Still Working Hard After All These Years : Community colleges: Cypress basketball Coach Don Johnson is one victory from No. 500.

Don Johnson looked relaxed as he stood on the Cypress College tennis courts on a warm morning last week. He was leading his beginning tennis class through a series of drills that ended with a long, forehand stroke.

As he swung the racquet in a slow, sweeping motion, he offered a suggestion to his students.

“We’ll be so much better off in the long run if we can relax and get a smile on our face when we play the game.”

The idea is a nice one, but one Johnson has trouble following when he assumes his more familiar role as coach of the Cypress men’s basketball team.

Johnson has excelled at the job for most of the last 23 years. His teams have won two state titles (1977 and 1980) and seven conference championships. His program has produced National Basketball Assn. players Swen Nater and Mark Eaton.

Now, Johnson is near another milestone in his impressive career. Tonight, when he prepares to walk through the door into the gym with his normal pregame frown, he will be walking closer to coaching immortality.

Johnson needs one victory to become only the second community college coach in California to reach 500. Cypress is 27-3 this season, improving Johnson’s career record to 499-208.

The Chargers, ranked second in Southern California and third in the state, won the Orange Empire Conference title for the second time in three seasons. Cypress plays host to Oxnard at 7:30 tonight in the second round of the Southern California regional playoffs.

In typical Johnson fashion, he’s less concerned about a personal milestone than about the fact that a loss would end his team’s season.

“The 500 wins, if we get it, is something to think about later,” he said. “That’s for down the road. Right now, we’re doing all we can to prevent the season from coming to an abrupt end.”

If Cypress wins tonight and Saturday in the second round of the playoffs, Johnson will become the winningest coach in the history of California community college men’s basketball.

Gene Victor is the only California community college coach to reach 500 victories. He had a record of 500-328 in his 28 seasons at Mt. San Antonio before retiring in 1987.

Such accomplishments usually give a coach a good feeling and make life easy. But not for Johnson, who is and always has been “an extreme pessimist as a coach,” according to Colette, his wife.

Speculation around Cypress that Johnson, 59, is going to retire soon brings a slight smile of relief to his face.

“It’s a question that I ask myself virtually every day,” Johnson said. “The bottom line is that when it’s time there will be a sign telling me it’s time to leave. I just hope it isn’t a stroke.”

There is a slight laugh when Johnson says “stroke,” but there also is little doubt that coaching has been physically and emotionally taxing.

“He’s about ready for a rest,” Colette said. “He has always worried and made lists so he would not forget things. That’s just how he is. He worries the whole way when he drives to and from games.”

Johnson’s concerns have kept him up nights throughout his career. And despite Cypress’ success this season, Johnson has lost sleep before several games and practices.

He was even struggling to sleep last week when Cypress had a bye in the first round of the playoffs and didn’t know what team it would play until late Saturday night.

“Don is just that way,” said Jack Long, Johnson’s assistant for the past 18 years. “He fears every team we play no matter what and takes no one lightly. He is just so complete in his approach and he is always afraid he has missed something.”

Johnson said: “It’s been a beautiful season but a long one in terms of losing sleep. I don’t know why I worry. We have good kids that work very hard and are conscientious about the game. It’s just me. I worry too much.”

Johnson’s coaching career started at El Rancho High School in 1954 after a standout career as a guard at Fullerton College and UCLA. Johnson, a 1948 graduate of El Monte High School, was an All-American at UCLA in 1952, where he played for Coach John Wooden, who was in his third year.

Johnson went into coaching after college as a effort to remain in basketball, the sport he loved. His El Rancho teams made the playoffs in six of the 12 seasons he was there.

Then in 1966, Cypress College opened and Johnson was selected as coach. As each season passed, Johnson continued to feel an internal pressure to do well.

By the 1971-72 season, he was so sick with a stomach ulcer that he decided to stop coaching.

It wasn’t the long hours of practice that bothered Johnson, but the stress of the games.

“I’ve always loved practice,” Johnson said. “I like to sit down and work out a schedule so that we are busy each minute. I’ve never found that to be the laborious task that most coaches do. That part of it is where I get the real pleasure.”

Johnson took off the 1971-72 season in an effort to improve his health. Doctors told him the main reason he was sick was because he didn’t handle stress well and kept everything inside.

Johnson was replaced by Ezra Van Horn, but when Van Horn returned to Fullerton the next season to take the coaching job there, Johnson reluctantly came back. But this time, he no longer kept his thoughts and frustrations inside. He was a much more volatile version of himself.

Johnson came back for the 1972-73 season with new assistant, Jack Long. They have been together since, and it is Long whom Johnson credits with allowing his career to last this long.

“He saved my life professionally for sure,” Johnson said. “He and the rest of my staff have taken over the day-to-day things like answering the mail and scheduling. They do a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes so that all I have to do is coach.”

Starting in 1972, Johnson slowly gained a reputation as a yeller for his loud attacks on players and officials. His verbal outbursts, clipboard throwing and chair kicking became his negative trademarks.

Winning remained his most positive trait, though. Johnson worked long hours to instill his motto, “Tough, Smart, Unselfish,” into his players.

“I didn’t become Attila the Hun overnight,” Johnson said about his reputation. “This was something that built up over the years. I’m aware of my yelling, and sometimes I say the wrong things and hurt some feelings. But Jack (Long) is always right there to repair the damage I might do. He always says the right things, and keeps the players laughing.”

Johnson has had chances to move on to coach at four-year programs, especially after winning two state titles, but never did.

“Most coaches would have quit or moved to a higher level by now,” he said. “But I’ve done neither by choice. I’m comfortable here. We have a great staff and I’ve never been ambitious to move up to a higher level of stress either.”

Vince Hizon, the most valuable player of the Orange Empire Conference this season, remembers the first team meeting he went to last season as a freshman.

The words that greeted Hizon and his teammates were simple: “Can you take criticism?” it said on the blackboard in the team room.

“At the time, I didn’t know why that was there,” Hizon said. “But after a few practices I started to realize that the coaches were very hard on us and demanded a lot. It was the only way we could get better.”

Earlier this season, Johnson was very critical of Hizon’s play, saying that he needs to take less selfish shots and play harder on defense. But now that the regular season is over, Hizon is one of the players Johnson uses as an example of the value of hard work.

“Vince came here after not playing much as a senior at Mater Dei (High School) and made himself into a basketball player through hard work and determination,” Johnson said. “For him to win the MVP (award) is such a tremendous accomplishment. It just shows what hard work can do.”

Hizon is just the latest in examples of the positive influence that Johnson has had on many careers. Neither Eaton nor Nater played in high school but both reached the NBA, thanks in part to Johnson’s coaching.

Both are still close to Johnson and work out during the summer at Cypress, helping the players currently in the program. It is this sort of a family atmosphere that keeps Johnson coaching.

“We ask a lot of our players,” Johnson said. “But they are treated very well, too. I’ve been thinking about my career and what I’m most proud of, and it’s the family of Cypress basketball. We’ve won mostly with local kids and they keep coming back to support the program and that is what’s important.”

JOHNSON’S CAREER

Don Johnson’s career record at Cypress College:

Year Wins Losses 1966-67 13 13 1967-68 20 10 1968-69 13 15 1969-70 21 8 1970-71 19 9 1971-72 Sat out 1972-73 16 16 1973-74 25 6 1974-75 20 8 1975-76 23 7 1976-77 30 1** 1977-78 26 6* 1978-79 34 2* 1979-80 31 5** 1980-81 21 14 1981-82 23 6 1982-83 16 14 1983-84 21 9 1984-85 14 12 1985-86 24 6 1986-87 18 15* 1987-88 31 6* 1988-89 13 17 1989-90 27 3* TOTAL 499 208

7 conference titles

2 state titles

*--conference title

**--conference, state title

First victory: Nov. 1966, Cypress 86, Rio Hondo 78.

100th victory: Feb. 1973, Cypress 96, UCLA JV 86.

200th victory: March 1977, Cypress 78, Santa Barbara 75.

300th victory: Dec. 1980, Cypress 74, Oxnard 66.

400th victory: Jan. 1986, Cypress 80, Golden West 68.