Mark Johnson, a member of the United States side who won gold at the 1980 Winter Olympics, was named head coach of the U.S. women’s hockey team for the 2010 Vancouver Games on Tuesday.
While there was much speculation as to whether the US team would name its first ever female head coach (Ben Smith coached the previous 3 Olympic teams), no one can deny that Johnson is the best man for the job. You would have a hard time finding another coach in the female hockey world that is as qualified in terms of his experience on the ice and behind the bench as Johnson.
Johnson’s track-record is impressive to say the least:
- He played on the gold medal winning 1980 U.S. men’s team where he scored twice in the “Miracle on Ice” team’s upset of the Russians. That means he played under Herb Brooks, who is widely acknowledged as one of the best hockey coaches in history.
- He is the son of “Badger” Bob Johnson, an accomplished coach who won 3 NCAA titles at the University of Wisconsin and a Stanley Cup championship with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
- He played 11 seasons in the NHL before joining Wisconsin as the assistant men’s hockey coach.
- He took over the women’s program at Wisconsin in 2002 and has led the Badgers to the NCAA title game in the last 3 seasons, winning in 2006 and 2007.
Johnson has learned from some of the best coaches in history, played at the highest level in the world, and coached one of the best female hockey programs in the world for the last 6 years.
Johnson said he hoped to bring lessons he learned from his father and other coaches while he creates his own niche with the U.S. women’s team.
The lessons Johnson learned from his father — who cut him from the 1976 Olympic team — will be his primary resource.
“What I saw first-hand was that ability to create a culture, where you give your players the best opportunity, your teams the best opportunity to be successful, and how you create that culture to me is so vital,” he said. “His enthusiasm was always there, his love for going to the rink to try and work with players and improve them on and off the ice was always there.
“I wish he was still alive today for two reasons. One, he would certainly be smiling if he was here today with this opportunity that I’ve been presented. I think most importantly, the second part of that would be just the growth and what we’ve seen in women’s hockey since the mid- and late ’90s. He just loved when people got involved in hockey as players, as coaches. He never got an opportunity, really, to witness first-hand how good these women hockey players are.”
From Brooks, who died in 2003, Johnson said he had gained an appreciation for preparation and persuasion. “He really took us out of our comfort zone and trained us like no other coach had trained us,” Johnson said. “At first, there was resistance. Nobody could understand it. If you’ve seen the movie ‘Miracle,’ it actually made him out to be a pretty nice guy.”
Johnson has learned what it takes to prepare for the opportunity to compete against the best in the world and then make the most of it. He knows all about the pressure and stress that comes with competing and coaching on the biggest hockey stages in the world. And it is that experience that will prove invaluable when his US women’s team takes the ice in Vancouver.
I know I’ll be watching - will you?
Work Hard. Dream BIG.
~ Coach Kim
