Former All-Big West point guard Emilie Blate (formerly Johnson) was hired as the new head coach at William Jessup University, it was announced Wednesday.
The job will bring Johnson back to California after spending the past season as the assistant director of operations for Oregon State’s women’s basketball team. In Corvallis, she gained valuable experience working under Scott Ruek, the 2015 Pac-12 Coach of the Year, who led the Beavers to a conference championship and its highest end-of-season ranking ever at No. 13.
A Loomis, Calif. native, she will now be working in nearby Rocklin, which is less than 10 miles away from her alma mater Del Oro High School.
Johnson’s standout prep career with the Golden Eagles, highlighted by a McDonald’s All-America nomination, caught the attention of then UCSB coach Mark French who recruited the point guard as part of his final recruiting class.
In her playing days at UCSB, Johnson earned the distinction of being the first Gaucho in nearly a decade to be honored by the Big West in all four of her years. She ran the point for UCSB throughout her career and led the school to two Big West Championships and a pair of regular season titles.
Her four conference player of the week awards are tied for second in program history, while she led UCSB in scoring for three straight seasons (2009-12). Johnson ended her career as the program’s 13th all-time leading scorer with 1,375 points. Among the 26 Gauchos in the school’s 1,000-point club, Johnson stands out as the top free throw shooter in going 82.8 percent at the line through the entirety of her career.
Johnson’s accomplishments as a Gaucho went beyond the basketball court, as she earned the 2010 Excellence in Scholarship Award and was named to the Lowe’s Senior CLASS First Team for exemplifying “excellence in community, classroom, character, and competition.”
Johnson first entered the coaching world after graduating from UCSB in 2012, as she was immediately hired as an assistant to Westmont head coach Kirsten Moore. During her time with the Warriors, Johnson helped guide the team to an NAIA National Championship in the 2012-13 season.
She also continued her playing career in Europe, as she spent the 2013-14 season competing in the top division of the polish Professional Basketball League.
It was not her first time playing abroad, as Johnson was also a starter for Team USA in the 2011 Pan-American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
In accepting the position with William Jessup – which competes within the NAIA – Johnson emerged as the school’s top choice among an applicant pool of over 100 candidates.
