Matthew Johnson has joined the Butler Athletics staff as Men's Basketball Strength and Conditioning Coach. Johnson most recently served as the Director of Strength and Conditioning at George Washington University for the past five seasons.
 
Johnson's hiring was announced Tuesday, June 12. He will begin his Butler role in July.
 
In this newly-created position at Butler, Johnson will serve as a member of the men's basketball staff and oversee the program's strength and conditioning, while also assisting with rehabilitation of injured student-athletes and working with university partners on nutrition and supplement education.
 
"Our program takes great pride in the development of our student-athletes, and the addition of Matthew to our staff reinforces that commitment," said Butler men's basketball coach LaVall Jordan. "He brings strong experience and innovative ideas into our program, and the opportunity to have him focused each and every day on our men's basketball student-athletes will provide significant impact."
 
At George Washington, Johnson supervised a six-person staff that worked to maximize the performance of student-athletes from all 27 varsity athletics programs. In addition to designing and implementing strength and conditioning programs, Johnson also created nutrition initiatives for GW student-athletes and introduced high-performance technology into the program.

During his time at GW, the men's basketball program captured the 2016 NIT Championship, while also making the 2014 NCAA Tournament and winning the 2014 Diamondhead Classic.

Prior to joining the GW staff, Johnson served as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for Montrose Christian School's nationally prominent basketball program from 2010-2013.

While possessing a varied background, Johnson has carved his niche in basketball, a sport he played as an undergraduate at NCAA Division III Marywood University, where he earned his bachelor's degree in exercise science in 2007.

He went on to complete his master's degree in kinesiology at Bridgewater (Mass.) State College in 2009 before working with the basketball, hockey and lacrosse programs at Boston College and Bryant University.

Johnson holds numerous gold standard strength and conditioning certifications such as the NSCA CSCS, NSCA CPT, USA Weightlifting Club Coach, USA Track and Field Level 1, and NASM PES.

The Bulldogs recently earned their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. Butler is one of only eight programs nationally to win at least one NCAA Tournament game in each of the last four seasons. The Bulldogs concluded the 2017-18 season with a 21-14 record under first-year Butler coach LaVall Jordan. Butler returns a talented group, headlined by guard Kamar Baldwin and his 15.7 points per game average as a sophomore. Also returning are starters Sean McDermott and Aaron Thompson, along with rising seniors Nate Fowler and Paul Jorgensen.