Robert Johnson
Head Track and Field Coach
Assistant Cross Country Coach

Office phone: 765 ? 361 ? 6279
email: johnsonr@wabash.edu

Rob Johnson spent the summer and early fall of 2000 as one of five assistant coaches for the United States Track & Field Team at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, marking the first time that a Division III coach has been able to make that claim.

Johnson, the 1995 NCAA Division III Cross Country Coach of the Year, is in his 37th season in charge of the Wabash harriers with an eye on a North Coast Athletic Conference championship in the Little Giants' ninth season in the league. Johnson also hopes his "Red Pack" can return to the national spotlight after a 17th-place finish at the NCAA Championships in 1998.

Since 1991, Wabash has recorded three top-10 finishes at the NCAA meet, while winning five straight Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference titles (1992-96) and a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference crown. Johnson's 1995 team registered two perfect scores (15), the first at the GLCA Championships and the second in winning the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional.

Johnson, an Honorary Alumnus of the College, was named the HCAC Coach of the Year to add to his impressive total of eight ICAC Coach of the Year awards. He has also earned Wabash Coach of the Year honors four times, and he was inducted into the Wabash College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.

Even with such honors, Johnson's personal strength as a coach lies in his world-class relay coaching technique, which is part of the reason he served on the 2000 Olympic staff. Johnson appears at coaching clinics all over the country, including sessions at the United States Track & Field Coaches Association's annual convention, to discuss relay technique and handoffs.

Wabash runners benefit from Johnson's longtime work with the Olympic Development Committee and from involvement with two US Junior National Teams. In 1981, he served as an assistant coach at the National Sports Festival in New York. A year later, he coached sprints, relays, and hurdles in Ethiopia as part of the Olympic Solidarity Project. He was the head track coach for the North Team at the 1983 Olympic Sports Festival in Colorado Springs and later served as an assistant for the US Junior National Team which set two world records.

Johnson was the sprint and relay coach for the US Track Team at the 1993 World University Games, helping the 4 x 100 (38.65 seconds) and 4 x 400 (3:02.34) relay teams win Gold Medals. He gave his relay technique clinic to the US Track & Field Coaches Association during its annual meeting in 1994, as well as at the Atlanta convention just prior to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.

A native of Englewood, New Jersey, Johnson was a track and football standout in high school and later attended the University of Idaho, where he graduated in 1965. Johnson was the 1962 Northwest AAU champion in the 440 and was a finalist at the 1963 NCAA Championships in the 220. He earned his master's in education from Purdue University in 1974.

Roger Busch '96
Head Cross Country Coach
Assistant Track and Field Coach

Office phone: 765 ? 361 ? 6017
email: buschr@wabash.edu

Roger Busch will take over in 2007 as the head cross country coach for his alma mater. No stranger to successful Little Giant programs in track and cross country, Busch ran four years for the Wabash cross country team, helping the Little Giants to sixth-, 11th-, fourth-, and third-place finishes at the NCAA Division III Championship meet from 1992-1995. He and his Wabash teammates won the NCAA Cross Country Regionals in 1992 and 1994 and in 1995 posted a perfect score of 15 points in their third Regional title. Individually Busch earned All-American honors his senior season with a sixth-place finish at Nationals.

He was also an accomplished track athlete at Wabash, qualifying for Nationals in the steeplechase. Busch narrowly missed earning All-American honors, finishing ninth as a junior. He returned to Nationals his senior season, finally earning the All-America title with a fifth-place finish. Overall Busch earned All-Conference honors in cross country (3), in the steeplechase (4), the 800 meters (2), and the 5,000 meters (2).

After graduating from Wabash, Busch's running career didn't stop. A two-time Ironman qualifier, he also finished second at the 2001 Maui Marathon with a time of 2:24.00. The event was also his first marathon. He competed as a professional tri-athlete in 2001 and 2002. Busch still competes as a member of the Ray Trans Racing team with former Wabash teammate Scott Gall '96.

Busch served as an assistant high school track and cross country coach at nearby North Putnam High School, at Doherty High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and at Maui High School in Hawaii. 

Jake Gilbert
Assistant Track & Field Coach

765 • 361 • 6079
gilbertj@wabash.edu

Jake Gilbert enters his second season as an assistant coach at Wabash.

•  He is no stranger to the sidelines of Hollett Little Giant Stadium after playing for three seasons as a defensive tackle, earning Hewlett Packard All-America Honorable Mention honors as a junior. Gilbert ranks eighth in Wabash history in career quarterback sacks with 16-1/2. He is fifth career sack yards with 137. His 10-1/2 sacks as junior is fifth on the single season records list. He accounted for 82 sack yards that season, fourth-best in Wabash history.

•  Gilbert spent six seasons as the head football coach at North Montgomery High School, where he compiled a 30-36 record. He coached four All-State and 10 Academic All-State players. He also served as a sponsor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and coordinator of the CHARACTER COUNTS! program.

• Gilbert was a teacher and assistant coach at his high school alma mater, Ben Davis High School, for two year. While playing at Ben Davis he was named team captain, MVP, all-state, and was an Indiana All-Star.

• Gilbert and his wife, Christina, live in Crawfordsville with their children, Logan, Jackson, and Tyson.