DIVERSIFYING THE SIDELINES: W&L tries to change the game by hiring more coaches of color

Story and photos by Stef Chiguluri | Design by Catherine Xia

It’s six a.m. and Jimmie Mack Johnson III is up and energized. A ball of motivation, the Washington and Lee University assistant football coach bounds across the gym, fist-bumps every player and smiles ear to ear. “Be great,” he said. It’s Johnson’s mantra. He pushes everyone around him, and himself. “Be great. Just be great.”

Johnson said he understands that he is making a difference as a young black man in an athletic leadership role at a predominantly white school. “I’m just trying to change the world, whether that’s in my bubble or in the broadest sense, because I feel like I have a responsibility to do that,” he said.

Johnson attended W&L from 2016 to 2020. He was a member of both the football and track and field teams. He was searching for internships in sports after graduating, when a coaching spot opened up on W&L’s football team.

Assistant Coach Bobby Jones said the football department had to fill three of six slots. Jones said it was especially important to hire diverse staff after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020.

“We knew that staff representation was something that was crucially important,” Jones said. “There were a lot of experiences that a lot of our players were going to go through, or going to have, that we just couldn’t relate to, given our privilege as white men.”

In a matter of a couple months, W&L’s football program became the most diverse coaching staff at the university. It has three men of color: Johnson and two other new assistant coaches, Bryce PerryMartin and Vaughn Johnson. Jimmie Johnson and Vaughn Johnson, who are not related, are the only two black coaches out of 61 for all sports at W&L.

For decades, W&L has struggled to improve the diversity of its student body, faculty and staff. The university’s admissions office has scored some gains in recruiting. But the school also is focusing on keeping students of color after they’ve been admitted. Athletics is a big part of the effort.

In the 2020-2021 school year, Tamara Futrell, dean of diversity, inclusion and student engagement, created the Office of Inclusion and Engagement Steering Committee. Each area of campus life was represented on the steering committee. Athletics then formed a subcommittee to assess the state of DEI in sports.

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11 Black Football Players Out

OF 92 going to go through here, whether it be good, bad, or indifferent. And at the end of the day, we’re going to be there for them. I think this is incredibly huge.”

The athletics subcommittee came up with action items that included creation of a full-fledged DEI committee for athletics. Johnson is one of the football team’s assistant coach representatives.

He also serves as faculty adviser for the Perry Minority Athlete Coalition, a group created in November 2020 by studentathletes of color who wanted to create a space to support one another. And he’s the co-founder of the Black Male Initiative, a community organization focused on leadership development and community engagement with black male undergraduate and law students.

Athletics Director Jan Hathorn is emphasizing such efforts. “I’d like to see more black men and women in leadership roles and coaching roles on our campus and in this department. And that will be a focus,” she said.

Professional football is dominated by black athletes: 57.5% of National Football League players are black, compared to 24.9% who are white, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport’s 2021 racial and gender report card.

At W&L, there are 11 black football players on a 92-person roster. Johnson was the only black player on the team during his first year of college in 2016.

“The school is changing in a positive way and I’m liking that, and I’m glad to be part of that change as well,” said first-year linebacker Uno Christopher.

Football Head Coach Garrett LeRose said there is value in a diverse coaching staff. “When you are able to have more diversity in your coaching staff, it gives students the ability to have more candid spaces,” he said.

First-year running back and punt returner Jacob Romero said families need to be part of the equation. “It’s really important that not just our relationship is perfect,” he said. “Because you want your parents and coaches to have the same relationship you have with the coaches.”

Eleni Filley, a senior track player who was also a former teammate of Johnson’s, said W&L needed to hire Johnson to stay after he graduated.

First-year linebacker Jalen Todd said his high school coaches were all white. “Even if they said I could really come talk to them, it never really was like I could truly open up to them and just have a true conversation with them,” Todd said.

Johnson has become a source of comfort for young black men on the football team and their families.

“You know, we’re recruiting a young black man, and to be able to talk with his parents and be like, hey, we’re going to take care of them,” Johnson said. “I know what they’re

“How explicit am I going to be? I mean our school’s name is Washington and Lee,” she said. “I think for very obvious reasons having another person of color in administration and in athletics is huge.”

The seemingly smallest things matter to make people feel welcome. The Black Male Initiative brings a barber to campus every month for “Cuts on Campus.” Lexington doesn’t have barbers for black men, and Johnson said the event brings the young men together.

Johnson and Jones—both members on the Athletics DEI committee— want to begin an official partnership between the football team and BMI next year.

“When you’re in a space where people may not look like you, you know, it may be intimidating. It may make you shy, may make you feel like you’re not supposed to be in that space. And that’s not true at all,” Johnson said. “It’s reminding people that they are in that space for a reason.”