Hometown: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
The 1996 Iowa State Tennis Singles Champion and a participant in the USTA Boys Tennis National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., Johnny Watson remains the highest rated junior tennis player – male or female – to ever enroll at Coe. His college career lived up to that billing as he was a four-year letterman for Kohawk tennis.
Johnny was the
Iowa Conference MVP three years and an ITA Singles All-American as a junior and senior. He was the IIAC Flight 1 singles and doubles champion with Nick Frank in 2000, singles champion and doubles runner-up with Kevin O’Donnell in 1999, and singles runner-up and doubles champion with Drew Heslinga in 1998. He advanced to the NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championship for three straight years from 1999 to 2001.
Johnny is the only player in school history to record 30 singles wins in a season, which he accomplished in 2000. He is Coe’s career singles victory leader with 108. Add 90 doubles victories, and he tallied 198 career wins for a school record he held for three years. Twelve years after his graduation, his win total remains second all-time.
Johnny was a key player on what would become an
Iowa Conference dynasty as the Kohawks set school records for wins in 1998 with 17, 2000 with 23 and 2001 with 26. That 2001 team was the first men’s sport to capture an
Iowa Conference title after Coe joined the league in 1997 and it was the first of six straight IIAC championships for Kohawk men’s tennis.
A 2000 finalist for the Barron Bremner Outstanding Athlete Award, Johnny won the honor in 2001. “Johnny was an extremely fit tennis player, gifted with his feet and his forehand,” said Head Tennis Coach Eric Rodgers. “I always enjoyed watching his opponents realize they couldn’t win the match.....while in the first game!”
He is currently director of game-event presentation for the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.
