By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
CHELSEA –
After a weeks-long search, the Chelsea Hornets have officially secured the future leader of their girls basketball program.
Denton Johnson was board-approved by the Shelby County Schools Board of Education on Thursday, June 12 to become the next head girls basketball coach at Chelsea High School.
Johnson comes to Chelsea from Decatur, but he never coached a game with the Red Raiders. After being board-approved on April 8, the Scottsboro native spent just two months at the school before coming to Chelsea.
Johnson is best-known for his success with Ramsay boys basketball, which he led for the past nine seasons. The Rams won area championships in each of the last seven seasons and were the No. 1 team in Class 5A entering the playoffs in 2025.
Over the course of his tenure, Johnson took Ramsay to back-to-back state championship games in 2021 and 2022 and made the Final Four five separate times. In all, Johnson amassed a 209-90 record with the Rams.
Johnson is no stranger to Shelby County though as he was previously an assistant at Spain Park in addition to Enterprise and Buckhorn. He also served as a graduate assistant at Jacksonville State.
Johnson takes over from the departing Jason Harlow, who left Chelsea for Homewood on April 22. Harlow led the Hornets for the past seven seasons, making the playoffs each season while earning a 172-55 record.
Chelsea made the Elite Eight in four of the last five seasons and reached the Final Four in 2020 and 2025. The latter team made it to the Class 6A state championship game before losing to Park Crossing, the first time the Hornets had reached the state finals in program history.
As a result of that success, Harlow won Class 6A Coach of the Year from the Alabama Sportswriters Association and his second-straight Shelby County Coach of the Year award.
One of the stars of that team, Haley Trotter, was the Class 6A Player of the Year and won Shelby County Player of the Year for the second-straight season.
Now, Johnson will take over a talented young core at Chelsea, including All-County stars Olivia Pryor and Caroline Brown, as he aims to parlay his success on the boys side into one of the most successful girls basketball programs in the Birmingham area.
