Clarion Athletics

A former college head coach that most recently served as an assistant at Maryland, Johnny Poss took over as the head coach of the Golden Eagle baseball program in September 2024. He enters his first season at the helm. 
 
Before coming to Clarion, Poss had most recently served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Maryland, where he helped the Terrapins to a 34-22 record in 2024. He led the recruitment of 16 players to build the 37^th-ranked 2024 recruiting class in the national according to Perfect Game, also assisted in the facilitation of the Dirty Terps LLC NIL fund. Poss coached the team’s catchers and also assisted in hitting instruction and creating opponent scouting reports.
 
Prior to his time at Maryland, Poss spent six years as the first-ever head coach at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa. He recruited over 40 players for the inaugural 2019 season, with his final four recruiting classes for the Phoenix ranked in the top-75 in the nation for NCAA Division III by Perfect Game. Poss won back-to-back Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Coach of the Year awards in 2021-22 and produced a host of postseason award winners for the Phoenix. In Poss’s last year at Wilson, catcher Michael Marrale was named the CSAC Player of the Year and Chris Baumann won Pitcher of the Year, with the latter earning his award one year after being named Rookie of the Year in 2022. In 2022 Cam Nolet won CSAC Pitcher of the Year, and the year before outfielder Brandon Cook was voted the league’s Player of the Year. Pitcher Kevin Ehrman was named the CSAC Co-Rookie of the Year in 2019.
 
All told, the Phoenix featured 34 all-conference selections, two conference players of the year, two conference pitchers of the year and a conference rookie of the year under Poss. Marrale and Nolet also earned D3Baseball.com All-American honors, in 2023 and 2022 respectively. In 2023 the Phoenix led all three divisions of NCAA baseball with a .390 batting average.
 
Before taking over at Wilson, Poss was a long-time high school coach, serving five years as the head coach at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Annapolis, Md. and three years as an assistant at his high school alma mater DeMatha Catholic in Hyattsville, Md.
Poss’s college playing career started at Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) from 1994-95 before finishing at Winthrop. He played five years of professional baseball, including parts of four seasons in the Frontier and Atlantic Leagues and a stint in the Baltimore Orioles’ organization in 2000.
 
Poss has one daughter, Alexa. She is currently the head volleyball coach at Goldey-Beacom.