This year Saint Francis High School got a new athletic director, Joan Johnson, who went from coaching soccer and golf for many years to being the new AD. 

“When I started this job I had 27 years of experience of coaching multiple different sports,” said Johnson.

That helped give her a better perspective about what it takes to be a successful coach.

Johnson knows most of the coaches and staff at this school, which makes it a little easier for her and she is able to communicate with different coaches.

“It makes it easier for me to go around and communicate with them,” said Johnson, “and ask how things are going and for them to teach me as much as I can to help them.” 

Johnson had been a soccer coach for many years and built a strong team.

“She doesn’t like being bragged about but she is the all time winning soccer coach in this school’s history,” said Community Education Director Chris Lindquist. She built a program and built a pretty strong program.”

Her years of experience in coaching has helped to make this transition a little more manageable, but still with this new job came a lot of differences. 

“I’m used to spending a lot more time in the gym connecting with students where I don’t get that time as much,” she said. 

Johnson also knows a lot about what goes into coaching golf and soccer games, but she was never able to experience a lot of other sports. 

“There’s obviously a learning curve to this job,” said Lindquist, “but she’s picked things up really really quickly.”

Although Johnson has gone to many games and understand how they are played, the AD has many responsibilities beyond going to games.

“I watched people play, but just learning all that goes into everything in the conference with scheduling and sections and state tournaments and kind of wrapping it all together,” said Johnson, “has been most challenging and I’ve learned a lot in the last six months.”

Lindquist described her as someone who, when they see a problem, they attack it very quickly and solve it right away. Even being new to this job, Lindquist who used to hold the position,  believes she sees what needs attention.

“There are things that are broken that need fixing right now,” said Lindquist, “and she’s the perfect person to help us kind of get over those, and solve those problems.”

Lindquist believes Johnson will continue to see things she needs to fix or wants to improve.

“It’s a constant process,” he said, “ and I think (for her) the sky’s the limit.”