Emory Track and Field Names Mark Johnson Assistant Coach

Emory University head track and field coach John Curtin has announced the appointment of Mark Johnson as assistant coach.  His duties will primarily consist of coaching the Eagles' multi-event athletes, throwers and jumpers.

Johnson’s most recent coaching stint was at Sandia Preparatory School in Albuquerque, New Mexcio, where he was responsible for the boys and girls throws and horizontal jumps.  He had nine state qualifiers representing every event and coached one state champion.

Johnson served as an assistant track and field coach for the men’s and women’s programs at Williams College in 2007-08, working with the multi-events, pole vault and high jump performers.  He helped coach both teams to New England and NESCAC championships and had a pair of his athletes garner All-New England and All-NESCAC acclaim.

Prior to his stint at Williams, Johnson was an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico for two seasons (2005-06 and 2006-07) where he designed and implemented workouts for multi-events and all jumps.  He coached a total of 10 NCAA Championships qualifiers and mentored one All-American. 

“Mark will be a good fit for our staff,” Curtin said.  “We were looking for someone with a strong multi-event background who could understand both Emory and Division III and Mark fit the bill. 
In addition to being an outstanding decathlete and strong in the vertical jumps and throws, Mark was an NCAA Post Graduate Scholar and has earned an MBA.   He is a really bright guy with a lot of different interests. We think we have found a great coach and person for our kids to work with.”     

As an athlete, Johnson enjoyed a stellar career at the University of New Mexico.  He won the Mountain West Conference titles in both the decathlon (2002) and heptathlon (2004) and finished 15th in the decathlon at the 2004 NCAA Championships with a career-best score of 7,277 points. A five-time all-MWC honoree, Johnson also qualified for the 2004 NCAA Midwest Regional Championships in the pole vault, finishing ninth with a career-best vault of 16-05.25.

He was a two-year letterwinner at goalkeeper for the UNM men's soccer team, appearing in six games from 2000-01. He and skier Stian Erikson were the first two athletes in UNM history to appear at the NCAA Championships in two different sports. The two were teammates on the 2001 men's soccer team which advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Johnson was the Lobos' was an Academic All-American, earning first-team honors in 2004. The Fontana, Wisconsin, native graduated from UNM in December of 2002 with a degree in Spanish and earned his MBA in May of 2004. Johnson was an Academic All-American posting a 3.85 undergraduate GPA and was a 4.0 graduate student.   He was a recipient of a 2004 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.