MATTIAS JOHANSSON • HEAD COACH

Mattias begins his twelfth season as Men’s Tennis Coach at Vanguard University. Johansson became the head coach of the program after two very successful years as a player with the school. He accumulated a 41–18 record in his two-year career as the number one singles player for the Lions. The last eleven seasons as the head coach, he directed the VU team to a 170-86 record, earning his 100th win near the end of the 2003 season. During that span the Lions have won three GSAC Championships (1995, 1996, 2000) and two Region II Championships (1995, 1998), and have been ranked in the NAIA top 25 every year. Since Johansson’s involvement with the program, the VU men’s tennis team has advanced to the NAIA National Tournament in twelve of the last thirteen seasons. Their highest finish was in 2000 when the Lions tied for third place. The past three seasons the Lions made it to the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Tournament before exiting in a tie for fifth place.

"I am excited to be able to continue with the tennis program at VU," says Johansson. "I loved Vanguard University when I was a player, and now I want to continue to build on the strong tradition of the tennis program as the head coach. Vanguard is a great Christian institution with great teachers and an exceptional athletic department."

Johansson has been actively teaching tennis since he was fourteen and has competed in tennis for well over twenty years. In 1999, he was honored as the GSAC Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year and in 2005 he was named the Region II Co-Coach of the Year for the first time in his career. Although already extremely well known for his success at the NAIA level, the Swedish coach is still actively pursuing his first national championship for the Lions.

Mattias earned a BA in Exercise Sports Science and a BA in Business Administration at Vanguard. He also attained his Master’s degree in Business at National University in 2001. Aside from coaching the men’s and women’s tennis teams for the Lions, he is also an adjunct teacher in the Exercise Sports Science department at Vanguard and teaches tennis at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.

Johansson and his wife Karie live in Huntington Beach and have a daughter named Brooke and a son named Dylan.  Contact Coach Johansson by e-mail at mattias.johansson@vanguard.edu.

AMY BROWN *  ASSISTANT COACH

Amy graduated from Vanguard last spring and begins her collegiate coaching career as an assistant for Coach Mattias Johansson and both VU tennis teams. Brown will provide assistance for the Lions in all aspects of the program after a stellar career with the Vanguard women.

Brown was one of VU’s top female players her entire career, ending as the No. 1 singles player in Vanguard’s lineup as a senior in 2007. The team captain was also a solid performer on VU’s No. 2 doubles team. Raking in NAIA All-America and Scholar-Athlete honors, Brown ended her career with the Lions as the 18th-ranked singles player in the NAIA. She helped lead her team to the quarterfinal round in 2007, making her career complete with four trips to the NAIA Tournament.

A three-time All-GSAC and NAIA All-American, Brown finished with a 53-30 singles record after a successful high school career at Foothill High School in Redding, California. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Communications last spring and returns to her alma mater this spring to help her former team continue the quest for a national championship.