Bio

Steve Johnson, uOttawa’s second longest serving coach, has guided the Gee-Gees to sixteen U SPORTS national championship tournament berths and two national titles (1996 and 2018) since founding the uOttawa women’s soccer program in 1994. 2023’s OUA championship, Johnson’s eleventh, is the record for most championships by an OUA women’s soccer program. At the conclusion of the 2023 regular season, his career regular season record is 292-32-66. 

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 a seven-time OUA Coach of the Year, most recently in 2021.

In total, the Gee-Gees have earned four national silver medals (1997, 2000, 2003 and 2005) and five national bronze medals (2001, 2006, 2011, 2014, and 2022) as well as eleven Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship titles. The Gee-Gees have qualified for the OUA playoffs in all 29 seasons and have won 22 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 2023 OUA championship:

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

498 games: 378-66-70 (.735 winning percentage, .128 losing percentage)

REGULAR SEASON RECORD (all with uOttawa):

390 games: 292-32-66 (.749 winning percentage, .082 losing percentage)

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