The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Volleyball
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach, 4th year
The 2008 season marks Tonya Johnson's sixth on Jerritt Elliott's staff at Texas and her first as associate head coach. She spent her first five seasons as an assistant, joining the UT family in April of 2003 after spending five seasons as an assistant at her alma mater, LSU. Johnson works with the team's outside hitters and, off the court, she is the team's recruiting coordinator, travel coordinator and is the assistant camp director.
Johnson helped lead Texas' 2006 and 2007 squads to back-to-back NCAA Regional Finals appearances and a pair of top 10 finishes. The Longhorns' 2007 squad posted its fourth straight 20-win season, earned its first Big 12 Championship since 1997 and registered a 27-4 mark after finishing 24-7 in 2006.
She has helped outside hitter Juliann Faucette and opposite hitter Ashley Engle to consecutive Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year honors, while Faucette notched National Freshman of the Year honors in 2007. Johnson coached Faucette and outside hitter Destinee Hooker to All-America honors in 2007 and helped Engle and Hooker nab All-America honors in 2006.
As the team's recruiting coordinator, Johnson has helped head coach Jerritt Elliott land the second-ranked recruiting class in the country in each of the past three seasons (2006-08).
She mentored the Longhorns 2005 club - complete with one senior and five starters who were freshmen or sophomores - to its second 20-win season in a row and a second consecutive second-place showing in the highly competitive Big 12 Conference. UT went 7-3 against other ranked teams, including a thrilling, 3-2 victory over top-ranked and previously undefeated Nebraska to close the regular season.
In 2004, senior All-America outside hitter Mira Topic garnered tremendous attention for her performance on the court. Topic led the Big 12 in kills per game and, while hitting at a .308 clip. Additionally, Topic became the Texas all-time kills leader for a season (593) and for a career (2,116). Topic also became the seventh player in school history to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.
At the end of the season, Topic earned American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) first team All-America honors, AVCA first-team All-Central Region and Big 12 Player of the Year accolades. Behind Topic and the powerful Texas attack, the Longhorns finished the year ranked fourth nationally in hitting percentage with a school record mark of .305, and was 13th in kills per game (17.09).
In her first season at Texas in 2003, Johnson was instrumental in organizing the team's 13-day tour of Europe in May 2004.
Johnson served as the top volleyball assistant at LSU from 1998-2003 under Fran (Teeter) Flory (Texas `83) where she was responsible for the majority of the Tigers' recruiting efforts. In 1995, Johnson began her collegiate coaching career at Kentucky as an assistant to Flory.
The Tigers finished last in the 11-team SEC in 1997, prior to Johnson's arrival to the program. LSU moved up from sixth in the West Division to fourth in 1998 with a 5-10 SEC finish. The Tigers' best finish during Johnson's tenure was in 2001 as LSU was second in the SEC West Division with a 10-5 mark. LSU was second in the SEC West in 2002 with a 9-7 conference record while going 17-10 overall.
Born Sept. 1, 1969 in Zachary, La., Johnson was a four-year letterwinner at LSU from 1987-1990. She won consecutive SEC titles in 1989 and 1990 as well. Her playing days culminated as a senior in 1990 with a trip to the NCAA women's volleyball final four.
Prior to joining the collegiate coaching ranks, Johnson taught at Wellington Landings Middle School in Boca Raton, Fla. While teaching, Johnson coached the Florida Gold Coast club team and served as an assistant coach at Olympic Heights High School.
