HARVEY “BUCKY” JOHNSON watches a drill during a March 2020 practice at Iron Mountain High School. (Ron Deuter photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — Harvey “Bucky” Johnson has stepped down as Iron Mountain varsity boys basketball coach after 25 years at the helm.

“I think it’s time for a change. It wasn’t an easy decision,” he said.

Johnson took over the program in 2000-01 but previously served as an eighth grade boys basketball coach and JV coach. He compiled a record of 392 wins and 170 losses.

He credits many for his success, especially his family — wife Terri and children Kate, Kyle and Marcus.

“They were supportive of me throughout my career, especially my wife, Terri. Living with a coach is not the easiest thing to do, but she kind of got a taste of that when her dad was a coach. It seemed like kind of a natural fit,” he said.

He also thanks his parents, Harvey and Margaret Johnson, and in-laws Richard and Cookie Olds.

He was a three-sport coach at Iron Mountain for 30 years, also coaching football at the freshmen, JV and varsity levels and varsity boys golf.

“There were a lot of three-sport coaches and one of them happened to be my father-in-law, Richard Olds, who is my number one coaching mentor,” he said. “I also worked under Tom Wender on the football staff. Dennis DeMerse was a close family friend and as a basketball coach I learned a lot from him. I coached Little League baseball with Doug Schupp and he’s a heck of a coach.”

He also credits several administrators — Tom Johnson, Dick Allen, Marv Harry and Denny Chartier. “I was a young guy and I learned a lot from those guys about education, about athletics, about how to treat kids. They were outstanding mentors for me.”

He also thanked his many assistants throughout the years, especially his sons, Kyle and Marcus, and Robin Marttila.

“This is hard for me to do. We had a lot of good times together. We had a great run. Of course, the kids, the athletes, that’s what it’s all about. You don’t coach sports to achieve a record of this or record of that, you coach to develop relationships and make memories and boy did we have a lot of them — some good, some bad,” he said.

Some of the memories include state championship games at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.

After a 53-52 loss to Pewamo-Westphalia on controversial calls in the 2019 title game, the Mountaineers saw their hopes for a 2020 state championship run shelved by COVID-19 restrictions. They did make it back to the championship in 2021 but fell to Flint Beecher.

One of the highlights for Johnson was being able to coach his sons and their buddies.

His teams won 10 Mid-Peninsula Conference titles, seven West Pac titles, eight district championships and the Mountaineers were seven-time regional finalists. They won three regional championships, were quarterfinals finalists on three occasions and twice were Division 3 state runners-up.

Johnson was a five-time West-Pac Conference coach of the year, a five-time U.P. Division 1-3 coach of the year and a two-time Region 15 coach of the year.

Johnson said he would still like to coach on the volunteer level if anyone wants him. “I’ve had a lot of volunteer coaches over my career. Without those guys, it would have made my job a lot harder.”

“I have a tremendous amount of passion for Iron Mountain as a school district, its sports program. I basically lived it my whole adult life and I don’t have any regrets. I love it,” he said.

Johnson retired after 32 years as a teacher but is currently in his second year as a part-time PE teacher at North Elementary.