The Justice

"She knows the game very well," shortstop Chelsea Korp '10 said. "I think a lot of our success comes from the fact that she expects a lot of us, so we end up expecting a lot out of ourselves, and she expects us to execute, and this year we did, and we won."

Johnson said her previous experiences as an assistant coach at Framingham State College in 2003 and a three-year coach at Mount Ida College-two as head coach-before arriving at Brandeis showed her the value of taking initiative.

"[My previous coaching experiences] helped me in terms of learning that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself," she said. "Those are schools with not as much … in terms of resources, but you have your kids and you can work with them."

Even Johnson's collegiate experience as a player for Wheaton's softball squad helped during her first two years at Brandeis. An All-American shortstop and centerfielder for Wheaton until she graduated in 1998, Johnson is able to apply strategy from her own days as a college softball player.

"Since [my] sophomore year, we were in ECACs or NCAAs, and thankfully, it's only been about 10 years, so I can remember it and relate with the kids and tell them about my experiences," she said.

Her versatility, which allowed her to play different positions throughout her high school and college careers, has also proved beneficial to her as a coach. In 2007, Johnson worked primarily with the outfielders, but she agreed to help out the infielders in 2008 because her older brother, assistant coach Erik Johnson, preferred working in the outfield.

"[Johnson's] not afraid to try new things," Korp said. "We instituted some new drills into our pre-game warm-up-some new 'everyday drills' is what we call them-that we did in practice, which basically got us more repetition with the ground balls and things like that to make us better players."

Even after leading the team to its first ECAC title, Johnson continues to strive for improvement, hoping to earn an NCAA bid and win a national championship.

"We knew we had a talented group [this season], so if it didn't work out and we weren't in [the] postseason, then I'm in the wrong profession," Johnson said. "It's one of those things where it's not really a pressure situation, it's just a responsibility sort of thing that we should be getting better every year, and I should be learning more as a coach every year."

< prev Page 2 of 2

Article Tools