Mark Johnson begins his seventh season as an assistant coach and recruiting
coordinator for the Blue Hose. He has established himself has an outstanding
recruiter. His recent recruiting classes have been some of the best in the
program’s history. In the last two seasons Johnson has also been instrumental
in developing these players throughout the Division I transition.
Johnson has
been a tremendous asset as the pitching coach. In 2009, Johnson’s pitchers led
the way in the school first ever Big South Conference sweep over Charleston
Southern University as well as big wins over No. 19 Coastal Carolina
University, UAB, The Citadel and wins in the program’s first year competing in
the Big South Conference. Under the direction of Johnson, Mitchell Odom was named
to the Big South All-Academic team. In 2008, Ben Dollar signed a free-agent contract with
the Arizona Diamondbacks. Also, during PC’s inaugural Division I season
Johnson’s pitchers help guide PC to their first-ever Division I win over
UNC-Asheville, first Division I sweep of Marist College and impressive wins
over Yale, Wofford, UAB and USC-Upstate.
Prior to
coming to PC, he spent three years as an assistant baseball coach at NCAA
Division III Piedmont College in Demorest, Ga. Throughout his tenure with the
Lions, he assisted in recruiting, fundraising, field maintenance and on-field
instruction specializing with the pitching staff, while helping lead the
program to a pair of National Christian College World Series Tournament
appearances and the 2003 National Christian College South Region Championship.
During his
playing career, Johnson was a four-year letterwinner at Methodist University as a pitcher. Johnson was a
two-year captain, an all-South Region selection and an SGA Senior Athlete of
the Year. He made three NCAA III South Regional tournament appearances in ’98,
’99, ’01. In 1997, he helped lead Lee-Davis High School in Mechanicsville, Va., to the first Virginia Class 3-A state
championship in the school’s history as a senior.
Johnson
earned a bachelor of science degree in sports management with a minor in business
administration from Methodist in 2001. He later earned his MBA from Piedmont College in May of 2003.
Johnson is
married to former Shannon Paitsell of Evans, Ga., and the couple resides in Greenwood, S.C.
