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(Photo courtesy: Samantha Clemens, The Spectrum)SALT LAKE CITY — Terry "Teko" Johnson, 41, who was hired earlier this year to be the new Cottonwood High football coach passed away Wednesday morning in an Atlantic City hotel room. The cause of death has not been determined yet.
According to Cottonwood assistant coach Ron Halbert, Johnson was on vacation in Atlantic City with his family. Sometime during the night he got up to use the bathroom, and Wednesday morning his wife woke up to find him passed away on the bathroom floor.
Atlantic City Public Information offer Monica McMenamin was not immediately available for comment. But other reports indicated that the department couldn't comment on the matter until Thursday.
"It's sad because we lost a good man, a good citizen, a good coach. I know the kids really bonded with him quite a bit in the times he's been here," said Halbert.
Johnson, 41, was hired as Cottonwood's head coach in January to replace Cecil Thomas who took an assistant coaching job at Weber State.
He was Mountain View's head coach from 2007 to 2009. Prior to that, he spent 12 years as a head coach at one school in New York and two schools in Pennsylvania. In his 15 years as head coach, he's racked up a 87-55 record, including a 14-17 mark in three years at Mountain View.
He graduated from West High in 1986 and played college football at Purdue.
Halbert said the coaching staff met with Cottonwood's seniors on Wednesday morning, and were scheduled to meet with the entire team today at 7:30 a.m. at Cottonwood.
The last time the team saw Johnson was Friday evening at the conclusion of Cottonwood's full-padded scrimmages.
"He was so excited on Friday after we were done with the Jamboree because we really took it to Davis and Jordan and Mountain View and Olympus pretty good. He was like, 'wow, we're good,'" said Halbert.
Johnson traveled back to Pennsylvania on Saturday to join his wife and two of his three kids. His wife had been there since the end of May visiting her parents. Johnson stayed in Utah during that time to get settled into the Cottonwood coaching job and find a new house for them to rent in Salt Lake City. All were supposed to return to Utah later this month.
Johnson's only son, who recently graduated from Mountain View, was in Utah at the time of his father's passing. Cottonwood assistant coach Scott Cate purchased an airline ticket for him to travel back to be with his family.
A press release statement from Granite School District said, "Our prayers and thoughts are with his family and our students and staff at Cottonwood High School at this time."
In an interview with the Deseret News in March, Johnson said he was excited about his new endeavor at Cottonwood.
"When I looked at some of the top programs in the state, Cottonwood is at that point, and that's one of the things that intrigued me about the job," said Johnson.
"Coming to Cottonwood, it's a new experience for me. One of the things that I'm going to do, and have done, is keeping the same things in place that have made them successful. That's my area of focus right now, not make too many changes."
E-mail:jedward@desnews.com
