Jon Girten - Men's Volleyball Coach - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Photo by: Nathan Peters

Jon Girten

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
jon.girten@gcu.edu

In his first season with the program, Girten played a major role in the Lopes' success.

After the departure of coach Matt Werle, coach Bryan Dell'Amico and Jon Girten split roles to lead the program the rest of the season. Under Girten and Dell'Amico, the team surpassed expectations from many. The Lopes had an AVCA All-American (Trent Moser) along with five individual MPSF honors. The team had a .308 team hitting percentage, ranking 13th in the country and 3rd in program history. Girten helped coach the Lopes to the program's first sweep over UCLA as well as the first time GCU has won back-to-back matches at Stanford in program history.

Girten came to GCU after a strong stint at UC San Diego. The San Diego native has been a part of the Tritons staff for seven seasons with his first year coinciding with the inaugural season of Big West men's volleyball. During the 2022 season, UCSD reached a No. 8 ranking in the country.

Girten helped produce five 2023 All-Big West honorees. A quartet of Tritons also were selected to the Big West All-Freshman Team. During this year's season, Girten helped guide the Tritons to ranked victories against USC, CSUN (twice) and Hawai'i.

"We are so lucky to have Jon join our staff," said GCU head coach Matt Werle, the 2024 American Volleyball Coaches Assocation's Coach of the Year. "Not only is he a great coach, he is also a great man."

Prior to entering the collegiate coaching world, Girten coached at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego for 11 seasons from 2007-17. He initially was the junior varsity and assistant varsity coach, aiding in three CIF titles from 2008-10. Over the next four seasons as boys varsity head coach, he directed his squad to three consecutive Palomar League crowns from 2015-17 as well as CIF Division I championships in 2014 and 2016. He was named Mt. Carmel's Coach of the Year in 2016.

"Jon will control our block and defense," Werle said. "He brings great energy and has been in the game for a really long time. He knows the ins and outs of Division I men's volleyball and is a phenomenal recruiter. I just can't say enough great things, and we can't wait to welcome him with open arms in Arizona."

At the club level, Girten has coached with WAVE since 2020. Before that, he was with Seaside, which won a bronze medal in the Open Division at the 2017 Junior Nationals.

Girten was a two-year varsity player as a middle blocker at Mt. Carmel before being selected to the All-Orange Empire Conference first team twice at Palomar College in San Diego County.