Today (March 21) Eastern Washington Director of Athletics Lynn Hickey announced the hiring of Jon Haruguchi as the eighth head volleyball coach in program history. Haruguchi will lead Eastern's program after spending the past six seasons as an assistant and associate head coach at the University of Northern Colorado.

"We are very excited to bring Coach Haruguchi on board as our new head volleyball coach," said Hickey. "He brings a wealth of experience and professionalism at the Division I level, along with great knowledge of the Big Sky Conference. He comes highly recommended for his expertise on the court, along with his great demeanor and culture building with student-athletes. He oversaw recruiting at one of the top volleyball programs in our conference. We have a special group of young ladies in our program, and we look forward to continuing building the foundation that Coach Flores-Cloud and her staff have put in place the past few years." 

Haruguchi arrived at Northern Colorado as an assistant coach in 2016 and was promoted to associate head coach in December of 2019. During his time in Greeley, Haruguchi helped guide the team to the NCAA Tournament in 2019 and 2021, winning the Big Sky Conference regular season and tournament championships in both seasons. UNC also appeared in the 2020 Big Sky tournament finals and in the 2018 season, earned the program's first invite to the NIVC tournament. In the six seasons Haruguchi was at UNC, the team posted a 112-60 overall record and qualified for the Big Sky tournament each season.

"I would like to express my gratitude to Lynn Hickey and the search committee for such an incredible opportunity to be the next head coach of Eastern Washington University's volleyball program," said Haruguchi. "I am truly blessed to have the trust of the department and university in leading this group of young women. The energy I felt through my interactions with the players and staff was inspiring and I am thrilled to join the Eagle family. I am eager to build upon the former success of the program and look forward to developing a championship culture at EWU.  I can't wait to get to Cheney and hit the ground running as we look forward to next fall!"
 
While at UNC, Haruguchi helped coach the Big Sky MVP, Daisy Schultz in 2019. UNC has earned 12 All-Big Sky selections in Haruguchi's tenure with the program. He also coached UNC's first Division I Academic All-American, Brittany Lawrence, during the 2018 season.

In addition to coaching, Haruguchi assisted with recruiting and video analysis for practice and match preparation. He assisted in summer camps and ran a club tournament for junior volleyball clubs in the Greeley area.

Prior to his time at UNC, Haruguchi was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Dartmouth College in 2015. The Big Green had a 9-5 record in the Ivy League during the 2015 season, the most conference wins for the program in 22 years. Dartmouth finished tied for third that season in the Ivy League, the program's best conference finish.

From 2010 to 2015, Haruguchi worked at the University of Louisiana as an assistant coach from '10-'14 and as associate head coach in '15. The Ragin Cajuns qualified for the Sun Belt Conference tournament in four of the five seasons Haruguchi was in Lafayette.

Haruguchi began coaching the college level at Southeastern Louisiana University as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 2007 to 2010.  

Haraguchi is a native of Honolulu, Hawaii and earned a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Landscape Horticulture from Colorado State in 1996 and Master's degree in Special Education from the University of Hawaii in 2003. He will be joined in Cheney by his wife Wendee.