Tom Shoji

Head Coach
Office Phone: (503) 370-6230
E-mail: t_shoji@hotmail.com

February 26, 2008
Willamette University has hired Tom Shoji as the next head coach of women's volleyball for the Bearcats. He will start his duties this spring, but will not arrive on campus permanently until this summer.

Shoji has a long and respected career as a collegiate volleyball coach. His head coaching experience in women's volleyball totals 24 seasons, including six years each at New Mexico State University and Indiana University, plus 11 years at Colorado State University-Pueblo and one year at Westmar University (Iowa).

Willamette has been 4-22 each of the past two seasons and has lost 43 Northwest Conference matches in a row. The Bearcats were competitive in many of the conference matches in 2007, with four 5-game losses and seven 4-games losses. Willamette was unable to triumph in any of the matches that went five games.

Shoji coaching history began in 1973 as a teacher and coach in the Santa Barbara High School District in California. While working at Santa Barbara HS, he started coaching the men's volleyball team at Santa Barbara City College in 1979. He held both jobs until 1981, when he became the head coach of women's volleyball at New Mexico State University.

He stayed at NMSU through the 1986 season, then took over as the head women's volleyball coach at Indiana University. Shoji coached the Hoosiers for six years through the 1992 season. In 1993, he served as the head coach and a physical education instructor at Westmar University in LeMars, Iowa. He then coached for 11 seasons at Colorado State University-Pueblo (then know as the University of Southern Colorado) from 1994 through 2004.

While working at CSU-Pueblo, he also served as the compliance coordinator for the Department of Athletics. Shoji left CSU-Pueblo prior to the 2005-06 academic year to become the associate athletic director for compliance and student services at the University of California-San Diego.

In 1996, he was named American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Northwest Region Coach of the Year for NCAA Division II and was chosen Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Coach of the Year. He served on the NCAA Division I West Region Committee from 1984 through 1985 and was the chairman of the AVCA All-America Committee for NCAA Division I from 1989-91.

Shoji is originally from Hawaii. His brother, Dave Shoji, has been the head women's volleyball coach at the University of Hawaii since 1975.

Megan Johnston

Assistant Coach
Office Phone: (503) 370-6219
E-mail: mfitzsim@willamette.edu

Megan Johnston is in her second year as an assistant coach on the Bearcat volleyball staff. Johnston graduated from the University of Portland where she had a short stint playing with the Pilot volleyball team as a middle blocker. Because of injuries, her collegiate athletic career was cut short. However, she continued her involvement in volleyball by coaching. Johnston previously coached for multiple teams in recent years including: Gonzaga Preparatory High School, Spokane Players VBC, Spokane Splash VBC, Bridgetown VBC, and Salem VBC.

Johnston was a graduate assistant at Eastern Washington University, where she earned a master's degree in Athletic Administration. She currently works as the Marketing Coordinator for Bearcat Athletics. She is married to Courtney Johnston and they live in Keizer.