18 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY NOVEMBER 12-18, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com Ron Johnson reflects on growing into a career at the Boys & Girls Clubs, and raising his own family in it. By Aric Sleeper “He said, ‘It just so happens I know the chairman of the Boys & Girls Club and they’re going through a leadership change and I could introduce you to my friend,’” Johnson recalls. “I took the meeting.” At that time, in 1992, the nonprofit was in the early stages of building what is now the Seaside clubhouse of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monterey County on LaSalle Avenue. “They showed me the vision and I was really excited about it,” Johnson says. “Within several months, I jumped from the broker business into the Boys & Girls Club as a program director and never looked back.” When Johnson started with the nonprofit, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monterey County was based in an older church building. Johnson remembers about 75 kids coming in each day after school, who, he said with some hesitation, “could use some coaching.” Johnson then recruited his friends from the NFL, M.L. Carter and Anthoney Toney, to lend a hand at the club alongside Donna Ferraro, the now-retired president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monterey County. Johnson says that the fundraising effort of former NFL player and coach Herm Edwards was also pivotal in getting the Seaside Boys & Girls Club headquarters off the ground. “We were a small but mighty club in those days, and we did a lot of great work,” Johnson says. During that era, Johnson recalls, former Monterey Superior Court Judge Mike Fields, who oversaw juvenile cases, paid him one of the biggest compliments Johnson ever received. “He said that, at one time, he would see eight to 10 kids a day from our neighborhood, but after the work you guys are doing at the Boys & Girls Club, and with the impact that you’re making, I’m not seeing that anymore,” Johnson says. “That was a testament to how important the Boys & Girls Club is and how it can transform communities.” Today, Johnson serves as the CEO and president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monterey County, which serves hundreds of Monterey County kids at its Seaside and Salinas clubs. Weekly: How have you seen the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monterey County evolve since you started working there? Johnson: We are more focused on academics, leadership and building good character. Those are our pillars and what we call priority outcomes. Back in the early days, and before me also, Boys & Girls Clubs would always have a gym and a game room with a pool table and ping-pong and those kinds of things. The focus then was keeping kids out of trouble, off the streets and having them around responsible adults. The clubs have evolved to focus on developing leadership and setting kids up for success with their career goals after they grow out of the Boys & Girls Club, and creating these pathways for them—whether they want to go to college, be an electrician or join the military. There was no formal program that CHILDREN’S CHAMPION After he retired from the NFL in 1989, former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Ron Johnson moved back to the place he grew up, Monterey County. He initially tried his hand as a stockbroker at a Carmel-based financial firm, but something about the career path just didn’t feel right. A few years into the job, he was having lunch with one of his coworkers, who could tell that Johnson wasn’t as passionate about the work as he could be. “He was talking about bond trading and he was so excited about being in that line of work, and I just was not tracking with him,” Johnson says. “He could see that I didn’t have the enthusiasm that he had and he said, ‘If you could have any job, what would you want to do?’” Johnson told his colleague that he really enjoyed working with young people because of their energy. He always felt he could relate to them, and had a lot to pass on to younger people, not only in the realm of football. Since 1992, former NFL player Ron Johnson has been in the business of helping young people navigate their way to success. When he started at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monterey County, Johnson served as a program director and later became president and CEO of the nonprofit, which serves hundreds of young people at its Seaside and Salinas clubs. DANIEL DREIFUSS
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