Boys varsity basketball coach Quaran Johnson is back at Granada high school for the 2025-26 season after a year-long break from the court. Johnson has been at GHS for a total of 11 years, and been the varsity coach for seven. His absence was due to the birth of his daughter in December of 2023.
“My daughter was born on a good run. Actually, it was the best team record-wise that I’ve ever had. We went deep into the playoffs, but that was a lot on my family dynamic,” said Johnson.
“I had two boys who were coming up in their grades; my eldest son is now a freshman and my youngest son is now a sixth grader. They were going through a lot of changes in their lives, and with the baby it was just time to take a break, reset, and get some things together, but now I’m back.”
Coach Q has an extensive background of basketball experience himself. Originally from Philadelphia, he played throughout high school and Junior College, including two seasons at Ohlone College in Fremont, California, and finished up his intercollegiate career at the Metropolitan State University of Denver.
“For a while I was going after a professional career,” explained Johnson, “and once I decided to stop playing basketball it left a void in my life. This sport has been my entire world since before I can remember and all I wanted to do was play, so once it was suddenly over there was a big gap in my schedule and my life.”
This, along with support from previous coaches, helped Johnson find his passion and eventually find his way to becoming ‘Coach Q.’
“As a kid I was always a captain and a leader; point guard, actually, meaning I was always in that kind of leadership role. I had a few coaches tell me I would make a good coach one day, so when my career ended I got into it so I could stay involved with the game. That blossomed into small group training that eventually led to coaching teams for recreational and community leagues. That went to middle school, middle school went to high school, and the rest is history,” recalled Johnson.
During Johnson’s temporary leave, his good friend Marcelus Clay assumed the role of head boys varsity coach. Also having played collegiately in the Bay area, coincidentally at Ohlone College as well, Clay had vast experience with the sport. He was the boys freshman coach the season prior, and luckily was able to hold down the fort until Coach Q returned.
“Last year the guys were young and a lot of them didn’t have very much varsity experience, but even with that they still almost made the playoffs,” expressed Johnson, “they were all just trying to figure it out as they went. To be just one or two games shy of the playoffs even with that, I thought they did an amazing job.”
However, Coach Q has his sights set on this upcoming season.
“I think we have a lot of potential. We have some intriguing guys so I’m interested to see how they’ll handle themselves when faced with the challenges of playing at a higher level.”
While open gyms have been up and running for eager students to get more practice before the start of the season, tryouts won’t officially begin until November 3, 2025. The schedule will consist of around six days a week, roughly between 4-6 PM for JV, 5-7 PM for Var, and 8-9:30 for the freshies. Although tryouts haven’t yet started, Johnson’s already got a good idea of how the team is going to look.
“We have a really fun group. They enjoy playing with each other and bonding, so it’ll be interesting to see how they come together during the season.”
Johnson reflected on his previous years coaching at Granada in comparison to this upcoming one.
“I’m more knowledgeable than I was previously,” voiced Johnson optimistically, “having a year to step back and observe the game from a different perspective has given me the opportunity to think about things I could do better.”
With his own bit of personal growth, Coach Q was able to come back better than ever and more than ready to take the bull by the horns. He further explained the balance of young and older guys on the team, and the benefits he believes this will bring to how his group performs this season.
“I’m looking forward to those guys gelling together and making it more of a team effort. They have a little bit more seniority and leadership and a little more of an understanding; if they can be great leaders and guide those younger guys and teach them the way, I’m hoping that that’ll get us to a level where we can compete for a playoff spot this year.”
Despite how amazing it would be to return to the playoffs, Coach Q claimed his main goals revolve around improvement and growth.
“My main goal is to just get better. I want to win, obviously, we want to win a league title, we want to win a state title, we want to go do all of those things. However, I think if our focus is just on improving as a team every day, then everything else will take care of itself.”
