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Bishop Seabury promoted assistant boys basketball coach Trey Johnson to become the team's next head coach on Monday, June 20, 2023 at Bishop Seabury Academy.

Bishop Seabury named assistant boys basketball coach Trey Johnson as the program’s next head coach on Monday. The school also returns Mehdi Honarvar and introduces Dee Early and Collins Robinson as the team’s assistant coaches for the upcoming season.

The personnel change comes after the departure of former head coach Benny Molle, who left Lawrence to continue coaching basketball in the Kansas City area. Johnson coached alongside Molle with Kansas United, a youth basketball organization based in Lawrence.

Johnson put his hat in the ring for multiple assistant coaching roles in the Lawrence school district but never heard back.

“When this became available, I just jumped on it,” Johnson said. “I liked the culture at Seabury and all things that come along with it. I’m trying to prove myself while still teaching in the district that I never got an opportunity to coach in.”

Seabury athletic director Brian Rios said the coaching search was swift when considering Johnson’s reputation around the school.

“(Johnson) already built a good relationship with the (team) and with our community,” Rios said. “He has a really good plan to use and utilize our boys to the best of their ability, leading them and making them stronger and building this program. He’s here for the long haul.”

It’s a big next step for Johnson, who grew up in Virginia and moved to Lawrence in 2008, taking on the head role of a high school basketball program. He has coached the sport in the region since graduating from the University of Kansas in 2013.

And Johnson’s surrounded himself with the right faces for the job.

Honarvar, a familiar face in the area’s AAU scene, returns as an assistant coach from Molle’s staff. Johnson adds over 19 years of coaching experience with Early, who’s spent the past two years coaching Seabury’s middle school boys basketball team. Robinson coaches alongside Johnson at the annual Bill Self Basketball Camps.

“We all have very different personalities, but we work well together,” Johnson said. “I was trying to find people so that each kid will match somebody differently. If we’re all the same, and there’s that kid that just doesn’t fit with their personality, then it’s hard to reach that kid.”

Seabury’s enrollment bubbles at around 100 students. Naturally, filling up the boys basketball roster can be a routine challenge. Last year, Johnson and fellow assistants were convincing siblings to join the team simply to field a varsity squad.

“We have to build on the kids we have,” Rios added. “Build these kids and make them talented basketball players at the end of the day. I think Trey has that drive. He’s a younger coach and excited for that kind of challenge with goals in mind.”

And with a glance at the Seahawks’ returning roster, the pieces for success exist.

Returning juniors Chase Honarvar and Jace Smith, both Journal-World All-Area First Team selections, will be major building blocks for Johnson in his first year. Honarvar averaged 10.2 points, 10 rebounds and 6.2 blocks per game starting at center; Smith led the team in scoring with 11.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, while starting at point guard.

“I’m very confident that we could win the conference and move on out of substate, which would be fantastic,” Johnson said.