JJ Johnson Tabbed RMISA Alpine Coach of the Year

Press launch supplied by the College of Utah, pictures: JJ Johnson photograph Dyke/Utah Athletics staff Eli Rehmer/Utah Athletics

Johnson takes league honor for the second 12 months in a row

SALT LAKE CITY – College of Utah head alpine snowboarding coach JJ Johnson was named RMISA Coach of the 12 months on Thursday. It’s Johnson’s fourth profession RMISA Coach of the 12 months honor, additionally taking it house in 2019, ’20 and ’23. Johnson’s alpine squad, plus the Utah Nordic contingent, mixed for a runner-up end this previous season on the NCAA Championships. It marked the ninth straight nationwide championship meet that the Utes positioned fourth or increased; it included a run of 4 straight nationwide titles (2019-23) which had not beforehand occurred within the combined-gender period of NCAA snowboarding. Below the steerage of Johnson and assistant alpine coach Mary Joyce, the Utes scored probably the most common season alpine factors of any RMISA staff (1190.5). The lads’s squad topped the league with 614.5 factors whereas the ladies positioned second (576) behind solely Denver. All advised, Utah had 10 particular person alpine race wins all through the marketing campaign. Seven Utah alpiners earned All-RMISA postseason honors, headlined by Kaja Norbye’s nod as ladies’s slalom MVP. Awarded to the skier with probably the most NCAA qualification factors, Norbye had a exceptional season as she began all 14 races with 13 top-10 outcomes, together with six podiums and three wins. Then on the NCAA Championships, six alpine All-America citations went to the Utes led by Mikkel Solbakken’s win in males’s big slalom. It made Solbakken the primary males’s alpine particular person champion from Utah (both in GS or slalom) since 2016. Johnson additionally coached fellow First Crew All-Individuals Madison Hoffman and Sindre Myklebust. Hoffman wrapped up a stellar Utah profession with a pair of second-place outcomes at NCAAs, whereas Myklebust turned in a runner-up GS efficiency in his nationals debut as a freshman. Norbye additionally reeled in All-American honors, putting sixth in GS.