Bio

Steve Johnson, uOttawa’s second longest serving coach, has guided the Gee-Gees to seventeen U SPORTS national championship tournament berths and two national titles (1996 and 2018) since founding the uOttawa women’s soccer varsity program in 1994. 2024’s OUA championship, Johnson’s twelfth, is the record for most championships by an OUA women’s soccer program. At the conclusion of the 2024 regular season, his career regular season record is 303-33-66. 

The native of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, is a two-time national university Coach of the Year. He was first awarded the title in 1996 as his Gee-Gees captured the national championship in just their third season. He was then named CIS Coach of the Year again in 2005 after guiding his team to a national silver medal. He is an eight-time OUA Coach of the Year, most recently in 2024.

In total, the Gee-Gees have earned four national silver medals (1997, 2000, 2003 and 2005) and six national bronze medals (2001, 2006, 2011, 2014, 2022, and 2024) as well as twelve Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship titles. The Gee-Gees have qualified for the OUA playoffs in all 30 seasons and have won 23 conference medals.

In 2019, Johnson led the Gee-Gees to victory at the innagural FISU World Cup. In 2022 the team captured gold at the FISU Americas tournament. He was the 2018 Ottawa Sports Awards Coach of the Year.

With over 40 years of coaching experience, Johnson was also head coach and manager of the Canadian women’s soccer entry for the 2001, 2005 and 2007 World University Games, and served as an assistant coach at the 2013 event in Kazan, Russia.

He holds a Bachelor of Sciences degree (1985) and a Bachelor of Education (1986) from Mount Allison University, where he served as head coach of the women’s soccer team from 1980 to 1987. A part-time coach at the University of Ottawa until 2017, Johnson was also a teacher at Ottawa’s Sir Wilfrid Laurier High School. Johnson officially became a full-time coach at uOttawa on August 1, 2017.

Records following the 2024 OUA playoffs:

OVERALL RECORD (regular season plus postseason, all with uOttawa):

532 games: 393-69-70 (.739 winning percentage, .129 losing percentage)

REGULAR SEASON RECORD (all with uOttawa):

402 games: 303-33-66 (.754 winning percentage, .082 losing percentage)

OUA East Coach of The Year: 2024, 2021, 2019, 2013, 2012, 2005, 1996, 1994