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Saratoga Springs’ Johns named ITA Legacy All-American

BY Will Springstead

Saratoga Springs’ Rich Johns is finally an All-American, but not just for what he did on the court.

Johns, a retired teacher and tennis coach at Saratoga Springs, recently was honored as an Intercollegiate Tennis Association Legacy All-American. The award is designed to identify former collegiate players whose off-court contributions and on-court achievements have been deemed worthy of ITA All-American status following the completion of their collegiate careers.

Rich Johns, left shakes hands with his coach Lou LaGrand at SUNY Potsdam during Johns’ time at the college in the early 1970’s

Johns was a 1972 graduate from SUNY Potsdam. He spent his freshman year at Adirondack Community College, where he won the NJCAA Region 3 singles title and was a top-15 seed at the NJCAA Championships. He transferred to Potsdam the next year and never lost a singles conference match.

After being the runner-up in the SUNYAC Championships in 1971, he won the SUNYAC singles title in the spring of ’72 — and is still the only Potsdam player to ever win the singles title — but was denied the chance to compete at the NCAA Division III Championships.

“About January of that year, the governor [Nelson Rockefeller] took steps for budgetary problems, and one of them was that no one in the SUNY system could travel out of state, so I never got to go,” Johns explained.

Johns became an elementary school teacher and tennis coach in Saratoga Springs. He coached the girls’ program from 1981 through 2009, and the boys’ program for about 20 years, ending in 2010. His girls’ teams won 17 consecutive Suburban Council titles, nine Section II team titles and holds the Section II record for Class AA with 85 consecutive wins. He had six Section 2 singles champions, five sectional singles runners-up and six doubles team champions.

Twice, he was voted the USTA Eastern Section High School Coach of the Year, and in 2009 he earned the USTA National Starfish Award, given in recognition of his no-cut tennis program and positive impact on student-athletes. He was named Racquet Sports Industry’s National High School Coach of the Year in 2010 for those same things.

Since retiring, he has founded and served as director for Act With Respect Always, a 501c3 charitable organization that he describes as a pay-it-forward movement stressing the importance of one’s personal character and encouraging kindness, love, compassion, empathy and gratitude.

As far as honors go, and he has many, Johns said this ITA one is gratifying to receive.

“This award is pretty darn special,” he said.

Among other honors, Johns is a member of the ACC/SUNY Adirondack Sports Hall of Fame and the school’s Trailblazer Society; the SUNY Potsdam Athletic Hall of Fame and a winner of its Minerva Award; the Bulldog Hall of Fame (he grew up in South Glens Falls); the Saratoga Springs High School Sports Hall of Fame; and the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame, for community service.

He also received the Saratoga Springs Rotary Education Foundation Award in 2010 for his
distinguished leadership and commitment to education and community service; and in 2023 received the NYS School Administration Association Excelsior Award for his leadership and continued work with Act With Respect Always.

Currently, he’s working with Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner to try to bring a bill before the state that will help protect students and student-athletes against forms of coercive control.
“If anything, I’m just trying to take it in,” Johns said of his latest honor, “and said, ‘Gee, I’m fortunate.’”