Central Linn High School added two young coaches to join its stable as athletic director Graham Hughes hired Richard Hillsman, 32, to head the Cobras' football program while 21-year-old Kayla Johnson will take over as varsity girls basketball coach.

Both first-year varsity coaches have similar goals in mind for their respective programs near future, but they also have far different backgrounds and future game plans in which they hope to build their foundation upon.

Hillsman, a 1995 Central Linn graduate, brings a sense of heritage with him and longs for the old-school era of Cobras athletics.

Johnson, the 2005 2A basketball player of the year at Weston-McEwen High School in Athena, hopes that a combination of youthful energy and adopted on-court tactics will help push her girls in the right direction.

Although still a student at Oregon State, Johnson is not without coaching experience. The food science major has been preparing herself in the Corvallis Future Spartans program while also adding her presence in the Central Linn gymnasium.

"In my last couple of terms at Oregon State, (former Central Linn) coach (Jeff) Kaiser was kind enough to allow me to assist in his practices and then I got the eighth-graders in the spring," said Johnson of the coach she is replacing.

Although a bit green in the coaching front, the former standout point guard says her playing experience, as well as her youth, will help her get the most out of her young team.

"We lost a couple of seniors and girls that transferred so I am not planning on having an experienced team," Johnson said.

"I would love to match or improve on last year's record (13-13 overall), but my biggest plans are to develop the girls as players and improve fundamentally. (As a point guard), you start out more as a floor general and I'm kind of in with the current step of where girls basketball is.

"One of the greatest things is that the girls have really reacted to me. Being youthful is helpful so I can actually show them what I want."

While Johnson says she may use a few strategies learned from Kaiser and Jeff Griggs, her head coach while at Weston-McEwen, she is not committed to one type of offense.

"I can't say that I really like one offense compared to another," she said. "I like to run and gun but you have to take a look at your players first. I've found, though, that a hard-nosed, defensive-minded team is stronger as compared to one that is more offensively."

Hillsman stresses the offense in his game. After his high school career at running back, the Lebanon-born, Brownsville-raised and current Sweet Home resident has accumulated 13 years of coaching for his alma-maters middle-school and development program.

While Hillsman says his style is offense, he also knows that he must adjust his defense accordingly to the many looks that their Mountain View Conference opponents offer.

"We are going to have 10 games this season while going against at least six or seven different offenses, so you can't just be set to one defense," he said. "I am more offensive minded, though, and let me tell you, they aren't going to know our offense after the first five plays of the first game."

"We are going to be wide open and our players are going to be in shape. I want to get back to the old-school way with a lot of running and conditioning. I want (our opponents) to think we are going to be one team that they are going to have to beat in order to make it into the playoffs."

Hillsman is not only optimistic about besting the Cobras' 2007 record of 6-6, he is also confident that the Central Linn crowd will have a tough time finding a seat to watch the game.

"It took years for us to get back on the football map, so I don't want teams to look through us and to the following week," Hillsman said.

"And if they are coming to our place it's going to be a tough place to play. We are going to fill those stands."