SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – UC Santa Barbara Track and Field has announced their newest hire in Lamont Johnson who will serve as the new Assistant Coach for sprints, hurdles, and relays.
"Lamont is a coach who knows how to recruit and understands what needs to be done behind the scenes for a program to be successful," said head coach Vijay Saxena. "Having success at the NCAA Championship level without the facilities shows his adaptability and creativity as a coach. I'm really excited to work alongside him and can't wait to have our team meet him in person."
Johnson comes to Santa Barbara after serving as Associate Head Coach at San José State University, where he worked primarily with the sprints and hurdles. During his time with the Spartans, Johnson helped build program depth through his leadership in recruiting while also spearheading the most successful fundraising effort in program history.
Prior to his time in San José, Johnson held the role of Assistant Women's Track and Field Coach at Georgia State University. With the Panthers, he designed and implemented training programs for the sprints and hurdles while overseeing recruiting, travel, and program operations. Across two seasons at Georgia State, Johnson trained one Sunbelt Champion, along with three second team and one third team All-Conference finishers.
Before his position in Georgia, Johnson was Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Oakland University, where his sprinters, hurdlers, and jumpers earned 10 Horizon League titles and set multiple school records.
Johnson's leadership experience also includes two seasons at Johnson C. Smith University as the Head Coach of Track and Field and Cross Country programs. Here, he led his teams to multiple CIAA Championships, raised over $200,000 in fundraising efforts, and achieved a 100% graduation rate for his student-athletes.
Earlier in his career, Johnson spent two seasons at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside as an Assistant Coach for jumps, sprints and hurdles. Previously, he coached at Eastern Michigan University, where he helped lead the program to two MAC Championships and coached four MAC All-Time performers. Johnson also spent two seasons as an Assistant Track and Field Coach at the Academy of Art University, contributing to two national championship teams.
After graduating from Iowa State with a B.A. in Sociology, Johnson began his coaching career with volunteer roles at the University of Alabama, the University of New Mexico, and his alma mater. He began his role with the Gauchos 10/13
