West Oso ISD on Tuesday afternoon announced the hiring of Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial offensive coordinator Kenneth Johnson as the next head football coach at Corpus Christi West Oso. Coach Johnson replaces Brad Smithey, who departed to become the athletic director/head football coach at Wolfe City.

“West Oso has a history of strong athletes, so the foundation is there to be successful," said Johnson, who will start the Monday after West Oso's spring break. "There’s community and administrative support and vertically aligned feeders so it makes the job very attractive. I’m really excited to get started."

Johnson, who is a native of El Campo and a graduate of Southwest Texas State (now Texas State) University, has spent much of his career in the Houston area starting out as an assistant coach at Rosenberg Lamar Consolidated.

From there, Coach Johnson had a stint as an assistant coach at Pflugerville Connally, he was offensive coordinator at Fort Bend Bush, Aldine MacArthur and Fort Bend Willowridge. Coach Johnson paired with now Conroe Grand Oaks HC Shaun McDowell at Willowridge and from there followed McDowell to Richmond Foster where was offensive coordinator from 2013-2020.

Coach Johnson came to Corpus Christi in 2021 when he joined Ben Bitner’s staff at Corpus Christi Veterans Memorial and he’s served as the Eagles offensive coordinator the past two seasons.