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Track & field has been a big part of the Johnson family for years.

For first-year California Director of Track & Field Robyne Johnson, sports - track & field specifically - has always been a part of her life.

Johnson's parents, Sylvester and Vivian, moved from New Jersey to California when she was 4 while Sylvester went to college at Compton Junior College and Cal State Hayward.

While she is an only child, the Johnson family is a large group with both of Robyne's grandparents being one of 13 siblings. Johnson and her parents are the only part of the family that eventually moved to the Bay Area. 

Johnson began spending time on the track at a young age as Sylvester competed in the long jump, triple jump and hurdles before eventually becoming the head track & field coach at Chabot College for 40 years.

Running came at an early age for Johnson, who recalls racing her mother around the house all the time.

"Even though she was never an athlete, my mom was pretty fast," Johnson said. "She beat me racing around the house quite a bit."

Even after spending time at the track watching Dad run or racing Mom around the house, basketball was Johnson's first love. It wasn't until later that a future in track & field began to show itself.

"I went to a lot of my Dad's track meets; he competed at Compton Junior College and Cal State Hayward (now Cal State University East Bay) and then with the track club Bay Area Striders until he was about 40 years old," Johnson said. "He would take me out to track meets and show me the other kids running, then ask me if I wanted to run. But I always said absolutely not. That was my answer for years."

Johnson didn't want to run in front of people for the longest time, even though she knew she was fast after beating the boys in races during grammar school and junior high.

"When I finally gave in and decided to run, it was like a flip switched in my personality a little bit," Johnson said. "I was never shy, but I acted shy about running until I made myself go out there and do it. Once I did that, things changed and I knew I loved it."

Johnson played two years of varsity basketball, making the team as a guard her freshman year at Mount Eden High School in Hayward, before running for Berkeley East Bay Track Club the summer after her sophomore year.

"That is when I found out, "oh, this is what I really like," Johnson said. "We had a lot of really good kids, we were really competitive and we had great coaches. The atmosphere was more about how we want to be better. I thrived under that and improved quite a bit. That's when I decided to transfer to Berkeley High."

Johnson credits her high school coaches at Berkeley High, including Cal graduate Willie White, and her Dad with a lot of the cues and learning as a track athlete. After going to the University of Texas and becoming a key member of the team that won a national title during her freshman year and earned her five All-American honors, Johnson didn't see a future in coaching. She wanted to go to law school.   

Former Texas assistant coach Teri Jordan often asked Johnson to help her teammates. Johnson didn't think anything of it at the time; she was just helping out the team.

Jordan went on to take the women's track & field head coaching job at Penn State in 1984, and called Johnson about a coaching job on her staff. Johnson wasn't interested; she just wanted to stay in Austin to train and work. Johnson moved back to the Bay Area the following year and worked at a health club for a few months before Jordan called again to offer a job on her staff.

"She told me just to try it for a year and see how it goes," Johnson said. "She said I could train there at the same time. And I did. Now that was 32 years ago. I never thought I was going to coach. And turns out I never felt like I've been to work yet. I really love it."

That was the beginning of a coaching career that included a nine-year stint as an assistant coach at Cal from 1995-2003 before 14 years as the director of track & field at Boston University, where she coached student-athletes to 30 All-America honors, 50 Patriot League Championships, 52 America East Championships and 62 school records.

Johnson always knew she wanted to come back to California and really try to see Cal improve. That dream was realized in the summer of 2019. It was a day Johnson had looked forward to for years.

"It was an amazing feeling the day I accepted the job," Johnson said. "When I finally knew I was coming back this year, I was like 'Wow, this is amazing.' It's really full circle."

Johnson is one of just seven current female directors of track & field at the NCAA Power Five level across the country, up from four when she took the job at BU in 2004. And Johnson is one of just four female minority directors in the country, along with Karen Dennis at Ohio State, Connie Price-Smith at Ole Miss and Caryl Smith Gilbert at USC.

Johnson has a vision to bring the California track & field program to a high level of competition in the future, one that can improve every single year in the Pac-12, MPSF and nationally.

"We're all working hard in recruiting, and we all need to do what we do best, and that's coach," Johnson said. "I've always said maybe sometimes we can't recruit an All-American, but we can make an All-American if they're dedicated to work hard as we are to get them to that end." 

It will be a busy summer for Johnson as she prepares for her second stint as the assistant coach for women's jumps and multi-events with the USA Track & Field team at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Even while coaching the best track & field team in the world, there are things Johnson can bring from coaching the best athletes in the world to the team at Cal.

"Everybody is the same in terms they have things they're dealing with, just like our kids," Johnson said. "I think that's the misconception - that they've got it all together. Even though they've worked for years to do it, they are putting a lot of pressure on themselves. We're all trying to get to the podium. It's the same thing for every level of track & field. If you do what you did to get there, it's probably going to work out well for you."

Johnson did just that in her road back to Cal, continuing to do what worked out well for her first as an athlete and then as a coach.