Justin Johnson is in his third season at Concordia University Irvine as the men's water polo head coach. He was hired as the leader of the men's program in the summer of 2023 and helped make an immediate impact.
In each of his first two seasons, he directed the Golden Eagles to playoff victories at the conference tournament and all the way to the WWPA Championship Game for the first and second times in program history.
Upperclassman Jacob Stuart and Harry Bentham have both joined the 100-goal club at CUI during that time. Bentham became an ACWPC First Team All-American in back-to-back seasons, and teammate Konstantinos Koulouris joined him with that national honor in 2024.
In Johnson's second season, Koulouris was named WWPA Co-Player of the Year after leading CUI with 117 points (second-most in the DII era) and racking up the most assists in a season with 52 recorded helpers. Koulouris was also honored as CUI Scholar-Athlete of the Year at the annual Senior Legacy Award Banquet and was introduced by Johnson at the ceremony.
Johnson earned his MBA from Concordia in 2014 and was a member of the US National Team from 2003 to 2011. He is a UCLA graduate and former Bruins student-athlete in the pool who also served as a water polo graduate assistant at CUI during his time here about a decade ago.
Since that time, Johnson has had great success building relationships with young student-athletes while coaching at multiple local high schools and club teams. Johnson coached at both El Toro High School and Santa Margarita High School, grooming young student-athletes to reach their full potential.
Prior to returning to CUI, Johnson worked at Santa Margarita for six years and took over as the head of the boys water polo program there in 2019. His ties throughout Southern California kept him in the region and with an eye on his alma mater.
At El Toro, he was named Orange County Register Coach of the Year in 2016 and the girls team was CIF runner-up. His El Toro teams were CIF champions from 2014-2017. In addition, he has contributed to the success of the Saddleback El Toro (SET) Water Polo Club.
He places an emphasis on investing time in people and not just the X’s and O’s outside the pool deck.
Johnson also navigated the CUI men’s water polo program through a transition to a new-look conference in the fall of 2023. The league features Concordia, Biola, Fresno Pacific and now UC Merced in California along with three universities from the East Coast (McKendree, Gannon and Salem). The winner of the conference tournament earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
