LA MIRADA, Calif. — After three years of stewarding the Biola Boys to new levels of success within NCAA Division II, Biola Baseball Head Coach Jeff Calhoon announces his departure from the university.

Calhoon's time at Biola comes to an end as he pursues other opportunities within the broader baseball community. Follow @CoachCalhoon on Twitter for updates on his journey. His final day at Biola is set for early-August.

"My time at Biola has come to an end. I am grateful for the opportunity Dr. Bethany Miller gave me in 2019 to come in and lead this program," said Calhoon. "It has been full of lessons and growth through some of the most challenging times in the history of college athletics."

During his three-year tenure, Calhoon navigated the program through its first season as full NCAA Division II members, endured the COVID-19 pandemic and helped the program earn its first-ever NCAA national ranking. 

He earned 48 wins as the Biola skipper between two partial seasons and one full season in 2022. This past season he steered the team to a .562 winning percentage in conference play, which was good enough for fourth in the PacWest.

The young coach places a high priority on the academic success of his student-athletes, encouraging them all to take their studies as seriously as they take their sport. As a result, his teams had a cumulative GPA of 3.3 spread across these last three years.

"I am going to miss Jeff's fiery competitive spirit and his commitment to growth and excellence," said Dr. Bethany Miller, senior director of athletics. "I know he will accomplish great things to impact lives for Christ through baseball. He has all of our support and prayers in this next step in his career."

His first season at Biola came in 2020, when the team surged to national attention just prior to the COVID-19 shutdown. His Eagles were off to a 12-2 start and were just wrapping up a very successful Hawaiian road trip when the pandemic halted all college sports.

That Eagles team boasted arguably the best pitcher in all of NCAA Division II at the time, Larson Kindreich, and earned as high as the No. 8 spot in the NCAA Division II national rankings.

Kindreich has since gone on to the beginnings of a very productive professional baseball career, currently pitching for the Hickory Crawdads, which is the High-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers organization.

Under Calhoon's leadership, the program saw two Major League Baseball draft picks (Kindreich, Connor Butler) and, so far, one free agent signing (RobertAnthony Cruz). 

His student-athletes earned eight all-conference honors, three all-region awards and one All-American honor. 

"Biola is a special place that is full of fantastic people and great leaders," said Calhoon, "I will miss them, but most importantly I will be eternally grateful to the student-athletes. I had so many great moments with them, and I cannot wait to see where the future leads them."

Biola Athletics immediately seeks qualified candidates to fill the role of Head Baseball coach. The position is open and accepting applications. Interested candidates can find the job listing at https://biola.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/1/home/requisition/1959?c=biola.