Dan Johnson - Assistant Coach, Horizontal Jumps & Combined Events - Track and Field Coaches

Dan Johnson

Title:
Assistant Coach, Horizontal Jumps & Combined Events
Email:
dj57@buffalo.edu
Phone:
716-645-3627

Dan Johnson enters his third season overseeing the horizontal jumps, vertical jumps, and combined events coach for the Bulls.

In his second season, 2022 – 2023, the Bulls saw unprecedented success under the coaching of Johnson. Senior Christina Wende set two school records, won the indoor and outdoor MAC Long Jump titles, and qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary Championships in the Long Jump (20’5.75”) and Triple Jump (42’02.00”). In the combined events, junior Scilla Benussi placed 3^rd in MAC Outdoor Championships Heptathlon with the #2 best All-Time mark for UB of 5266 points, and 3^rd in the MAC Indoor Pentathlon 3789 points, UB #2 All-Time. Kevin Gabalski placed 3^rd at the MAC Indoor Heptathlon Championships (4982 points) and 2^nd at the MAC Outdoor Decathlon Championships (6604 points), setting new personal best marks in both events.

In 2021 – 2022, his first season with the Bulls, Coach Johnson led the jumps squad to several new personal best marks and school records. Senior Brandon Burke won the MAC Indoor High Jump Title and qualified for the Indoor NCAA Championships. Burke broke the Indoor School record in the High Jump with his clearance of 7’2.5”. Dustin Meyer set the #5 All-Time UB mark in the Pole Vault with his clearance of 15’9.25”, and Mike Wolford set the #5 UB All-time mark in the Decathlon. For the women, Zaria Fuller was the MAC Championship Runner-up in the high jump and qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary rounds (5’9.25”). Kaylah Britt set a personal best in the triple jump moving her to #3 UB All-time and qualifying for the NCAA East preliminary rounds (41’5.75”).

Johnson comes to UB from Hartford where he spent the previous four seasons as associate head coach. As associate head coach at Hartford, Johnson coached jumps, combined events, sprints and hurdles for four years. During this time, his student-athletes set 26 new school records, had multiple student-athletes earn America East Conference titles and had several student-athletes advance to the NCAA Championships. During the 2019-2020 Indoor season, Johnson earned USTFCCCA Northeast Region Men's Assistant Coach of the Year honors for the performance of his athletes.

Before Hartford, Johnson served as a graduate assistant track and field coach at Virginia Commonwealth University while earning his master's degree in Education through the Center of Sports Leadership. While he was at VCU, the team won the Women's A-10 Indoor Conference Championships.

Johnson completed his bachelor's degree in Sociology and a minor in Political Science from East Stroudsburg University while also being a member of the ROTC program. Johnson competed on the track & field team where he earned NCAA Division II All-American honors as a decathlete.

After finishing his undergraduate program, Johnson spent four years as an officer in the United States Army and served as a platoon leader. Stationed in Hawaii, he also coached the Mililani High School track & field team to great success for four years.