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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Rochester athletic director Ryan Johnson has resigned, RTC learned Thursday.
Johnson had been the athletic director since August 2019. He told the coaches in a message to them Thursday.
He said he had accepted another position but did not get more specific.
“I have enjoyed working with each of you and am extremely grateful for all of the time, energy and effort you have poured into your student-athletes and programs,” Johnson said in his message.
Johnson, a 2005 Rochester grad, saw his alma mater achieve success on the playing fields during his tenure.
Rochester won back-to-back volleyball, girls basketball and boys basketball titles during the last two years. In 2020-21, Rochester also won conference and sectional titles in wrestling and the school’s first baseball sectional title since 2014.
Rochester was the only school in the state to win sectionals in volleyball, girls basketball, boys basketball, wrestling and baseball in 2020-21. That came after a three-week pause to the start of fall sports in August 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic that prevented all teams except for girls golf from starting their seasons until Sept. 4 of that year.
Rochester will have three new coaches in the fall sports season upcoming: cross-country coach Eric Linn, boys soccer coach Elmer Roque and football coach Ron Shaffer. Johnson played a role in the hiring of all three.
Johnson came to Rochester after a stint as the athletic director at Taylor High School in Kokomo.
He played football under Mark Miller and golf for Chad Thomas during his Zebra athletic career, and he would win Three Rivers Conference medalist honors in golf.
Miller left Rochester in 2011 after 31 years as football coach and 23 years as athletic director.
Shaffer will be the fifth football coach since Miller left, and Johnson’s successor will be the fourth athletic director.
Greg Martz, Johnson’s predecessor, remains employed in the Rochester Community School Corporation athletic department.
