Johnson’s journey with New Ulm girls soccer ends
'JJ' retires after 18-year head coaching run
Trending
NEW ULM - "It's not the destination, it's the journey in between."
Those were words Jonathan Johnson used to describe his 21 years coaching for the New Ulm Eagles varsity girls soccer program.
Johnson officially announced his decision to retire from coaching on Thursday. He recently finished his 18th season as head coach for the Eagles with a 165-113-26 record and was a three-time section girls soccer coach of the year, winning it in 2011, 2025 and 2026.
"At the end of the 2025 season, we had a coaches get-together and I said, 'One more year and I'm done,'" Johnson said. "One of the other assistant coaches piped up, 'How many years have you said that?' And I said, 'Probably 10.' But I have vision problems and it's not getting any better. It's just been harder for me to see what's going on out there. I think I can hold really good practice, but when it comes to coaching in the game, everything's happening and by the time it registers behind my dim eyes, it's too late. I'll have to give kudos to my assistant coaches because they're wonderful. They're the best assistant coaches I've ever had."
Johnson has had his vision aided the last four years by wearing a special form of night binoculars headset called IrisVision glasses.
"It works excellent at night, it doesn't work for a hoot during the day," he said. "But when it's dark out, it just makes everything look like it's daytime. I can zoom in and out, I can actually take pictures with it, but I can't do videos."
Johnson said a couple of times opponents thought he was cheating with his special eyewear or controlling drones above to aid his team. Johnson found it humorous but also said the referees had no problem with his visual aid equipment.
Johnson has been involved with the girls soccer program since its inception in 2005 when his two daughters played for the team. He was an assistant who kept book, ran the scoreboard and was at all the practices. He even refereed a handful of boys soccer games the first two years with the girls program as they played both of their varsity games the same day at the same location.
At New Ulm, Johnson coached through three different superintendents, nine activities directors and 15 assistant coaches.
Johnson, or more often known as "JJ," said he got the nickname during vocational school in Granite Falls when classmates said his name was too long.
"I said I'm not a John because my mom told me that you're not a John, you're Jonathan," he said. "So then it was, 'JJ,' and [I said] yeah, whatever. So from 1976 on it's been JJ."
Johnson said in all his time coaching, his fondest memory was being an eighth-seeded underdog in the 2019 playoffs and knocking off top-seeded Mankato West in the second round.
"Seven years ago, when we still had 18 teams in the section and we were seeded No. 8, we won our first-round [game]," he said. "And then we got up against Mankato West in the next round and they were seeded No. 1 and we beat them in overtime. [It was] cold and windy and nasty."
With less than a minute left in overtime in that playoff upset in North Mankato, Paige Kalis, a junior that year, scored on a breakaway goal to give the eighth-seeded Eagles the 2-1 win.
Johnson said he saw a boom when it came to interest in girls soccer about 10 years ago and the interest has been steady since. He said due to summer programs and more disciplined players, however, the talent has gotten better and better every year.
For Johnson, seeing his players improve and connect the dots on the pitch was always a joy for him.
"The biggest joy is seeing players connect the game together from one end to the other," Johnson said. "There's games where everything is disheveled and not making sense to me and, why are we doing this? But then you play the next game or even next half and things start clicking and the players are just making things work where they're stringing passes together and making accurate passes and receiving and taking nice shots. The journey through the game is the best part of it."
As for when next summer rolls around, Johnson said he's likely going to feel that urge to coach but he knows it's the right time to step down.
"Oh, I'll be watching the games, it's still in my blood," he said about next year. "But just with the eye situation and I just turned 70 a week ago, a week plus, but I've got plans to do with my family and things like that.
"I know come July and August next year, I'm going to have this big ache in my heart because I'm not going to be involved, but it's got to happen and it's time for some younger blood to get in there and lead these kids because they're a great bunch of kids. I think for the next, at least, three or four years, New Ulm girls soccer is going to be a really good team and hard to beat."