Greg Garza was named UC Riverside's throws coach on January 20, 2022 and enters his thirdfull season in 2024-25.
Garza helped JT Ober III qualify for his second career NCAA West Prelim in the javelin throw in his first year at UC Riverside. Garza has also been instrumental in guiding Shiloh Corrales-Nelson to a pair of All-Big West honors and a 2023 NCAA West Prelim berth.
Garza, an Inland Empire native, came to UCR after a successful tenure at San Diego State that included two Mountain West champions, three NCAA Championship competitors and five Mountain West titles (two indoor and three outdoor). He also served as the program’s director of operations.
At SDSU, Garza led the Aztecs to four Mountain West Outdoor Championships in a six-year span while helping the Aztecs to multiple program milestones, including new school records (pole vault, indoor 4x400 relay, indoor pole vault) and the first NCAA Indoor Championships representatives in program history. In his first year with the program in 2013, he helped the Aztecs claim both the indoor and outdoor title at the Mountain West Championships while coaching two conference champions and four all-conference performers.
Garza’s professional coaching tenure has been equally - if not more - impressive. The UCLA graduate has helped numerous athletes to the podium in their respective events, including a second-place finish at the 2019-21 Nigerian Olympic trials for Dotun Ogendeji and Darrell Hill’s American national shot-put championship in 2018 and bronze in 2019.
Under legendary throws coach Art Venegas in Westwood, Garza was a three-time Pac-10 discus throw champion, a four-time NCAA national championship contender and qualified for two U.S. Olympic Trials. He was also a two-time participant in the U.S. Track & Field Championships and a two-time NCAA West Regional runner-up. He also captained the Bruins’ squad as a senior.
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).
