The Northeast Texas Community College Men’s Soccer staff was recently named Men’s South Region Staff of the Year for Division I Junior College institutions. This honor is a result of a vote by other coaches in the region who are also members of the United Soccer Coaches College Services program. Those honored include Dean Johnson, Head Coach; Leah Stringer, Assistant Coach, and Ross Brown, Assistant Coach.
Johnson, in his first year coaching the Eagles, led his team to a great 17-3-2 season and finished up seventh in the nation in the last NJCAA Division 1 rankings. The team qualified for the NJCAA National Tournament, where they won their first pool play game against Muskegon College, but lost to top-ranked Pima College to end the season.
“I am very proud of our soccer staff. Coach Johnson and his staff did an excellent job recruiting and they hit the ground running this fall. They did a phenomenal job taking this team all the way to the national tournament. This is a well-deserved honor,” Andy Morgan, NTCC Athletic Director, said.
Johnson is originally from Watford, England. He came to the United States to play in 2011, where he had two very successful seasons at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming. He also played three seasons in the United Soccer League’s Premier Development League before graduating from Bluefield College with a BS in Sports Management. Upon graduation, Johnson made the transition to coaching and he joined the staff of Wayland Baptist University in 2016. He was hired as NTCC’s men’s head soccer coach in 2018.
Stringer is in her third year of coaching at NTCC. Prior to coming to NTCC, she was the Assistant/Goalkeeper Coach for a boy’s competitive soccer club in Dallas. She was a four-year starter at Central Christian College of Kansas, where she won numerous honors as a player. Brown is a first-year volunteer coach. He played under Johnson as a student at Wayland Baptist University.
To learn more about NTCC Eagles Soccer, visit www.ntcceagles.com.
