Former Columbia HS girls’ basketball legendary coach Johanna Wright honored at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Living Legends Scholarship Gala in North Carolina

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Whether it was coaching the girls’ basketball team at Columbia High School, or serving on the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education, Johanna Wright has always had a true passion for her job.

On the evening of August 26 at the Grand Pavilion Ballroom in the Embassy Suites Hotel in Winston-Salem, N.C., Wright was one of the honorees at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Living Legends Scholarship Gala. People from 11 schools in the state were feted, including basketball legend Earl Monroe. Curly Neal and Al Attles, two other basketball legends, were also honored, but couldn’t attend the Gala.

Wright, who led the Cougars to eight conference titles, seven state championships, four ECT crowns and two appearances in the TOC finals, coached a number of top players at the Maplewood school, including her daughter, Jazmine, who led CHS to the 1998 TOC championship tilt against Mendham. Also on that squad was a superb point guard, Stacey Townsend.

Other standouts that Wright coached at Columbia include Wilhanita Lee, Laura Wilkes, Mary Meade, and Gayle Nwafili.

Wright, whose late husband, Lonnie, was an outstanding athlete at South Side in the early 1960s, gives credit to Tom Ruggiero for putting the CHS girls’ hoops program on the state map. But when Wright took over, the program grew even stronger. In girls’ basketball in Essex County, only Shabazz has had a better program than Columbia.

In all, 33 people were honored at the affair. The Gala is a community-based initiative that raises need-based scholarships for students in 11 institutions in North Carolina.

Along with Wright, the honorees from Bennett College include Susie Ruth Powell, an author and screenwriter, and Joycelyn Johnson, a former City councilman in Winston-Salem.

COUGAR TALES – Wright led CHS to county titles in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2001.

  Columbia High School girls basketball, Historically Black Colleges and Universities Living Legends Scholarship Gala., Johanna Wright