Mary Johnston

Mary Johnston is the Head Volleyball Coach at Macalester College

Mary Johnston became the head volleyball coach at Macalester in July of 2021 after 11 seasons as the head coach at Franklin (Ind.) College. Her first season was a memorable one, resulting in the program's first winning record in 16 years and the team's most MIAC victories since 2013.

Johnston led the Scots to a 13-12 record in 2021, including a 4-7 mark in the MIAC. Macalester ended a 41-match losing streak in MIAC games with a thrilling, five-set win over Carleton in front of a boisterous home crowd, and defeated Concordia for the first time since 2000. Eliza King became the first Scot to make the All-MIAC team since 2017.

Johnston is a graduate of the 2022 NCAA Women Coaches Academy Class #51. The NCAA Women Coaches Academy, hosted in partnership between WeCOACH and the NCAA, is a multi-day growth and development program available to NCAA coaches of all experience levels, designed for women coaches who are ready to increase their individual effectiveness by learning advanced skills and strategies that directly affect their personal and team success.

In her 11th and final season at Franklin, Johnston guided the Grizzlies to a 10-6 record overall and a 7-2 mark in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, earning her Conference Coach of the Year honors. The seven league wins are the most since 2002 and earned the team its highest seed (third) in the HCAC Tournament since 2002. During the season, Franklin received its first national ranking in the program’s history and was ranked as high as 17th. Highlights on the court included a 3-0 upset victory over No. 3 Transylvania. Five Grizzlies were named All-HCAC, while one was chosen as the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Johnston turned around a Grizzlies program that had won a combined seven matches in the two seasons prior to her arrival at Franklin. After steady improvement over her first four seasons, Johnston led her team to back-to-back appearances in the semifinals of the HCAC Tournament in 2014 and 2015. Her career record at Franklin is 130-173, including 111-108 over the last eight seasons.

Prior to her time at Franklin, Johnston was an assistant coach and athletics administrator at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., for two seasons. She also coached the volleyball and softball teams at SUNY Canton in 2007-08 and was selected the Sunrise Conference Volleyball Coach of the Year after leading the team to an undefeated league record and a berth in the national tournament.

Johnston attended Medaille College in Buffalo, N.Y., where she played both volleyball and softball and earned All-North Eastern Athletic Conference honors in both sports. She graduated from Medaille in 2005 with a degree in sports management, and later earned a Master of Science in Education degree in higher education administration from Old Dominion University in 2007.