Former Branham football coach Stephen Johnson takes over at Westmont

CAMPBELL — Former Branham football coach Stephen Johnson is the new head coach at Westmont, he told the Bay Area News Group.

Johnson coached Branham for seven seasons before stepping down after the Bruins’ 2024 campaign. He said at the time that he was looking to focus on his personal life before getting back into coaching.

He joined Westmont’s coaching staff in August and served as the Warriors’ tight ends coach. With longtime coach Mark Kaanapu stepping down after 12 seasons, Johnson has been tabbed as Westmont’s next head man. 

“This was a place where I almost felt like I was not wanted, but actually needed there,” Johnson told this news organization. “After the (last) game, a couple of kids came up to me and they’re like, ‘Coach,  I’m really glad you coached here this year. I really hope you come back. I’m not going to play next year if you’re not here next year.’  I never had kids say that to me all my years as an assistant and as a head coach at Branham. These kids were genuinely happy to have me out.”

The feeling was mutual. Johnson credited Kaanapu with leaving the program in a good place, with Johnson noting the alignment with Westmont’s administration as a key reason for taking the job.

“For being a very new guy on campus, I feel supported,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of weird stepping on a campus and three of the last head football coaches still work there. To some people, that may be a deterrent, or maybe there’s some unforeseen animosity. But I feel like in the conversations I’ve had with (Eric) Buran and Tony (Santos) and Kaanapu, these guys have my back and they’re fully supporting, which feels great.”

Kaanapu told the Bay Area News Group that while he did not want to step down as Westmont’s coach, the timing was right for his life to move in a different direction.

“I’m getting close to retirement, and as we get older, there’s a lot of life situations that come up,” Kaanapu said. “Nothing health-wise. It’s just that my family is getting to that older age, and I can see some things coming up on the horizon. 

“I’m going to be able to coach for a lot longer as an assistant, maybe go back. But for right now, the best thing for the program and for the kids was to go ahead and say, ‘Hey, I got to do something that I really don’t want to do, but that’s what men do.’”

Johnson will now try to duplicate what he did at Branham. During his tenure with the Bruins, he brought Branham from the Blossom Valley Athletic League’s Santa Teresa-Valley Division to the Santa Teresa-Foothill and eventually up to the Mt. Hamilton, the top league, in his final season in charge. 

Westmont currently sits in the middle tier and has not been in the Mt. Hamilton since 2018. But Johnson sees reasons to believe.

“I really see Westmont as a hidden gold mine,” Johnson said. “I tell a lot of my friends, ‘There’s some big kids there, man. Some really big kids, some athletic kids walking the hallways. They don’t even play football.’ I’m subbing on the (FFA) farm, talking to some of these kids. I’m subbing PE. I’m like, ‘Yo, you’re big. Oh, wow, you’re really athletic. Like, you’re grabbing the rim and you’re on the basketball court, you’re a freshman. Why the heck aren’t you playing football?’

“So I’m just looking around these first few months. I’m like, ‘Oh man, we have something special here.’ I really feel like if I can get these guys to come out and play football, we can do some damage here next season.”