Jon Girten joined Concordia University Irvine in June 2025 as the new men's volleyball head coach of the Golden Eagles.
Girten brings 16 years of extensive volleyball coaching experience with him to Irvine and has lots of ties to the Southwest region of the country.
He spent the previous year as an assistant coach at D1 program Grand Canyon University, competing in the same conference as Concordia in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). Before that, Girten was the lead assistant at UC San Diego, where he helped the Tritons have sustained success over the course of seven seasons. He also returned to his roots and served as the leader of Mt. Carmel High School volleyball for over a decade, while helping players sharpen their skills through the Arizona Fear Volleyball Club, as well as the Seaside Volleyball and Wave Volleyball Clubs throughout the San Diego area.
During his time with GCU, Girten helped the Lopes develop four All-MPSF conference selections and also maintain Top 10 AVCA national rankings throughout the campaign.
GCU went 18-10 that year despite seeing its head coach Matt Werle depart mid-season for an opportunity to be an assistant with the Kansas Jayhawks. Girten and Bryan Dell'Amico together helped the 'Lopes finish the 2025 season, basically sharing interim head coaching duties to serve their student-athletes. In late April, GCU announced the discontinuation of its varsity men's volleyball program and that it would only be offered as a club sport starting with the 2025-26 school year.
Prior to joining GCU, Girten was the lead assistant at UC San Diego alongside head coach and CUI volleyball alum Brad Rostratter. From 2020 to 2024, he served as the UCSD associate head coach and also spent a few months as the program's interim head coach. In all, he spent seven seasons in La Jolla, helping guide the Tritons to as high as No. 6 in the AVCA national rankings. He helped produce five All-Big West Conference honorees in 2023. Girten also helped UCSD navigate the seasons impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the school's transition from Division II to Division I both athletically and administratively.
Before coaching at the collegiate level, Girten spent a considerable amount of time at his alma mater with the volleyball program at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego for 11 seasons from 2007-17. He started as the junior varsity and assistant varsity coach, helping Mt. Carmel earn three CIF titles from 2008-10. His teams won three Palomar League titles in a row from 2015-17 when he was head coach. Mt. Carmel also won CIF Division I Championships twice, including in 2016 when Girten was named Mt. Carmel's Coach of the Year.
In addition, Girten has been highly involved in the Club Volleyball scene, helping young athletes polish their skills. He coached top level teams in the 17 and 18 age ranges at both Seaside Volleyball Club (2011-2020) and the Wave Volleyball Club (2020-24) before moving to Arizona. During his short stint there, he dove right in with the Arizona Fear Volleyball Club, who emerged as 17U Arizona Region Champions and had three Top-5 finishes at major national tournaments.
