Colorado University Athletics
CU Athletics Has Been Major Influence For Terrell In Education Career
May 13, 2021 | General, Alumni C Club, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Former Colorado basketball player Johnny Terrell has enjoyed a long and productive career in education.
Recently promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Student Services in the St. Vrain Valley School District, he has worked as a coach, teacher, principal and administrator in Colorado schools for the last 25 years. It is a career path he has traveled with great passion and enthusiasm and one in which he has had the opportunity to "give back" to every community in which he lived.
It is also a road that began with a relatively simple question way back in 1993, just after he had wrapped up his hoops career and was putting the finishing touches on his CU bachelor's degree.
"I received a world-class education because I was blessed with some athletic prowess," Terrell said recently. "Then I had someone in the Athletic Department ask me, 'What's next? What are you going to do with this opportunity?'"
There was no easy answer.
A good college basketball player who played on a Big Eight Tournament runner-up team and an NIT Final Four squad, he could have continued his basketball career by pursuing some overseas opportunities.
But with a degree in hand and an eye on the long term, Terrell took the advice of former CU Associate Athletic Director Rich Cardillo and looked into a career in education. He obtained his master's degree from CU in education, landed his first job in the field in 1996 — and has been enthusiastically providing help and guidance to young people ever since.
"That's really what it's all about — serving and giving back," Terrell said. "I had great teachers, coaches, mentors, support systems. That gave me the opportunity to help build that next generation of leaders and influencers, people who will be in charge in the future."
It has been nearly three decades since Terrell last played basketball as an undergrad at CU. But the lessons he learned as a student-athlete and the guidance and mentorship he received from folks within the CU Athletic Department still resonate today.
"Those skills and lessons you learn as an athlete translate perfectly to education," Terrell said. "The concept of team, how to collaborate, how to work together to produce success, the importance of leadership. You learn how to be a gracious loser, how to learn from every situation and how to deal with immediate feedback. You learn it's not personal. The goal is to win, to succeed. If there's something that needs to be corrected, you address it. Those are things that every athlete knows, and skills that are critical in education."
Terrell has experienced just about every angle of K-12 education, including coaching. But that was a career angle he decided not to pursue after the birth of his first daughter.
"I was probably taking it too seriously," he said with a chuckle. "Film study, scouting, all those things. I decided it was time to focus on my family."
Terrell started out as a teacher, then moved into a principal's role, including a five-year stint at Thornton High School, where he helped the school meet the state's graduation average rate for the first time in years.
He then moved into central administration in the Adams 12 School District, where he served as Director of Student Engagement Initiative. In that role, he helped spearhead a program that produced a significant district-wide reduction in chronic absenteeism that was featured in the Denver Post.
Three years ago, Terrell moved to St. Vrain Schools, where he works with Superintendent Dr. Don Haddad (also a former college athlete). At Haddad's urging, he has continued to focus on student services.
"Working with him has been fantastic," Terrell said. "What he has accomplished in St. Vrain has been amazing, and it's been a privilege to work with him."
Terrell now works with other administrators to help formulate and implement student service programs. It means less regular contact with students, but an opportunity to have an impact on more students overall.
"For much of my career, I had the opportunity to influence young people, help them advance, and I truly enjoyed that," he said. "Now, I'm in a position of being able to influence individuals who influence young people. It is still some of those skills you learn as an athlete. People can identify with those things when you talk about collaboration in those terms and how they can produce success. They see what goals can be accomplished and what our potential can be."
And, he hasn't forgotten what strong mentorship and leadership can mean to a young person — and how those opportunities when he was a CU student-athlete paved the way for a long and productive career.
"That happened because people at CU cared about what came next," he said. "It wasn't just about what I was doing on the basketball court. They helped me take advantage of the educational opportunities that were available and helped me open some doors. They had a great staff who really cared about student-athletes and their lives. They encouraged us to be poised and be prepared to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves."
Today, those are lessons and skills Terrell still emphasizes.
"These are the next generation's citizens and leaders who will be making the difference in our world," he said. "It's our job to prepare them — just like the people who helped me prepare for my career."
Â
