Maggie Johnson bio
6/16/2010 4:28:00 AM | General
In just two seasons, Maggie Johnson became the fastest Georgia Southern coach to reach 50 wins, accomplishing the feat in 97 games. She also has the highest winning percentage among Eagles head coaches over the first two seasons (.536). The Raleigh, N.C., native became the fourth head coach in the program's fast-pitch history in June, 2008, and has guided the Eagles to a 59-51 record over her first two seasons.
In her second season at the helm, Johnson coached the Eagles to a 30-26 season, the seventh 30-win season in program history. The Eagles also won seven of their last nine Southern Conference games, including a sweep of 2010 SoCon Tournament Champion Elon, to finish the regular season tied for second. In the SoCon Tournament, Georgia Southern eliminated host and defending champion Chattanooga, a team that also won the 2010 regular season, 3-0 before falling to elimination.
Under her guidance, senior Nina Iduate set a Southern Conference single-season record, batting .450 for the year with a league-leading 85 hits, earning Player of the Year honors. Iduate was also named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American, just the second time a Georgia Southern softball player has earned the honor. Johnson also coached Megen Smith into a complete hitter. Prior to her junior season, Smith had just four home runs and hit .308 as a sophomore. As a junior, she hit .322 with 18 home runs, a Georgia Southern single-season record and second on the SoCon charts, and led the league with 47 RBIs, earning First Team All-Southern Conference accolades.
As a team, the Eagles were tied for second in the conference with 39 home runs, third with 386 hits, and tied for third with 563 total bases. In the circle, Eagles pitchers posted the fourth-best conference ERA, 2.74, while holding opponents to a .243 batting average, also fourth in the league.
Brianna Streetmon earned her second-straight SoCon Pitcher of the Year Award, leading the league with 19 wins to 12 losses, and was second in the Southern Conference with a 1.97 ERA in a conference-high 224.0 innings pitched.
In the field, the Johnson led squad posted a .958 fielding percentage, committing 76 errors in a league-high 1,797 chances. Senior first baseman Sam Russo and sophomore catcher Mackenzie Williams led the Eagles defensively. Williams was fifth in the conference with a .990 fielding percentage behind the plate, while Russo ranked eighth with a .988 fielding percentage.
The Eagles posted wins over Minnesota, Connecticut, Villanova, Boston College, and in-state rivals Georgia State and Mercer. Georgia Southern also pushed No. 6 Georgia Tech to the limit, falling 5-4 in the bottom of the seventh in Atlanta.
In her first season, Johnson led the Eagles to 29-25 (14-10) record becoming just the first Georgia Southern coach to post a winning record in their first season. Johnson guided the Eagles to their fourth straight championship game appearance in the SoCon Tournament. After dropping the first game of the tournament, GSU won four straight games to advance to the championship game.
The Eagles had non-conference highlights as well, including snapping Georgia Tech's two-year home non-conference win streak with a 6-5 win (March 24) and taking College World Series participant No. 8 Georgia to extra innings. Robyne Siliga was named player of the week for her performance in the Georgia Tech series. Siliga belted a three run homer over the left field fence to give the Eagles a 6-4 lead over the Yellow Jackets.
Under Johnson's tutelage GSU led the conference in batting average (.293) and slugging percentage (.435) en route to a fourth place finish in the Southern Conference. Marie Fogle earned Freshman of the Year and First Team All-Conference honors. In all, six players were named all-conference including, Pitcher of the Year Brianna Streetmon, Nina Iduate, Marie Fogle, Amanda Hall, Sam Russo and Megen Smith. Hanna Ennis joined Fogle on the All-Freshman Team after hitting .299 in 54 starts.
The Eagles made significant accomplishments in the classroom as well as on the field. Amanda Glover, Kristan Glover, Jordyn Nail and Sam Russo were named to the President's list during the spring semester. Seven more Eagles were named to the Dean's list and in all 75 percent of the team earned a 3.0 or better during the spring semester.
"We are excited that Maggie accepted our offer to become head coach," said Athletics Director Sam Baker. "We liked the experience she gained under very successful Division I head coaches in her time at Radford. For her youth she brings a great deal of experience to the program. We feel like she is inheriting a solid softball program and we feel that she can continue on that path of success."
Johnson comes to Statesboro after five successful seasons at Radford University where she oversaw the development of the Highlanders' hitters, coordinated travel, served as director of the Mickey Dean Softball Camps and supervised recruiting.
The Highlanders went 200-121 in her five seasons as an assistant coach, a .605 winning percentage, and set a new school record for wins in each of the past four years. Last season's team posted a 46-15 record, which included winning streaks of 16 and 10 games.
Radford hitters thrived under Johnson's guidance. As a group they set a new home run record in four consecutive seasons, including 57 in 2008. That season, they broke the batting average (.307) and slugging percentage (.486) marks for the second straight year, and posted a new on-base percentage (.361) record, breaking a mark that stood for 12 years.
Individually, Vicki Madden led the Big South and broke the freshman home run (11) and slugging percentage (.689) records. Her classmate Shannon Keefe was second all-time freshman wise with 10 round trippers and a .675 slugging percentage.
A year earlier in 2007 under Johnson, RU had what was a banner season at the plate as several Highlanders improved on their previous season's numbers and numerous individual and team hitting records were broken. The Highlanders set school records in home runs (48), batting average (.297), hits (554), doubles (98), runs (320) and slugging percentage (.449).
Along with all the team records, individual marks were obtained. Ashley Carlson (92) and Cassie Rhodes (81) recorded the top two hit totals in school history. Ashley Taylor tied the single-season home run (12) mark and Rhodes tied the single-season triples (7) record.
In 2006, Radford shattered the home run record (42), hitting more than 40 long balls for the first time in school history. The Highlanders also batted .262, the highest since 1998.
Prior to 2006, no Radford team had hit more than two ball out of the park in a game. The Highlanders broke the record three times during the month of March, culminating with a five-home run effort against Georgetown on March 25, 2006. Two of those came off the bat of Ashley Taylor, tying a 10-year old single-game record that had only been done twice before. They also set the single-game grand slam record, blasting two at Virginia Tech, on March 1, 2006.
Under her guidance in 2005, the Highlanders hit what was then a school record 32 home runs and posted a .259 batting average.
Johnson was a four-year starter at first base for UNC Wilmington from 1997-2001. While at UNCW, she hit .325 as a senior and was named All-Southern Conference Second Team. She was also tabbed to the All-Tournament team as a junior.
As a senior for the Seahawks, she set the school's career record for home runs. She currently ranks as the all-time leader in putouts and fifth in RBI.
Johnson entered the coaching profession in 2002 as an assistant coach at Pender High School in Burgaw, N.C. While at Pender, she was the batting coach and worked with the infielders, helping the team to the state 3-A playoffs for the first time in school history.
After her stint at Pender, Johnson returned to school, earning her Master's of Education in Counseling from Boston University in May of 2003.
She graduated from UNCW in 2001 with Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.
