BC Hires Defensive Coach

The Daily News Record - by Joe Lemire

BRIDGEWATER – Jack Johnson wanted to coach at a winning program, and Bridgewater College needed a new defensive line coach – it was a perfect match.

Eagles football coach Michael Clark said Thursday that he has hired Johnson to fill the defensive line position after Stephon Healey switched to coach the offensive line, which was vacated when Bob Colbert left to take the head coaching job at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pa.

"It’s hard to coach in this business if you’re not winning," Johnson said by telephone Thursday. "It’s not fun. I researched Bridgewater and know they have a winning program."

Johnson has seen both sides of the football spectrum. As a freshman defensive lineman at Mary Hardin-Baylor during the school’s inaugural season in 1998, he was one of 211 players who showed up for the first day of practice. Predictably, the Crusaders struggled, going just 2-8 in their first season and 5-5 the next year.

"There was a core group of guys – Jack being one of them – that really held us together," said UMHB’s Pete Fredenburg, who has been the coach all eight years of the program’s existence. "Especially in the first two years, there were some rocky roads. All they lived off was a vision."

By Johnson’s senior season, the 211 members of that first recruiting class had whittled down to nine, but the Crusaders made their first appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs.

"We stuck in there and we fought and we turned that thing around," he said. "...I’m still real good friends with several of those guys. It’s a special bond that we’ll always have together."

After finishing his playing days, Johnson stayed at Mary Hardin-Baylor, working on his master’s degree in education (which he finished in December) and serving as a graduate assistant football coach. The Crusaders have gone 41-6 the last four years, including a loss to Linfield in the 2004 Stagg Bowl.

Fredenburg described Johnson as a "great teacher" who successfully undertook the responsibilities of a full-time position coach and who commanded respect from his players despite being just a few years older.

"That’s the thing that’s just overwhelming about him," Fredenburg, a former defensive coordinator at Baylor, said. "If they needed scolding, he scolded them; if they needed praise, he praised them. He handled them with ease. He’s a mature youngster. We didn’t have a position to offer him or we would have."