Head Coach Johnny Johnson Head Coach
In his 13 seasons as the head coach of the UW-Stevens Point wrestling program, Johnny Johnson has established a very successful coaching résumé. Johnson is in his 14th season as the Pointers’ head coach and 18th year overall in the UW-Stevens Point program in 201112. This will mark Johnson’s 26th year in the college coaching ranks. He has coached 46 wrestlers in the national meet and boasts a 57-20-1 WIAC dual meet record. Johnson earned his 100th career dual meet victory at UW-Stevens Point on Jan. 3, 2009. In 2011, Johnson passed Marty Loy as the UWSP winningest coach and is only the second head coach in UWSP history to tally more than 100 victories. UW-Stevens Point has finished in the top 11 in the national meet five of the last eight years. The Pointers have also finished in the top three in the WIAC every season during Johnson’s tenure, including an undefeated season in WIAC dual meets in 2003-04. Johnson’s 2011 team also posted an eighth place finish at the NWCA National duals. Johnson has also trained three national champions. Yan White was a three-time national finalist who won the national title in 2002. Cody Koenig and Brad Marten claimed national titles in 2003, when the Pointers achieved a school record thirdplace finish at the national meet. Johnson has coached several successful individuals during his term, including three-time All-American Ben Engelland 2009-11. Overall, Johnson has trained 23 All-Americans, including 20 in the last nine years. He has taken wrestlers to the national meet in every one of his 13 seasons. Johnson guided six wrestlers to the national meet in 2007 where the Pointers finished 10th. Additionally, Johnson has had 24 NWCA Scholar All-Americans, including Mike Hayes who was the 2006 WIAC Scholar Athlete of the year.
Johnson also worked closely with threetime Olympian and 1996 Silver Medalist Dennis Hall. Hall a current UW-Stevens Point assistant coach was joined in the corner by Johnson during the 2004 Olympic Trials and on the trip to Athens, Greece. Prior to becoming head coach, Johnson served as the Pointers’ top assistant and the state coach for the Wisconsin Wrestling Federation. Before coming to UW-Stevens Point, Johnson served as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota for eight seasons. There he was instrumental in developing 18 All-Americans, 10 Big Ten champions, and a No. 1 dual team ranking in 1994. Johnson was a member of USA Wrestling’s National Coaching Pool and in 1996 served as the head coach of the Junior World Team, taking the team to compete in St. Petersburg, Russia. Johnson wrestled collegiately at the University of Oklahoma, where he was a two-time Division I All-American for the Sooners while compiling 112-22-2 record. After college, he gained considerable international experience as a member of three U.S. National teams and an alternate to the 1988 U.S. Olympic team. Having completed his bachelor’s degree in journalism at Oklahoma and his master’s in education at UW-Stevens Point, Johnson teaches Adventure Education in the School Physical Education & Athletic Training at UW-Stevens Point and coordinates Adventure Education minor, which he helped developed for the school of PEAT. A native of Midwest City, Okla., Johnny and his wife, Julie, have three children – son, Jesse, and daughters, Taylor and Gabrialla. They reside in Plover.
20 sports, 500 student-athletes, 1 Point