Former Plano East head football coach Johnny Ringo will be inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Honor on Saturday in Houston. Photo courtesy Johnny Ringo
By David Wolman
Former Plano East head football coach and athletic director Johnny Ringo is one of seven coaches who will be inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor Saturday. The event will take place in the Grand Ballroom of the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
“It’s a reflection of the opportunity to work with great coaches and coach so many great young men over the years,” he said. “It’s quite an honor and very humbling.”
Ringo built a distinguished career as a Texas high school football coach and athletic administrator whose career includes head coaching stops at Uvalde, Irving MacArthur, Coppell and Plano East. He garnered District Coach of the Year honors and was The Dallas Morning News Coach of the Year.
Plano East marked the final leg in Ringo’s legendary 29-year coaching career. He moved on to Highland Park Independent School District and served as athletics director from 2013 until his retirement in June 2022.
Most of Ringo’s coaching stops involved a rebuild, but not at Plano East. Ringo inherited a program in 2004 that had consistently made the playoffs under Scott Phillips and John Crawford. Phillips won 26 of his last 28 district games at Plano East before leaving for the same job at Odessa High in 2002.
Ringo led Plano East to more success in his nine seasons. The Panthers made the playoffs five times during his nine seasons, with their best season under Ringo coming in 2006. Plano East finished 10-3, won eight straight games after opening the season with a 30-29 loss to Mesquite and made the third round of the postseason.
Plano East outlasted Rockwall 31-24 in the bi-district round of the playoffs, edged Tyler Legacy 21-18 in the area round before falling 31-27 to Austin Westfield in the third round.
Ringo’s Panthers played three different quarterbacks in 2006 – Rico Smalls, Dallas Bush and Jeff Emens. They also got 2,494 combined rushing yards and 21 rushing touchdowns between Bush, Smalls, Chris Slater and Philip Oladjeji.
The Panthers also boasted a stout defense that held opponents to an average of 14.46 points per game.
“We just had great kids,” Ringo said. “We had 420 kids playing high school football at Plano East, which was unheard of. We had tremendous involvement with the kids and parents. That year, we had great kids playing for us. It was a really special year.”
In addition to the great relationships that he built with the other coaches, faculty and members of the community, Ringo also lauded the relationships that he had built with former Plano East head coach Tom Kimbrough and former Plano Senior High head coach John Clark – Kimbrough and Clark both have stadiums in Plano ISD that are named in their honor.
“They were just very business-like in everything they did, but they were great about helping and guiding us,” Ringo said. “They were tremendous mentors and role models and great examples as far as how football should be played.”
Ringo was elected to the THSCA Board of Directors from 2008-11, served as the President of the THSCA in 2012-13, and was recognized as one of MaxPreps’ Top 100 High School Coaches.
Robert Brown, Steven Cerny, Mike Hedrick, John King, Weldon Nelms and Dennis Parker are the other six coaches who will join Ringo for induction into the THSCA Hall of Honor Saturday.
Stay informed, and support your local community newspaper, subscribe to The Murphy Monitor
0 Comments