Philip Johnson is in his third year of teaching and coaching here at Jacksonville High School.  He has many roles as he is not only a math teacher but also a cross-country and basketball coach as well.  As a teacher, Johnson loves figuring out creative ways to make math interesting, fun, and imaginative.  Johnson first considered becoming a math teacher his senior year in high school.  Other than a few thoughts in college of switching and becoming an art professor, his plan of becoming a math teacher since his senior year stayed intact.  As a basketball coach, Johnson loves coaching individual skills and helping player’s progress.  While he acknowledges that his team coaching skills are still a work in progress, Johnson enjoys the process because there is so much to learn.  Johnson excels as a cross-country/track coach because that is who he is.  While attending Illinois Wesleyan University, he lettered in both cross-country and track and field.  He loves pushing individuals to meet goals.  “I love seeing athletes achieve times and goals they never thought that they could accomplish.”  He says that hard work goes hand in hand with the sports he coaches and likes to relate that lesson learned to life.  When asked what advice he would give to someone who is thinking of going down the same path he took, he answered with one of his favorite quotes from Abraham Lincoln: “Work hard even when you make mistakes.”  Mr. Philip Johnson has impacted many lives in his short time here at Jacksonville High School as a teacher and a coach, and JHS is a better place now that he is here.