Johnson Named "Model Coach"

 The Sac-Joaquin Section today named Franklin High School football coach Mike Johnson and five others as as the recipients of the 2013-14 Sac-Joaquin Section Model Coach Award. 

Rusty Fachner (Escalon High School), Michael Gimenez (Whitney High School-Rocklin), Maria Hill (Valley Christian Academy-Roseville),  Rhonda Mohr (Davis Sr. High School) and Mimi Scott (Colfax High School) were also selected for the annual honor.

Franklin's Mike Johnson, warming up his quarterback
prior to a practice this past year

 The award, honoring coaches who are positive role models within our schools and the community at-large, is being given for the 13th year. Each of the six model coaches will receive a plaque and a lifetime Sac-Joaquin Section pass at an awards breakfast on April 3, 2014 at Hutchins Street Square in Lodi. 

Johnson has been the varsity football coach at Lincoln-Stockton and Franklin-Elk Grove High Schools for 20 years. He was also the girls basketball coach for one year; in that season he was named the league coach of the year. 

He started his head coaching career at Lincoln, where he was the SJAA coach of the year three times, and in 2000 his team won the Section Division I championship. In 2002, he became Franklin of Elk Grove’s first football coach, and has been there ever since. He was the league coach of the year twice with Franklin, and in 2012 won the National Football Foundation Rowland Smith Award. He’s also been a coach with the Franklin Junior Wildcats for five years, at all levels.

“Mike has dedicated countless hours to coaching flag football and Pop Warner football within our community,” Franklin athletic director Mike Cody said. “He does it so his sons, their friends and our community can have a great experience.

“He is a model of excellence on and off the field. His teams play hard, work hard, earn good grades, are disciplined, go to college and are always displaying ‘Pursuing Victory with Honor.’”