Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson starts his 39th season as the men's coach and 12th season as the women's coach at ICC.

The former ICC student-athlete received the 2008 Herschel Stephens Award, which is presented annually for outstanding service and dedication nationwide to tennis by the NJCAA Tennis Coaches Association. That same year, he was selected as the Mississippi Tennis Association Coach of the Year, an award based on his accomplishments during his career at ICC. Johnson was inducted into the MACJC Hall of Fame in 2010.

In 2009, he was inducted into the NJCAA Men's Athletic Hall of Fame after leading the Indians to a No. 17 finish in the national tournament. The Indians returned to that tournament for the thirteenth time last season and finished No. 16 after winning the program's sixth state title and runner-up in the Region 23 tournament.

Both of Johnson's men's and women's teams won state titles in 2011. His men finished runner-up at the Region 23 tournament and eighteenth in the nation, while the women were third in regional play and finished twenty-seventh in the nation. Johnson, who received his United States Professional Tennis Association's Certificate in 1995, earned the Master of Education degree from Mississippi State University. He started his coaching career in football at Ackerman High School. In 1972, he became an assistant football coach, men's tennis coach and head of IJC's physical education department.

He is married to the former Brenda Hill of Okolona, and they have two children, Leigh Craft of Atlanta, Ga. and Mitch of Booneville.