Johnson Shifts to Golf Full Time - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

The following is a press release from Concord Athletics:

After spending the last four seasons as the head men's and women's golf coach and men's basketball assistant coach at Concord University, Will Johnson will transition away from his basketball duties to focus his attention solely on Concord's golf program.

In addition to guiding the Mountain Lions' men's and women's golf teams; Johnson will serve as the athletic department liaison to Concord's new Graduation Retention Incentive Program (GRIP).

Johnson, who has been the head golf coach since 2008, has already led both the men and women to unprecedented success.

For the men, Johnson has coached one conference championship team (2010), two WVIAC Players of the Year and nine first team All-WVIAC selections. His women's teams have nearly matched their counterpart's success. Under Johnson, two Lady Mountain Lions have earned WVIAC Player of the Year honors and 11 others have earned first team All-WVIAC accolades.

While both team's success has been impressive, Johnson is looking forward to improving on the foundation that has been built over the last four seasons.

"I'm very excited about the opportunity to not only enhance my everyday role with the golf program, but also make a difference with GRIP," Johnson said. "This move gives me the opportunity to better prepare the golf teams to compete for championships. Our golfers will now have the chance to learn more from me and I will have the chance to learn more from them."

Johnson was just one of 47 black head golf coaches (3.4 percent) in the NCAA according to the 2010-11 Race and Gender Demographics report conducted by the NCAA. Excluding Historically Black Colleges, the number drops down to just 12 coaches (less than one percent).