Dennis Janzen's contributions to Fresno Pacific Athletics have been innumerable both as a coach and an administrator.
A native of Reedley, Janzen took over as the head coach of both the volleyball and women's basketball teams in 1983, laying the groundwork for both programs to become highly successful.
In four seasons as the head women's basketball coach, Janzen took the program from its first year of NAIA competition to a GSAC championship (1987), along with the program's first national ranking and berth in the NAIA National Tournament (“Sweet 16” finish). He oversaw the program's first ever All-Americans and Scholar Athletes, and posted a 28-3 record in his final season, still a best in program history.
Janzen's responsibilities shifted solely to volleyball in 1988. The program had done well under his direction, with a winning record every year and a GSAC title in 1986, but had yet to reach their goal of an NAIA Tournament appearance.
The team's opportunity finally came in 1989. In their first appearance at the national tournament, Janzen and the Sunbirds ran the table, taking home the title that year for the university's first ever team national championship.
By the end of his FPU coaching career, Janzen had guided the Sunbirds to 26 consecutive winning seasons and had turned the Sunbirds into the NAIA's dominant volleyball power. Janzen and the Sunbirds captured their sixth national title, and fourth in a row, last season, capping off a 10-year run which saw FPU become the winningest college volleyball team at any level (373-18 in that span).
The long list of accomplishments includes 17 Golden State Athletic Conference championships, 13 national “Final Four” finishes and two national runner-up finishes to go with the six NAIA national championships (1989, 2003, four-straight from 2007-2010) and a career record of 867-168.
Under Janzen's guidance, Sunbird volleyball has produced 92 All-GSAC players, 64 NAIA All-Americans (34 First-Team), 26 NAIA Scholar-Athletes, 11 GSAC Players of the Year and three NAIA National Players of the Year, all while graduating his players at a rate of more than 95 percent.
His last 20 teams, 1989 through 2010 (excluding 1992 and 1993 when he was on study leave), all appeared in the NAIA national championship tournament, a national tournament record. He has the third highest winning percentage in NAIA volleyball history, is the winningest volleyball coach in GSAC history, and is the winningest coach in GSAC history in any sport.
Other accomplishments during his tenure included guiding the team to a 122-match home winning streak that stretched from 2002-2010. At one point in 2010 the Sunbirds had the longest win streak in the country at any level with 65 straight matches. FPU also had streaks of 69 straight wins against GSAC teams (the consensus top NAIA conference in the country) and an incredible 91-match regular season winning streak from 2007-2010.
Fresno Pacific volleyball has won 11 consecutive GSAC titles and gone 322-32 in conference play, the best winning percentage of any team in the history of any GSAC sport. An 11-time GSAC coach of the year and four-time AVCA-NAIA coach of the year, Janzen's success has not been limited to the Sunbirds. From 1992-94 he assisted in the development and training of the USA Men's Volleyball Olympic Team.
He also served as an assistant coach with the men's programs at Penn State and the University of Southern California, going on to earn a PhD in Sports Psychology from USC in 2004. That same year he became FPU's Director of Athletics, a post he held until 2013.
Since 2004, Janzen has overseen the creation of seven new sports resulting in major enrollment, community awareness and positive university brand impact. He's helped Fresno Pacific turn into one of the premier college athletic programs of its size, with top-five finishes in the NACDA Director's Cup, and was the driving force behind FPU's application and acceptance into the NCAA membership process.
Janzen was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame in 2010.
