Blinn College Coaches Church and Johnson Retire After Decades of Service
Two well-known coaches at Blinn College have decided to retire before the start of the 2026-27 school year. Softball coach Rick Church and golf coach David Johnson are stepping down from their roles after playing a significant part in their respective programs.
Church has been at Blinn for 27 years, beginning his time as head coach of the Buccaneers in 1999. He has led the program to consistently compete among the best in the region since then, with 992 wins during his tenure. His overall coaching record is 1,066-518.
Under Church's leadership, Blinn won seven conference and regional championships, including a title in 2015. He guided the team to Region XIV South Zone titles in 2017, 2019, and 2025. In 2025, he took a team that started with a 5-17 record and turned it into a 19-5 conference record.
Church's best season at Blinn came in 2003 when the Bucs finished second in the nation for their best program finish. He was inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association Softball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2021 and earned the NJCAA Legacy Coaches Award in 2025, the first year it was awarded to softball coaches with at least 800 career victories at a NJCAA institution.
Johnson joined Blinn in 2019 as part of the inception of the Buccaneer golf program. He has guided both the men's and women's golf teams to the NJCAA Division I national tournament for three consecutive seasons. The men's golf team reached an eighth-place finish in 2023, while the women's golf team secured a fifth-place finish in 2025.
Johnson previously coached at Paris, Navarro, Cisco, and Howard Payne before arriving at Blinn. He also coached football at all three schools as well as Hardin-Simmons. Johnson was inducted into the NJCAA Men's Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2022.
No replacements for either coach have been announced yet. However, a source stated that Jami Ingram, Church's assistant, is interested in taking over the softball head coaching position.