‘We’re coming for you!’ Meet the SC pastor and her mother who harmonize for the Heels.
Five years ago, the Rev. Katrena Johnson dubbed herself “Twitter Pastor for the Heels,” offering prayers and undying online love for the ACC men’s basketball team in light blue.
Then in April, she took the devotion to a higher level — this time in two-part harmony.
She and her mother, Rosezenia, have created a series of UNC fan songs so fervent and melodious they are destined to play inside the Dean Dome for a generation.
“We got one, two, fooooour and five,” they sing together, a reference to the jersey numbers of four returning Tar Heel players — Leaky Black, Caleb Love, R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot, respectively.
“And we are coming for youuuuu!” the women sing in a tune that easily gets stuck in your head. “Clemson! We’re coming for you. Notre Dame! We’re coming for you.”
The videos started early in April, when Johnson and her mother visited their barbershop inside the local Walmart — a den of Duke fans.
So once the Heels topped the Blue Devils in the Final Four, they returned with camera in hand to sing their taunting first song, spirited enough to get slipped into the hymnal.
“Coach K is gone,” they sang into the Twitterverse. “Cooooach is gone. He thought he wooould win the game ... Go on back to your house now.”
A Carolina blue robe
Coming from a family of ministers, Johnson first sang on top of the offering table at age 3, microphone in hand.
In March, the congregation at Powerhouse of Deliverance Apostolic Church got her a Tar Heel blue robe, which she had steamed for every service.
Her Twitter songs, she said, are all unwritten and unrehearsed — spontaneous fan creations.
She may have gone to school in South Carolina, and she may preach in Walterboro, which is far closer to a string of other schools, but Johnson fell in love with Michael Jordan hitting his famous UNC championship shot in 1982.
And her faith in the Tar Heels has never waned.
“The first trip I took there, I actually cried,” she said, recalling a long-ago Chapel Hill road trip. “I’m driving, seeing the signs for Chapel Hill, getting so excited, and I’m in the Dean Dome, and I’m in awe.”
She attended summer alumni games for years, collecting pictures with Jerry Stackhouse and Brendan Haywood, even singing for them at a Sunday church service.
But now Armando Bacot is her unquestioned favorite, and when the Heels played College of Charleston in November, he scored her tickets.
The songs with her mother were meant as a joke, but demand is growing, and she has a whole summer to write more.
“When they lose, I cry,” she said. “When they sing, I rejoice.”
This story is part of our regular “On the Bright Side” feature. Got a suggestion for a story that will bring a smile to our readers? E-mail Josh Shaffer at jshaffer@newsobserver.com.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 1:36 PM with the headline "‘We’re coming for you!’ Meet the SC pastor and her mother who harmonize for the Heels.."