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The Johnsons
I played soccer for the first time
in I guess, in an organized event
as a 9th grader at the Junior High. So our junior high
was 7th, 8th, and 9th grade, so it was a big decision going from 8th
to 9th grade because the decision was either cross country,
soccer, or football. So all my buddies were playing
football, except for two who
had played some type of soccer. I don't know where because it wasn't a very big
sport in Middletown, NJ. And they were playing,
they were going to play soccer and kept harassing me to play
soccer and my parents said "do what you want," I was 5 ft
tall and I probably weighed 70 pounds, so
at the last minute I went to soccer practice instead of football practice
even though I had dreams of being Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath,
and the second week I think the coach threw me in
to the goal, even though I was the shortest guy on the team, so
I could catch the ball, I could jump a little bit even then so
my first year was spent picking the ball up out of the goal after
the other teams annihilated out team, so that's where I started
with school soccer and I did it all through high school
so I could stay fit and get ready for my, at that time
my first love, actually my second love was basketball. Actually my first love was baseball
when I was really little, and then basketball and then soccer, and so I
was going to college and I played.
I went to the Air Force Academy first and I thought I was going to play basketball there but I didn't.
I left there after a semester and my parents
said well, if you're going to go to school you have to go to Calvin College where we went
in Grand Rapids Michigan, and I didn't have any other plan and I didn't have any money
so I ended up at Calvin and it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I played both basketball and soccer there. I got my first job
because the principle at Ft. Lauderdale Christian High School was a Calvin College graduate
and had played basketball and soccer at Calvin just like I did, so
he came up to Grand Rapids Michigan from Ft. Lauderdale looking
for a soccer coach. So his first call obviously was to Dr.
Ziedema in the phys ed program because he was the soccer coach
and he asked him "do you have any seniors who are capable of
starting a soccer program. We're dropping football at our school,
and we're going to start soccer." And Dr. Zeidema said I have just the guy for you.
He was hired as our Athletic Director, and
we knew he had soccer background, and we had football
at the time. He was very serious
very organized, very passionate about the
sport. We could tell that from the beginning. The perfect job for me
because I got to coach the two sports I liked the most and
I was my own boss, I was the AD, didn't have anyone hovering over me
the principle and I got along really well. He let me do my own thing.
as long as I was in some boundaries; and so by the end of 10 years
we had some really good teams of basketball and soccer because we had
5th and 6th, 7th and 8th, 9th and 10th, and of course
varsity and of course I had a hand in all those sports and had some
good coaches who shared the same types of philosophy that we then developed
skill, how to play together, those kind of things, and that
culminated in soccer in the state championship, and
looking at the cupboard at the time, there was no
nobody coming up in either basketball or soccer so we were really successful
with that last year and that kind of forced my hand and
I decided to go back to school. Eric had a
Grad Assistant position and that's how we were able
to get him through to get his doctorate
to be able to coach at the
college level. My wife and I and our two oldest boys
Cole and Colton, We
I guess, Belverly Hillbillied it all the way to Albuquerque, New Mexico
with a moving van and my truck
with Shelia's car towed behind, we just picked up and moved.
sold everything we had in Ft. Lauderdale and I had an assistantship
at the University of New Mexico and did all my coursework
in the two years while we were there and Shelia worked at a local hospital.
We drug the boys everywhere we went so
they spent a lot of time in the gym with me. She would drop them off
at the end of my teaching schedule and I would have them the rest of the day.
My adviser for my discertation and for graduation
was Dr. Degrut, and Dr. Degrut was
graduated from Monmouth college right up the road here and he
went to school with the head of the physical ed
program, Dr. Tucker at Loras College
in Debuque, IA so one phone call got me an interview when
they open up a soccer and a teaching position in Sport Management.
at Loras College, so again, someone knew
someone and took a chance on me and I spent five years
at Loras and in the meantime, Quinn and
then McClain came along so we ended up with four boys
when we moved down here they were all
small yet. So after five years
I came to Western. We loved it there
it was a great experience for us but he did want to develop
more and he wanted to be able to provide
scholarships and that was his dream I believe
coach Division I level, and
because he had the teaching experience
and his doctorate at that point in time, he was able to
and we were grateful to be able to come to Macomb, and
coach Division I. I almost quit the first year. It was
even more different than coaching the kids at Loras
and I wasn't happy but some of that was
because I had trouble with the first team. They didn't think
think I knew what I was doing, they didn't want to play for me,
they were the other coaches players. I didn't really have time to
recruit because I didn't get the job till March and
the first year was a struggle because of the personality
conflicts between the seniors and the juniors who had been here
and they wanted to do it a certain way, they play it differently
I wanted it, my style was way different than the way they wanted to play.
So that first year was difficult. We
were pretty good but we didn't win a log of games. I think we were 7
and 12, something like that. But we hung in there
and our kids were happy. My wife was happy because our kids were happy.
He would let us travel with them on busses, and they
vans, and we pretty much would do just whatever we wanted
cause he was always with the team and whatnot. And so bus rides were always fun
We'd be crawling around on the floors, underneath the guy's feet
and they'd be lifting us up above their heads, passing us around the bus
and stuff and it was basically just recess at first.
You get to know a lot of guys over the years and so I can't
tell you how many hundreds of players I know from the Western teams
back in the late 90's, early 2000s and
you know, to know all those guys and to be around the program
I think it made it that much more fun when I was able to put on the jersey.
It was a lot of fun. I grew up
watching Western play.
I mean, we used to, when we were little, McClain and I would go out and watch
practices and we'd run around Western Hall
yeah it was a lot of fun. I always see some
janitors and teachers always saying they remember
me making, doing dumb stuff around campus
with my brother. You know there are signs all over campus here today and they originated
I think from McClean and Quin. The signs read
No unsupervised children allowed in this building, and
cause those guys explored every building on this campus.
They were dropped off after school, their bus route dropped them off here
not at home, you know because my wife was working, so
they spent a lot of time at practice and so obviously
they've been around the game, they've been around sports, and they've all played
basketball, they all played soccer, they all kicked for Macomb High School.
football team. Each one bettered the other's record because
they had more opportunities to do that. The boys
inherently, I mean Eric, you know,
you want to say, ok yeah. You talk about it every night, or Eric
talks about it every night with the boys and that wasn't necessarily so
he would throw. He was talking about it the other night, he would throw a baseball
with all the boys, play catch with all the boys, you know
throw the football, you know. Every Christmas they go to the basketball court
and play basketball but they always seem to
fall back to soccer and that's their choice. I think that we all
just knew what we liked. We wouldn't really play, you know we'd play like
two b two basketball at home sometimes but it was always two be two soccer in the back
yard. You know McCain and I vs Quin and Colton or something like that.
some variation of that so I think it's just being
around it all of our lives, it just formed a bond between all of us
ant that's what we all love to do. You know we hoped that they would all
have an opportunity to play college sports because I knew that if they played college sports
they'd probably graduate and if they graduated, they would have a
good experience in college and it would help them grow up and
everyone needs that opportunity to grow up in a good environment
you know so Cole came here and we ended up pushing him out of town, you know he needed to get away
he was too comfortable here. So he went to a junior college and played two years
there and came back. I learned how to deal with things without my family
you know, like just going home to them, you know I had to call them if I wanted
I think I just became more independent which is a great
thing. But the coach I played for there also played
for my dad so a lot of the style was the same. Cole
was the most athletic between Cole and
Colton and he started as a freshman
I never looked at other schools. I guess some of my brothers have looked at other schools
I never went on a recruiting trip anywhere else. As soon as
the day when he said, you might be able to play, you know maybe by
your senior year. You know, be int he practice lot, maybe in your senior year
you'll have some minutes in. You know he was probably tougher on me than on anyone
else. I always tell people this story, they don't believe me but
going into my freshman year, he gives out a conditioning pack
and you're supposed to do that, you know, stay in shape and he goes, you know you'd better
be ready for 120s, which is our fitness test and he goes if
you don't pass, I'm cutting you, and so that sumnmer
was like, Holy Cow if I don't get in shape and can pass this fitness test
the first time, then I'm not going to be able to be on the team. I think I
saw that Colton was going to be a big part of our team
his senior year in high school. He dominated in his
in the high school area and they went pretty far and he scored
a ton of goals for his high school team and was growing
and got some speed to him and when he got to 6'2" and he could jump
and he had the ball we knew that he was going to be a pretty good defensive player
Quinn decided to go to Springfield so he could play
right away, he wanted to get out of town. I didn't know what I, exactly
what I wanted to do coming out of high school
and so I was actually thinking about kicking
at some smaller colleges, kicking
for football, and then
I was contacted by Illinois Springfield
and they're a smaller Division II school, so
they contacted me and so I went
visited, and I really liked it. He spent two years at UIS
and played and started in a ton of games there and then came back and
it was a different experience for him because he's got to fight for playing time but he's done
well with it. And then McClain, you know having three older brothers
grew up and he's probably the most technical guy because if he
wanted to get the ball in the back yard, you know he had to learn how to keep it and you know, those guys could catch him
when he had the ball and so it's interesting watching how he grew up
being the littlest and having to fight so much. He might be the scrappiest player
we got. He's pretty mean on the field. I really never thought about going anywhere else.
So it was a pretty easy decision. Here at Western
he's really build a tradition
of being a family, so I think after
we're gone it won't be much different because he cares just as much
about all the other players as he does us. He treated us just like
the other players. When it was time, and practice and especially games, you know it was
in my case you know, player, not a son
and during the seasons, we tried to keep that relationship separate
and if we could and just keep it professional
He may not say it but I think
he's enjoyed having us, most of us, he's still got, he'll probably have
three more years of McLean, the youngest and so you know
but, I think he's enjoyed it. He talks to
Colton about coaching a lot now and Cole as well
I'm sure when we're all done, we call all join those conversations.
About coaching, about the team, it'll just e a different perspective.
Yeah, I try to convince them not to go into coaching because it's difficult
to find a job for one. The lifestyle is tough if you don't learn how
to deal with it. You see a lot of burn out. You see a lot of families
that are dysfunctional because it's *** the wife especially
With Division I recruiting, you're gone, you're gone, you're gone and if you don't have
the ability like I did to maybe bring the family
into it, it can be very difficult on the family. You know but they
they are just exposed probably to too much
sport and they really love it. And so I try to
steer them the other way and tell them there's other thing they could do and
but now that they've chose, at least Cole and Colton, you know I'm happy
for them because they're happy. And I think that bottom line, they say that
they heard me say that I've got the best job in the world and them
I live like that, you know I have it really good. Over the years
seeing all the guys that my dad has had relationships with
and him trying to have a positive impact on their lives
and then seeing them five years down the road come back to Western and then
show their gratitude and how much they respected him
professor, coach, mentor, whatever it was, to see them
those relationships and for him to have that impact, you know I wanted
that, and I think that being a college soccer coach is probably
a really good way to do that. I always thought of myself as
more of a teacher than anything and that's what I want
to be but then I kind of changed and I just want to coach
now, put all my time into that. I think
being the oldest of four brothers, I was always geared towards
helping and teaching them and so it makes me happy to do that.
I would like to coach, probably at the high school or club level though.
I don't think I would coach at the collegiate level.
But yeah, I would definitely like to coach at the younger level.
I have no idea what I want to do, but you know, not coaching.
I'm not, that's not who I am really. I don't think I can coach but
I'm in Construction Management right now so we'll see how that goes.
It's been nice to see them find the same niche and we'll see where
it ends up for Cole and Colton. You know Quinn and McLean, I don't know what will happen.
with them you know. With McLean, you know, he talks
about different things all the time and I don't know if coaching is in his future
Quinn,I could see Quinn coaching for sure but you know he's got to make
he's majoring in Physical Education, so if he gets a teaching job I'm sure
he'll want to coach. So we'll keep track
of them and I'll help them if I can but the biggest thing is
if they're happy, I'm happy. We have high
expectations and we are passionate
about life and about each other and about soccer
about friends and family and so
hopefully that passion lives on. I don't know, I don't usually think
about that, what people think of our family but hopefully
they see us as respectable, hard working
people and that we're going to treat people
with respect and high demanding obviously of our
students and student athletes, you know in terms of me and
dad and just respectable, hard working
people. I hope people see us that way. I'd say
hard working, before all
I mean, it
as long as they see that, that we work hard
I think that's the most important thing
other than that, I don't care too much.
We work hard, for sure, we're honest
we take responsibility for our actions.
Good characters, good people I guess
I want to say it doesn't really matter because we know who we are
but we'd like them to think of us as good people.
Hard working, honest people that are loyal
that made a difference
in someone's life maybe, somehow, you know if that
happened we'd all be happy