Mattias returns to Vanguard University for his fourteenth season as the head Men's Tennis Coach. Johansson took over the reins of the program after two very successful years as a player with the school. He accumulated a 41-18 record in his two-year career as the number one singles player for the Lions. The last 13 seasons as the head coach, he directed the VU men's team to a 200-104 record, earning his 100th win near the end of the 2003 season and his 200th at the NAIA National Tournament last season. Vanguard's men's tennis program has won or co-championed three regular season GSAC Championships (1996, 1999, 2000), two GSAC/Region II Postseason Tournaments (1995, 1998), and have been ranked in the NAIA top 25 every year. Since Johansson's involvement with the program, the VU men's tennis team has advanced to the NAIA National Tournament in 14 of the last 15 seasons. The team's highest finish was in 2000 when the Lions tied for third place. Four of the past five seasons, the Lions made it to the quarterfinals of the NAIA National Tournament before exiting in a tie for fifth place.
"I am excited to be able to continue with the tennis program at VU," says Johansson. "I loved Vanguard University when I was a player, and now I want to continue to build on the strong tradition of the tennis program as the head coach. Vanguard is a great Christian institution with great teachers and an exceptional athletic department."
Johansson has been actively teaching tennis since he was fourteen and has competed in tennis for well over twenty years. In 1999, he was honored as the GSAC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year and in 2005 he was named the Region II Co-Coach of the Year for the first time in his career. Although already extremely well known for his success at the NAIA level, the Swedish coach is still actively pursuing his first national championship for the Lions.
Mattias earned a BA in Exercise Sports Science and a BA in Business Administration at Vanguard. He also attained his Master's degree in Business at National University in 2001. Aside from coaching the men's and women's tennis teams for the Lions, he also owns his own business and teaches tennis at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center.
Johansson and his wife Karie live in Huntington Beach and have a daughter named Brooke and a son named Dylan.
