Title:Called to be…a coach and a teacher

Tony Johnson (Parent’95,’97,’01)

Tony Johnson has served as a Georgetown rowing coach for 28 years. Johnson, a former Olympian returned to coach at Georgetown twice after his 2014 retirement. Find out more about what keeps drawing him back to his Hoya teams and the “Swift Potomac.” 

How did you get started at Georgetown? 

I was born at Georgetown Hospital and grew up in Arlington, Virginia. I started rowing in high school, rowing from the Potomac Boat Club right below campus. I originally came to Georgetown to coach the varsity crew in the fall of 1966 and coached for three years. At that time it was an unpaid position. I left in 1969 for a full-time coaching position at Yale and then came back in the fall of 1989. In 2014, I retired but when other coaches left mid-year I came back to coach, both in 2018 and again in 2022.

What made you feel like you should come back to coach again?

I knew it was time to retire in 2014, but I also wanted to stay involved. In 2018, and again in 2022, I knew I could help out. In 2022, when I started coaching again, I realized how invigorating it all was. I’m getting older but I knew I had something to offer the guys on the team, and I knew I could do it well. But it was also so energizing to get out there and do it again: to teach, to get back to the sport that I love.

What special experiences do you remember from Georgetown? 

When I came back in 1989, I was the rowing head coach for the whole program, and the only full-time coach. When our women’s rowing coach left [in the late 1990s] I coached the women’s team. It’s all the same sport. You’re going to do well, work, pull, train, care about your teammates—and learn how to deal with all those things at once. Coaching the women that year was very special. They were very good. Rowing has become more popular, and we are doing more to promote the sport. 

What did your time at Georgetown teach you? 

Very early on, I learned the importance of the teaching aspect. My classroom is on the river. It’s not academic, but it’s a challenge that makes you grow. There are a lot of components to coaching: leadership, putting crews together, and getting people working together. A lot of that comes back to teaching the athlete how to row and be a part of a team. They all have things to learn. 

Racing is a performance; that’s a key part of my philosophy. Rowers perform every day, like someone who plays an instrument or acts. As a coach, I’m called in when that performance is on the line, as in a race. I approach it just like a teacher: you don’t succeed if you can’t get them to care about what they’re doing. 

When I returned to Georgetown I realized we could be as good a rowing school as any. We have a location near the river, good students, a strong community. Being part of that program’s growth is important to me. More than 25 years later, it’s still growing. Georgetown will continue to meaningfully turn out good crews and good people. I look forward to watching it.

In recognition of his service to Georgetown, Johnson received the Patrick Healy Award at John Carroll Weekend 2024 in Dublin, Ireland. Established in 1969, this award is conferred upon an individual who is not an alumnus, but whose achievements and record of service exemplify the ideals and traditions of Georgetown.