Morenci's Kay Johnson earns 1,000th victory

MORENCI — Hall of Fame coach Kay Johnson added another milestone to her remarkable career Monday when her Morenci softball team beat East Jackson 8-5 for coaching victory No. 1,000.

“It’s just another number,” Johnson said. “It’s pretty nice that I was able to make it. It makes me think about all the players who have contributed to those wins.”

Johnson has coached two and sometimes three generations of Bulldogs since becoming Morenci’s softball coach in 1973. The winning pitcher in Monday’s game, Addyson Valentine, is a third-generation player.

“That means she comes from a softball family,” Johnson said. “I’ve coached daughters and now granddaughters.”

Valentine is one of three girls on the present Morenci softball roster that Johnson coached their mothers. The others are Evelyn Joughin and Callie VanBrandt.

Ashley Joughin, Evelyn’s mom and Morenci basketball coach, played for Johnson in high school. She said Johnson has always had a unique way of connecting to the girls on her team, whether that was 50 years ago or this year.

“Kay has been the single-most influential mentor to me as a student, player, educator and coach,” Joughin said. “I still regularly seek her advice on so many things because anything I have questions on, she's likely been there, done that. I am so thankful that she is still around to coach my daughter because I know she will be better off in life having crossed her path and learned from the best.”

Morenci assistant coach Renae Schaffner has been a big part of hundreds of those victories, as a player and a coach.

“I’d say maybe 800 of them,” Johnson said. “She was probably on the team for about 100 of them and she’s coached with me a long time.”

Johnson, who graduated from Whitmer High School in Toledo and Adrian College, has seen numerous changes in the game since becoming Morenci’s coach the year Title IX went into effect.

“That first season we were 1-3,” she said. “We didn’t play many games.”

She has coached Morenci’s softball team to 25 district titles, 11 league championships, nine regional titles and two Class C state championships – 1985 and 1986. Schaffner played on both of those teams.

Through the years she has coached as many as four sports at Morenci. In the spring of 1976, Johnson coached Morenci to a league championship in softball and the Class D track and field state championship.

Kris Hubbard has coached against Johnson since the early 1970s and the two are great friends. Next month both will be inducted into the National High School Coaches Hall of Fame at a ceremony in North Dakota. Hubbard said Johnson’s compassion for her student athletes is one of the things that sets her apart as a coach.

“She’s in it for the right reasons,” Hubbard said. “She always has been. She’s a teacher. She lets her kids have fun and keeps them engaged.”

The Michigan High School Athletic Association website lists 10 other coaches in state history with 1,000 softball coaching wins. Johnson said prior to the start of the season she takes every season year-by-year but has no intention of not returning to coaching.

“As long as I can be out there, I will,” she said.

Johnson came into the season with 988 wins. The Bulldogs swept East Jackson, 8-5 and 11-9.

Monday’s first game was No. 1,000. Valentine, who struck out five, had three hits, including an RBI double. Rowan Shaffer added a two-run single.

After the game, Johnson was doused with cheers and silly string. Fans came with signs and T-shirts commemorating 1,000 wins were passed out. The umpire presented Johnson with the game ball.

Morenci is now 13-13 on the season.

“We’ve had an up and down season,” Johnson said.  “We got a late start due to basketball. We’re not young, but we were inexperienced coming into the season. None of our girls play travel ball, so a lot of them just picked up the bat. There are still some situations that we haven’t practiced, but I think we’ve settled in.”

Morenci has six games this week on the schedule, four next week, then the state tournament begins.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Morenci's Kay Johnson gets 1,000th softball win