From Philly to the East Bay: Granada, Amador Valley coaches set to battle for NCS title game spot

PLEASANTON — On Tuesday night, the Amador Valley’s sideline won’t just be a strip of hardwood dividing two benches. 

It will be a fault line stretching from Philadelphia to the deep East Bay. 

Long before they were diagramming out-of-bounds plays and breaking down defensive coverages, Amador Valley coach Willis Gardner and Granada coach Quaran “Q” Johnson Sr. were just two hoop heads sharing a gym and a dream.

Gardner, a few years older, first met Johnson when the longtime Granada coach was still a high schooler tagging along to college workouts. Almost 20 years later, after building a bond that stretched from summer runs to staff meetings, they will stand on opposite sidelines in the North Coast Section Division I semifinals, chasing a title that both have talked about since they started coaching. 

“It means a lot to me that we both got to this point,” Johnson said. “He’s always been one of my closest friends and I’ve always had the utmost respect for him as a coach and as a player. I always looked up to him a lot as a player. He took me under his wing and showed me a lot of love as a college player to a high school kid when he didn’t have to. He’s one of the smartest basketball minds that I have ever met.” 

It’s the kind of matchup neither could have scripted, even as they have nudged each other toward this path. Johnson broke into coaching first, taking the JV job at Granada in 2015. Gardner, inspired by his longtime friend, began helping out, eventually becoming one of Johnson’s most trusted assistants. 

When Amador Valley had a head coaching vacancy in 2020, it was Johnson who pushed Gardner to apply – a leap that Gardner said he never would have taken on his own. Now, with an NCS championship game appearance on the line (and a safety net third-place game offering one more shot at state), the friends-turned-competitors call the moment sentimental. 

“It’s bittersweet for both of us. We both like to see each other do good. I know he’s rooting for me. I’m rooting for him,” Gardner said. “I watched his son grow up. Our wives have become really close. There’s going to be a loser, but at the end of the day, we might have to just hug it out and laugh it off.”

Their story, like most great basketball tales, started in a gym. 

In the summers and breaks when Gardner would come back home, Gardner would see a young Johnson at his open runs. Introduced to each other by a mutual friend, the two struck up a relationship. 

Johnson soaked up all the knowledge he could. Even as a high school underclassmen, Johnson routinely competed with Gardner and players much older than he was, never afraid to let them know he wasn’t scared of the competition. 

Gardner and Johnson’s bond became so strong that the future Amador Valley coach trusted Johnson with his car at just 14. 

“We were in the car one night after a workout and someone was like, ‘We’re driving home now, why don’t you let Q drive?’ So, yeah I let Q drive without a license at like 14-years-old,” Gardner said.

Gardner was a decorated player at nearby Ohlone College, eventually transferring to Colorado State and having a career playing professional basketball around the world. Like his older predecessor, Johnson played the role of protege. 

Johnson was also a star at Ohlone College, transferred to Metropolitan State in Denver and enjoyed a career in professional basketball. 

Through their time together at Granada, the two coaches’ bond only got stronger. As Johnson went through the highs and lows of being a head coach, Gardner watched and took notes. 

When Gardner went through his rough patches in his first few seasons at Amador Valley, it was Johnson that would talk him through bad losses. 

Now, those conversations feel like a different lifetime.

In his sixth season, Gardner has Amador Valley in the middle of a full-fledged resurgence. The program that once searched for consistency has rediscovered its edge, defending with purpose and carrying itself with the kind of belief that mirrors its coach. What began as a leap of faith in 2020 — one Johnson urged him to take — has evolved into a team playing its best basketball with a section championship within reach.

Granada’s path back has looked different, but no less meaningful.

Johnson stepped away for a year to spend time with his young children, choosing family over the grind of game prep and late-night film. 

The break, he said, gave him perspective. When he returned, it was with renewed energy and a program eager to reestablish itself among the East Bay’s contenders. The Matadors are back on steady footing, blending experience with a chip that reflects their coach’s own journey.

They have coached against each other before. They share a league. They know each other’s sets, after-timeout tendencies and defensive coverages almost by heart.

But this is different.

This isn’t a January measuring stick or a rivalry game with standings implications. This is the NCS Division I semifinal, with a championship game berth on the line and the weight of everything they’ve built pressing in from opposite sidelines. Familiarity remains. So does respect.

The stakes, though, have never been higher. And both coaches are expecting nothing less than an all-out battle. 

“He’s got to lose this one. I lost one to him earlier this season and now it’s time for me to kick his butt,” Johnson said. “I’ll be rooting for him in the third place game. I’m trying to get a Matador win on Tuesday night.” 

Added Gardner, “It’s going to be a fun environment on Tuesday. It’s going to be competitive. I don’t know about us playing a third-place game. We’re gonna be playing for that championship.”