnny Johnson has been named the new head baseball coach while Brittany Vintson has taken a similar position for the softball team. Both coaches, along with new swim coach Molly Waddell, were introduced at a semi-formal event at the school.

Johnson takes over for Cory Hamrick who resigned at the end of the last school year. Johnson comes to the Jets from Fort Payne High where he was head coach for 14 years. Prior to his position with the Wildcats he coached in collegiate and professional baseball. The move from a smaller school to one of the largest in the state at James Clemens is a challenge the 42-year old is ready for.

“Ultimately baseball is baseball in all levels,” said Johnson. “We’re going to go about our business the same way I’ve always have and first of all build young men in the process, win some baseball games and I’m looking forward to the challenge and having a larger amount of athletes to choose from.”

Johnson’s style of coaching is simple: put pressure on his players and their opponents. He runs a program that is about practicing hard and putting pressure on every aspect of the sport. The point the baseball program has seen some winning seasons can be a huge advantage for the next team and having his players have that taste can success will certainly enhance his chances of being successful quickly.

Vintson comes to the Lady Jets in replacement of Travis Barnes who left the program after two seasons.

“This has been a dream to come to this city and coach as I waited for this opportunity and I jumped on it,” said Vintson, 28. “I know the future is bright for this program as they’ve had pretty good seasons the last two years and I look forward to coming in here and building off what’s coming up.”

Vintson played collegiately at Birmingham-Southern and coached at Bevill State C.C. before taking the position of head coach at Cordova High for three seasons posting two Area Championships and state final six the last two campaigns.

“I’m more of a laid back kind of coach, but I am very competitive and can be intense when needed,” said Vintson. “I want to build a team of respect and class, but at the same time determination, grit and competitiveness. I’m not scared of the challenge as if I can be successful in a small school with little resources I can absolutely do that here.”

Waddell takes the new position that was vacated after Kate Wade, who had worked at the Central Office of Madison City Schools and was the Jets’ head coach, took the position of assistant principal at Discovery Middle School.

Waddell, 24, joins James Clemens after teaching two years at McAdory Elementary School in Birmingham and was a swim coach at the Greystone YMCA. She is a registered Level 2 USA swim coach and looks forward to continue the marvelous swim results within the Jets’ program.

“With my experience in USA Swimming I worked with swimmers who went onto to Olympic Trial events and because of that I feel I know better how to set up my program here at James Clemens,” she said.

“I like to turn these kids loose and play on the edge. If you make mistakes, we’ll deal with it,” said Johnson, of his thoughts about his coaching style. “I hope to have a lot of success here and finish my career here. I hope we can build something we can be proud of and the community can rally around and be here for a while.”

“I was an all-round, multi-sport athlete and I encourage all of my players to do as much as they can away from softball,” said Vintson. “This team will compete. We will be very aggressive on the bases.”