FALLSTON, Md. — Johnny Woods gathers his team for a group selfie, as the teenage-players walk him through the best way to take the photo. Woods laughs as they take control.
The camaraderie Woods shares with the girls on the varsity basketball team at Fallston High School is palpable.
The girls use words like "passionate", "motivational" and "inspirational" when talking about their head coach.
Woods has been coaching the girls basketball team for five years and their accomplishments include the 2A championship in 2022. Just as important to him as their wins, is their community service.
"Service is something that if you don’t learn when you’re younger it's very difficult to do when you’re older because you’ve just never seen it," he said. "So if we can expose them to it now then it won’t be something foreign to them when they become adults."
Woods is a retired Army veteran and one of the activities he does with the team is to lay wreaths on the headstones of fallen soldiers during the holidays.
"Its given me an opportunity to share part of what I experienced being a soldier and giving back to that veteran community," he said.
His other passion is supporting the homeless. He works with Welcome One, a homeless shelter run by the Harford Family House. The girls made gift baskets to give to residents in December.
"It’s just not something you see a lot of in Harford County is homelessness, so for us to be able to do those gift bags, for the girls to be able to write letters to the residents at the community center, it’s pretty telling and it means a lot to the residents of the shelter."
And the girls recognize the impact their work has on the Fallston community.
"It’s really nice to go and give back as much as they give to us," said Leah Rhinehart, a point guard on the team. "We get a lot of support in the basketball program, it’s just doing our duty as citizens of this community and giving back as much as possible."
"Everyone on the team will do the same things that we’ve been doing here once we’re out of high school, which is great and to pass that on for years and years will be really nice," said Sarah Drzik, a forward.
And that's the greatest gift Coach Woods can give to his players, the desire to help others.
"They have a lot of things pulling at their time, they have to have something pulling at their heart."
