Oct. 4, 2012
SAN DIEGO - Greg Garza, a three-time All-American and two-time Olympic Trials competitor in the discus throw, has been named an assistant track and field coach at San Diego State, head coach Shelia Burrell announced today.
"We are thrilled to add Greg to our coaching staff," Burrell said. "We pride ourselves on having a good throws program and Greg stood out from a quality list of candidates as the best person to help build on what we have already established here. His intimate knowledge of all the throwing events was a big plus for both the coaching staff and the current student-athletes.
"Greg's ability to work with the developmental athlete and the elite athlete has already made an impact in how the women are training. He is a young coach with tremendous talent and I look forward to watching him work."
Garza comes to The Mesa after spending the past two years as an assistant throws coach with the U.S. Olympic Training Center in nearby Chula Vista. Under the direction of throwing coach legend Art Venegas, Garza helped coach a pair of throwers who qualified for the London Olympics in Jessica Cosby (hammer) and Jared Rome (discus), as well as Jeremy Campbell, a paralympic discus thrower who owns the world record in the event. He also spent the past two years as the strength and conditioning coach at Shadow Hills High School.
"I'm excited to work with such a talented group of student-athletes," Garza said. "There is a solid foundation here with the throwers given their success the past couple of seasons, including a national championship (Whitney Ashley in the discus) last year. I'm optimistic that we will score at both the national and conference level."
Garza has also been a director and head coach of the Flying Elephant Throwing Clinic (2011), a volunteer assistant coach with national power UCLA (2007-09) and a camp coach and clinician at UCLA (2004-09).
Prior to getting into coaching, Garza excelled at UCLA under Venegas as a three-time All-American and three-time Pac-10 (now Pac-12) champion in the discus throw. A captain his senior year with the Bruins, Garza was a four-time NCAA national championship competitor and two-time NCAA West Regional runner-up. Over his career, Garza twice qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials and was a two-time participant at the U.S. Track & Field Championships. Garza's mark of 211 feet, 8 inches in the discus ranks second all-time at UCLA. He also owns personal bests of 188-3 in the javelin and 57-2 in the shot put.
Garza earned a bachelor's degree in history for UCLA in 2008.