Eric Johnson has some big shoes to fill with this being his first year as the Omaha North High Athletic Director and Vice Principal. With North’s long and strong reputation as an athletic power house there are high expectations for the new athletic director.

Johnson started off as an elementary school physical education teacher for four years, at King Elementary School. He then moved to North and was a P.E. teacher for seven years while also being the assistant football coach, boys and girls track coach for two years.

Johnson began his administration aspirations by being a dean of students and student support six years ago at North. After leaving North, Johnson was given the opportunity to be the Athletic director and assistant principal at Nathan Hale Middle School. Then he was in charge of scheduling and data processing. For his sixth, and final, year at Nathan Hale, he moved back to the athletic director position.

Through his 23 years and many transitions North has always been an important school to both Johnson and his family.

“I was familiar with North. Both of my kids attended North,” said Johnson.

Though he’s still had connection with North and stayed a fan of the school academically and athletically, Johnson has noticed changes in the six years of his absence from the school.

“The school’s bigger, there’s a lot more students. When I was here there was high 1,500 students now [North] is almost at 1,900 students,” Johnson said.

Johnson aims to use this as a transition year while also continuing to build up the athletic department. He will try to reach out to both coaches and players and
help to create a positive environment for lesser known sports to flourish in the athletic world at North.