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Trailblazer Dennis Johnson’s Vision Sees Reality at UTech
by Desmond G. Palmer, posted on 11/28/2010
Which long-time track fan hasn’t heard of Dennis Johnson or DJ, former world-class sprinter and coach extraordinaire? This Jamaican has represented his country at the highest level of track: the Olympics. He has held the world record for the 100-yards dash and has mentored and served as a father figure to numerous athletes and coaches.
DJ's Track Career at a Glance
* Ran on Jamaica's 4x100m relay team that placed fourth in 39.4 seconds at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
* Was coached in college by the legendary American coach Bud Winter.
* Clocked national records on the US collegiate circuit,
* Equaled the 100-yards world record on four occasions within a six-week period in 1961.
DJ has coached coaches who have risen to the top of their careers, as well as athletes who have climbed to the top of podiums. One such person who attests to the impact DJ’s mentoring has had on the lives of young athletes under his charge is Valmore Holt, a former long jumper, and founder and president of the Executives Track Club in New York. Coached by DJ as a student at CAST in Kingston (now the University of Technology or UTech), Holt has had enough interaction with DJ to testify about how he was influenced by him.
“I went to CAST not knowing what I wanted to do with my life,” Holt recalls. “But after having several conversations with DJ, I realized that I wanted to be just like he was – coaching, mentoring and giving back to the cause,” Holt said.
High on his resume is the job he held as coach of the formidable CAST (College of Arts Science and Technology) sprint relay team, "The Bolts of Lightening", the first Jamaica-based 4x1 squad to run under 40.00 secs.
But DJ has done more than that; he has lectured at the college level and recently has completed two books. So, having had such a busy life and illustrious career, what is Dennis Johnson up to these days?
Just when you might have thought society would be ready to “put him out to pasture”, the way it tends to do countless retirees, DJ has gone down in history again, in a way that will have long-lasting effects on the minds and careers of young aspiring professionals. He has seen his dream come true: the implementation of a bachelor’s degree program in sports science at UTech, an initiative of which he can aptly be called “the founding father.” His role in this initiative spans from helping to put together the curriculum for the program to recruiting students to register for the course.
Beginning in September this year, the four-year baccalaureate program is being offered by the Caribbean School of Sports Sciences, a division of the newly formed Faculty of Science and Sports at the university. Students pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Sports degree – which has placed emphasis on practice as much as it does on theory – can choose to major in Sports Management, the Art and Science of Coaching and Sports Physiotherapy or Sports Athletics Training. In addition to the main menu there are short courses that aspirants may use to matriculate.
Those in the program will specialize in areas that relate to athletes, such as athletic diseases, psychological and physical preparation for competition, injuries, diagnosis, and rehabilitation. Modules include sports journalism, history of competitive sports in the Jamaica and the Caribbean, and sports law. A key component in all of this is the practical experience students will be able to combine with what they learn in theory. Closely linked to the sports journalism module is the training future coaches will undergo to teach athletes how to handle interviews.
One of DJ’s long-standing visions has been to produce coaches who meet international standards. He believes that by listening to local coaches one cannot compare them with those overseas. The main difference is, he says, coaches overseas are formally trained while those in Jamaica are not. “If we don’t produce coaches to international standards, then we won’t get the kind of results we want,” DJ says. “So the Caribbean School of Sports Sciences that we’ve established here at UTech is to try to resolve that situation.”
He continues, “People in Jamaica don’t have much of an idea of what coaching is about; they believe that a coach can only coach a specific discipline,” explaining that coaching is similar to marketing. “If you do it [marketing] you can market plums as well as motor cars. The tenet of coaching is much the same. The only additional thing to do is learn about the strategy and techniques involved in whatever sport you chose.”
Sharing DJ’s vision is surgeon and medical consultant Dr. Neville Graham, head of the School of Sports
Graham: "I sit at his
[DJ's] feet to learn."
Sciences and an adjunct professor at UTech. According to Graham, the decision to develop the sports science program came out of need and experience, and he used what he calls “the decline of West Indies cricket” to note that the current status of Jamaica’s track and field should not be allowed to come to similar fate.
In explaining how the seed of this program was planted, Graham recalls that some 40 years ago, DJ returned to Jamaica with two main ideas: to train Jamaican athletes to be world beaters, especially in the sprints, and to train sports professionals to world-class level so they could train athletes for a sustainable development.
And so, armed with a degree in physical education, a wealth of technical knowledge, a passion for the sport, and his belief that anybody can be taught to sprint, DJ set about in 1971 to build a sport program at CAST that would equal or improve on international standards. He introduced the concept of specialization at a time when students would do track as well as other sports that were in season. He also restructured the training schedule to include early morning work-out and prevent clashes with classes.
He decided to use what he learnt at California’s San Jose State University in the 1960s – where he was a student on a track scholarship – to set up a competitive US-styled college athletic program in Jamaica. The idea was to produce world-class athletes, especially track stars and at the same time offer hopefuls the chance to train and get an education side by side.
Fired up with these additional ideas, DJ believed that, by extension, at some point athletes would no longer feel they have to leave the island to run for other countries to be successful on the global stage. Having been a student athlete abroad, DJ knew the problems that can come with being overseas on sports scholarships, ranging from culture shock and misleading offers to dietary changes and unfamiliar weather to the pressure from coaches, who get paid based on the performance of their athletes, and the possibility of athletes getting lost in the system.
Graham notes that throughout DJ’s career, not only has DJ achieved shaping Jamaicans into first class sprinters, but he has also helped to mold the island’s two most prominent coaches: Stephen Francis and Glen Mills, who coach former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell and the current holder, Usain Bolt, respectively.
A sports enthusiast himself and someone deep into sports medicine, Graham has been the doctor for several squads, from schools teams to national premier league football clubs. Like DJ, Graham sees the need for sports professionals, especially those who are medically trained.
It follows, therefore, that when Graham was appointed to his current position, he asked DJ out of retirement to help guide the team in establishing of something he (DJ) had wanted years ago.
“He has the enthusiasm, drive, knowledge and experience. And I sit at his feet to learn while we build this program’ Graham said. “We want to build an elite sports professional program, starting with the bachelor’s then going on to the master’s and conducting research to provide a sustainable development program for the goldmine of talent that’s in Jamaica.”
Flagship of the Program
Track & field will be the flagship of the program that will also provide training in football, netball, cricket and golf, initially. Basketball, table and lawn tennis and volleyball are identified to be included later.
And how much more synergic could this situation be? After all, UTech has been turning out top-flight athletes who have enjoyed mega success under head coach Stephen Francis and his brother, Paul, of the MVP Track Club on its campus.
With the Bachelor of Science in Sports degree program in full gallop in all areas at UTech, Dennis Johnson, whose career in track and field spans over 50 years, could soon see many more young homegrown Jamaican athletes across the board zoom to the top of their game while they are being conditioned by A-list coaches who didn’t have to leave home to rank equally with, if not above, the world’s best.
----A FORMER ATHLETE TELLS HIS STORY----
I met Dennis Johnson through my high school coach, Walter "Stretch" Robinson, who told me that my life would be changed forever. And it did.
I came from a poor family and I went to CAST not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. After spending a few months there and having several conversations with DJ, I realized that I wanted to be just like he was – coaching, mentoring and giving back to the cause.
He was more than a coach; he was a father, mentor and friend. He was so generous of his time, making sure that whatever he was telling us, we understood how it worked and why it was important to do what we did.
DJ never believed in coaching star athletes because, according to him, they never listen. He would take individuals who placed 5th, 6th...8th at Champs, and even those who didn’t make it to the finals and turn them into stars.
One of my deepest memories of him was when I first traveled to the Penn Relays. I was so nervous I could not feel my body. Just before I went down to compete in the triple jump, he had a conversation with me about some “nice girl” he had met. It was so intriguing, I forgot about being nervous and placed 2nd in the event. He made me so relaxed with his jovial story...it was pure science and I said to myself: I WANT TO DO THAT some day.
by Desmond G. Palmer, posted on 11/28/2010
Which long-time track fan hasn’t heard of Dennis Johnson or DJ, former world-class sprinter and coach extraordinaire? This Jamaican has represented his country at the highest level of track: the Olympics. He has held the world record for the 100-yards dash and has mentored and served as a father figure to numerous athletes and coaches.
DJ's Track Career at a Glance
* Ran on Jamaica's 4x100m relay team that placed fourth in 39.4 seconds at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
* Was coached in college by the legendary American coach Bud Winter.
* Clocked national records on the US collegiate circuit,
* Equaled the 100-yards world record on four occasions within a six-week period in 1961.
DJ has coached coaches who have risen to the top of their careers, as well as athletes who have climbed to the top of podiums. One such person who attests to the impact DJ’s mentoring has had on the lives of young athletes under his charge is Valmore Holt, a former long jumper, and founder and president of the Executives Track Club in New York. Coached by DJ as a student at CAST in Kingston (now the University of Technology or UTech), Holt has had enough interaction with DJ to testify about how he was influenced by him.
“I went to CAST not knowing what I wanted to do with my life,” Holt recalls. “But after having several conversations with DJ, I realized that I wanted to be just like he was – coaching, mentoring and giving back to the cause,” Holt said.
High on his resume is the job he held as coach of the formidable CAST (College of Arts Science and Technology) sprint relay team, "The Bolts of Lightening", the first Jamaica-based 4x1 squad to run under 40.00 secs.
But DJ has done more than that; he has lectured at the college level and recently has completed two books. So, having had such a busy life and illustrious career, what is Dennis Johnson up to these days?
Just when you might have thought society would be ready to “put him out to pasture”, the way it tends to do countless retirees, DJ has gone down in history again, in a way that will have long-lasting effects on the minds and careers of young aspiring professionals. He has seen his dream come true: the implementation of a bachelor’s degree program in sports science at UTech, an initiative of which he can aptly be called “the founding father.” His role in this initiative spans from helping to put together the curriculum for the program to recruiting students to register for the course.
Beginning in September this year, the four-year baccalaureate program is being offered by the Caribbean School of Sports Sciences, a division of the newly formed Faculty of Science and Sports at the university. Students pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Sports degree – which has placed emphasis on practice as much as it does on theory – can choose to major in Sports Management, the Art and Science of Coaching and Sports Physiotherapy or Sports Athletics Training. In addition to the main menu there are short courses that aspirants may use to matriculate.
Those in the program will specialize in areas that relate to athletes, such as athletic diseases, psychological and physical preparation for competition, injuries, diagnosis, and rehabilitation. Modules include sports journalism, history of competitive sports in the Jamaica and the Caribbean, and sports law. A key component in all of this is the practical experience students will be able to combine with what they learn in theory. Closely linked to the sports journalism module is the training future coaches will undergo to teach athletes how to handle interviews.
One of DJ’s long-standing visions has been to produce coaches who meet international standards. He believes that by listening to local coaches one cannot compare them with those overseas. The main difference is, he says, coaches overseas are formally trained while those in Jamaica are not. “If we don’t produce coaches to international standards, then we won’t get the kind of results we want,” DJ says. “So the Caribbean School of Sports Sciences that we’ve established here at UTech is to try to resolve that situation.”
He continues, “People in Jamaica don’t have much of an idea of what coaching is about; they believe that a coach can only coach a specific discipline,” explaining that coaching is similar to marketing. “If you do it [marketing] you can market plums as well as motor cars. The tenet of coaching is much the same. The only additional thing to do is learn about the strategy and techniques involved in whatever sport you chose.”
Sharing DJ’s vision is surgeon and medical consultant Dr. Neville Graham, head of the School of Sports
Graham: "I sit at his
[DJ's] feet to learn."
Sciences and an adjunct professor at UTech. According to Graham, the decision to develop the sports science program came out of need and experience, and he used what he calls “the decline of West Indies cricket” to note that the current status of Jamaica’s track and field should not be allowed to come to similar fate.
In explaining how the seed of this program was planted, Graham recalls that some 40 years ago, DJ returned to Jamaica with two main ideas: to train Jamaican athletes to be world beaters, especially in the sprints, and to train sports professionals to world-class level so they could train athletes for a sustainable development.
And so, armed with a degree in physical education, a wealth of technical knowledge, a passion for the sport, and his belief that anybody can be taught to sprint, DJ set about in 1971 to build a sport program at CAST that would equal or improve on international standards. He introduced the concept of specialization at a time when students would do track as well as other sports that were in season. He also restructured the training schedule to include early morning work-out and prevent clashes with classes.
He decided to use what he learnt at California’s San Jose State University in the 1960s – where he was a student on a track scholarship – to set up a competitive US-styled college athletic program in Jamaica. The idea was to produce world-class athletes, especially track stars and at the same time offer hopefuls the chance to train and get an education side by side.
Fired up with these additional ideas, DJ believed that, by extension, at some point athletes would no longer feel they have to leave the island to run for other countries to be successful on the global stage. Having been a student athlete abroad, DJ knew the problems that can come with being overseas on sports scholarships, ranging from culture shock and misleading offers to dietary changes and unfamiliar weather to the pressure from coaches, who get paid based on the performance of their athletes, and the possibility of athletes getting lost in the system.
Graham notes that throughout DJ’s career, not only has DJ achieved shaping Jamaicans into first class sprinters, but he has also helped to mold the island’s two most prominent coaches: Stephen Francis and Glen Mills, who coach former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell and the current holder, Usain Bolt, respectively.
A sports enthusiast himself and someone deep into sports medicine, Graham has been the doctor for several squads, from schools teams to national premier league football clubs. Like DJ, Graham sees the need for sports professionals, especially those who are medically trained.
It follows, therefore, that when Graham was appointed to his current position, he asked DJ out of retirement to help guide the team in establishing of something he (DJ) had wanted years ago.
“He has the enthusiasm, drive, knowledge and experience. And I sit at his feet to learn while we build this program’ Graham said. “We want to build an elite sports professional program, starting with the bachelor’s then going on to the master’s and conducting research to provide a sustainable development program for the goldmine of talent that’s in Jamaica.”
Flagship of the Program
Track & field will be the flagship of the program that will also provide training in football, netball, cricket and golf, initially. Basketball, table and lawn tennis and volleyball are identified to be included later.
And how much more synergic could this situation be? After all, UTech has been turning out top-flight athletes who have enjoyed mega success under head coach Stephen Francis and his brother, Paul, of the MVP Track Club on its campus.
With the Bachelor of Science in Sports degree program in full gallop in all areas at UTech, Dennis Johnson, whose career in track and field spans over 50 years, could soon see many more young homegrown Jamaican athletes across the board zoom to the top of their game while they are being conditioned by A-list coaches who didn’t have to leave home to rank equally with, if not above, the world’s best.
----A FORMER ATHLETE TELLS HIS STORY----
I met Dennis Johnson through my high school coach, Walter "Stretch" Robinson, who told me that my life would be changed forever. And it did.
I came from a poor family and I went to CAST not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. After spending a few months there and having several conversations with DJ, I realized that I wanted to be just like he was – coaching, mentoring and giving back to the cause.
He was more than a coach; he was a father, mentor and friend. He was so generous of his time, making sure that whatever he was telling us, we understood how it worked and why it was important to do what we did.
DJ never believed in coaching star athletes because, according to him, they never listen. He would take individuals who placed 5th, 6th...8th at Champs, and even those who didn’t make it to the finals and turn them into stars.
One of my deepest memories of him was when I first traveled to the Penn Relays. I was so nervous I could not feel my body. Just before I went down to compete in the triple jump, he had a conversation with me about some “nice girl” he had met. It was so intriguing, I forgot about being nervous and placed 2nd in the event. He made me so relaxed with his jovial story...it was pure science and I said to myself: I WANT TO DO THAT some day.
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