Concordia University St. Paul Athletics

The two-time NSIC Player of the Year, Amanda (Behnke) Johnson helped the basketball team start her senior year 18-0, reaching as high as second in the WBCA Division II Top-25 Coaches’ Poll, storming through the season with a 28-3 final record including back-to-back NSIC regular season and tournament championships.
 
The impressive run helped the program reach the 20-win milestone for a seventh straight season with a sixth straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The Golden Bears finished her senior year ranked 14th in the country and finished her three year career with a 70-24 overall record, 40-10 in the NSIC.

The Eagan, Minnesota native was a two-time WBCA Division II All-America honorable mention selection and also earned State Farm Coaches All-America Team honors and Women’s Division II Bulletin All-America Fourth Team honors as a senior. In addition to being NSIC Player of the Year twice, she was also a two-time Daktronics All-Central Region First Team selection. She was also an NSIC All-Tournament Team selection as a junior.
 
(Behnke) Johnson was the league scoring champion as a senior in 2007-08, averaging 16.6 points across 18 conference games. On the full season, she led the league in scoring (16.1), was second in rebounds (8.6), fifth in field goal percentage (.524), sixth in blocked shots (1.0) and ninth in steals (1.35).
 
During her junior year, she led the league (overall) in scoring (17.2) and was third in rebounds (8.2), fifth in blocked shots (0.9) and 10th in field goal percentage (.486) while setting the single-season scoring record at CSP with 551 points, a total that still ranks third in program history to this day. In the final game of her junior year, she poured in 30 points with 21 rebounds for her career-high performances in the NCAA Central Region Tournament semifinals against Nebraska-Kearney.
 
At the time her career ended, (Behnke) Johnson ranked seventh in school history with 1,423 career points in just three seasons after spending her first year at the Division I level at Winthrop University. She’s currently ninth in career scoring and fourth in rebounds (726) and averaged 15.1 points and 7.7 rebounds across 94 games in her three seasons. She also finished with strong defensive totals with 112 steals and 81 blocks while distributing 96 assists from the post.
 
Following her playing career, she had the opportunity to play professionally for the Ringwood Hawks in Australia alongside her college point guard Katie (LaViolette) Fischer in 2010. She averaged a double-double for the Hawks and secured league MVP during multiple seasons for the club.

Upon her return to the U.S., (Behnke) Johnson secured a graduate assistant coaching position for Concordia. The business marketing major went on to earn a master’s degree in sport management in 2014 and she never left the CSP women’s basketball coach staff, earning a promotion to the full time assistant position in June, 2014 before being promoted to head coach a year and a half later in December, 2015.

During her tenure as an assistant, (Behnke) Johnson helped the Golden Bears capture an NCAA Central Region Championship, reaching the NCAA Division II Elite Eight after making the postseason by winning the NSIC Tournament. CSP finished the best year in program history 28-9 overall (16-6 NSIC) and were ranked 12th in the final WBCA Division II Coaches’ Poll.
 
As head coach of the program, (Behnke) Johnson holds a 41-38 overall record including a 19-10 second season in 2016-17, finished with a 15-7 conference record.

Amanda resides in Hudson, Wisconsin with her husband and current CSP men’s basketball assistant coach Eric and their son, Jase.