Derrick Johnson is in his third season as the head coach of the Lindenwood Olympic weightlifting team.  

For the second year in a row, Johnson led the Lions to a second place finish in the Men’s division at the National Collegiate Championships in 2011.  Lindenwood also finished second in the Coed division and captured three individual gold medals including Laurent Goyette-Demers in the men’s 77 kg division and Odeatha Marshall in the women’s 53 kg weight class.  Fernando Reis won his second consecutive individual title and broke the American Collegiate record by 15 kilograms in the process.  Reis had been named the Most Outstanding Male Lifter of the 2010 Championships after breaking three collegiate records that year.  In addition to the strong showing at the Collegiate Championships, Lindenwood also won the Men’s division at the 2011 American Open.

Under Johnson’s tutelage, two Lions represented Lindenwood at the 2010 Junior World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. Reis was a member of team Brazil and Mack Brunson was on the United States squad.

Johnson, who is a Lindenwood alumnus, was the head coach of Team USA at the 2011 Youth World Championships in Peru, was head coach for Team USA at the 2010 Youth Pan Am Championships and was named the USA Weightlifting Developmental Coach of the Year in 2010.  He is the only coach in the United States to have thee team members from three different countries on a Senior World team (Brazil, Canada and the United States) and is one of the youngest coaches to ever be head coach for an international team in any sport. 

Additionally, Johnson coached the top two prospects for the Youth Olympics in 2010, has served as the head coach for Lift for Life Gym in St. Louis, and he received the Arnold Schwarzenegger Weightlifting Championships Coach of the Year award in 2006 and 2007.

In college, Johnson was a four-time All-American and a three-time National Collegiate Champion.   He has also been a two-time Senior National Champion and six-time American Open Champion and participated in the 2008 Olympic Trials. After coming back from injury, Johnson earned a silver medal at the 2011 National Weightlifting Championships in the 69 kg division.

Johnson graduated from Lindenwood in 2008 with a degree in Political Science.  He attended Rockwood Summit High School in Fenton, Mo. and graduated in 2003.