CEDAR BLUFF – The Cedar Bluff boys basketball program is turning to a familiar face to lead it once again.

Johnny Amison, a longtime assistant under former coach Joe Carpenter, is returning to guide his alma mater as head coach. Amison was approved Monday morning by the Cherokee County Board of Education to replace Nathan Wehunt as head boys coach. Wehunt resigned at the end of the school year following a 12-14 season.

Amison, a 2000 Cedar Bluff graduate, played college basketball at Snead State for a year and at Jacksonville State for three. He spent 13 seasons as an assistant with both the Tiger boys and girls basketball programs until he was hired at Gaston in July of 2020.

While at Cedar Bluff as an assistant under Carpenter, Amison helped the Tiger boys earn back-to-back Class 1A state tournament appearances in 2011 and 2012. He also helped the Lady Tigers earn a spot in the Final Four in 2013.

Amison becomes the first Black head coach in the program’s history.

“Just to be able to come back home and be the head guy and give back to the kids, and teach them some of the things and the ways I was taught, I really don’t know what to say. I’m happy and I’m ready to do it,” Amison said.

“The (Cedar Bluff) kids were a big part of my decision to come back home. This senior group was a group I had since they were little – Bucky Leek, Dylan Kinard, Kade Browning – I had all of them since they were kids. I know them really well. That’s a good group. I missed those guys, so it’ll be good to get back with them.”

Though he’s glad to be back home, Amison said it was a tough decision for him to leave Gaston, where he was the Bulldog head coach the past two seasons. The rebuilding Bulldogs had just eight wins combined in those two seasons.

Amison thanked Gaston principal Tammy George, assistant principal Richard Tant, and Etowah County Schools Superintendent Dr. Alan Cosby for giving him the opportunity to become a head coach.

“They took a chance on me,” Amison said. “I’d never been a head coach before. They gave me an opportunity and they were great. The administration always had my back. I never had any problems with anything. If I needed something, they were there. If I wanted to try and do something a little different, they were always supportive. They were always like ‘Coach, it’s your program. Run it however you want to run it.’

“It was hard to tell them I was leaving. I thought about it for a while, but when you get the opportunity to come back home, it’s hard to pass that up. I made a lot of good friends at Gaston. I will always be grateful to the people there, to the other teachers there, to the other coaches. I had a good time there and it was a good experience. I appreciate all of them for that.”

Amison credits Carpenter for him being a head coach today. He also credits new Cedar Bluff principal Torey McDaniel for taking care of the Tigers during the off-season.

“(Carpenter) was a big mentor to me,” Amison said. “He taught me just about everything I know about coaching. Watching him, how he did things, things to do, things not to do, I learned a lot of that from him.

“The good thing about what he did when I was coaching with him is he let me coach. He let learn how to do certain things, the things behind the scenes that the normal person really doesn’t know that goes on that you have to do as a head coach. He showed me how to do all that stuff and trusted me with a lot of different things. I learned a lot just by him letting me work.”

Amison and McDaniel, who is also a Cedar Bluff native, used to live together while in college.

“Me and Mr. McDaniel go way back. He’s two years older than me,” Amison said. “He did a great job with them this summer. He coached them, and they did really well this summer. I actually got to see a couple of their games and some play dates they had, see how much they’ve matured.”

With most of summer now over, Amison knows he’s got some catching up to do, but he feels ready for the challenge the upcoming basketball season brings.

“It’s going to be tough coming in late, but when you’ve got a mature, senior-led group like them, they’ll make it easy on me,” Amison said. “One of them called me today. He told me he was happy I was coming back and was ready to get to work. That was the first thing he said to me.

“It’s just good to get back with your family.”