Contributing Members

Carl McGown Founder of Gold Medal Squared, Carl has more than 30 years of International coaching experience. He first coached as an assistant for the USA in the 1970 World Championships in Bulgaria. Later he was the head coach of the USA Men's National Team from 1973 to 1976. Since then he has coached in six World Championships and seven Olympics (Los Angeles, Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, and Beijing). In 2000, he was presented with the USA Volleyball All-Time Great Volleyball Coach Award in the Contemporary Division. From 1990 to 2002 he was the Men's Head Coach at BYU, where his teams won NCAA championships in 1999 and 2001. His most recent head coaching experiece was in the 2007-08 Swiss A League, where he led LUC to the regular season title, the Coppe Suisse Championship, and the Swiss League Championship. He now consults with programs around the world: National Teams, Foreign Professional Leagues, D1-DIII College Programs, and Club/HS teams, and is a member of the FIVB Coaching Commission.

John Speraw John Speraw is entering his eighth season as the head men's volleyball coach at UC Irvine guiding the Anteaters to its second national championship in the last four years. With the Anteaters' second national championship, UCI becomes just the fifth school to win more than one men's volleyball title all-time. With UCI's first national championship, Speraw joined Rod Wilde as the only individuals to have won a title as a head coach, assistant coach and player. Speraw, Wilde and Bob Yoder are the only three to have accomplished the feat as a player and head coach. Along with the national championship in 2007, Speraw's team also won its first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title, ended the year with the No. 1 ranking and had a school record 29 victories, a win total that was the most among all NCAA Division I-II schools that year. Speraw, was named 2006 AVCA National Coach of the Year as well as Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and Volleyball Magazine Coach of the Year. He has been a finalist for National Coach of the Year three of the last five years. Speraw was named an assistant coach with the U.S. National team in January, 2007 and helped Team USA to a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and World League Championship. Speraw's other international coaching experience, includes being the head coach of the USA Junior National Team three times as well as the head coach of the Youth National Team. He also served as an assistant for the Youth National Team (1998 and 2001), the World University Games Team (1997 and 1999) and the Pan American Games Team (1999, 2007). Prior to UCI, Speraw served in various roles with the UCLA volleyball program for 12 years. He played middle blocker for the Bruins from 1990-95 and was a member of two national championship teams. He was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team in 1995 when he had 11 kills and eight blocks in the championship victory over Penn State. Speraw became a volunteer assistant coach with the Bruins before assuming a full-time assistant's position in 1998. He graduated from UCLA in 1995 with a bachelor of science degree in microbiology and molecular genetics.

Jason Watson Jason Watson enters his fourth season at the helm of the ASU Women's Volleyball Program after a 2009 season that saw the Sun Devil squad progress to becoming a threat in the Pac-10 and nation. The 2009 Sun Devils opened with an 11-3 record, the best start in program history since 1992 when the Sun Devils advanced to a program-best Sweet Sixteen appearance. The team continued to improve in leaps and bounds, finishing ranked third in the Pac-10 in blocks per set and 13th in the NCAA overall. Watson's recruiting classes are also of note, where the 2010 class was top-25 and 2011 looks to be of a similar cut. Watson's tireless efforts have begun to bring success back to the Maroon & Gold program and promises a bright future. Watson traveled to Tempe after three stellar seasons as Head Coach of the Brigham Young University women's volleyball program, where he compiled a 74-18 (.804) overall record while leading BYU to three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. In only his first season as Head Coach, he was named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year after leading his team to a 25-4 record, the program's best record since 1998. In addition to leading BYU to the MWC regular-season title, Watson also helped lead them back to the NCAA Tournament as well, where his teams have resided and succeeded in the last few years. In 2007, he led the Cougars to a 24-8 overall record and finish in NCAA Regional Final (Elite 8) as well as a final national ranking of 12th and at one point in the season as high a rank as ninth. No stranger to the best competition, Watson's teams have been ranked as high as eighth on RPI, showing the character and strength of the teams he builds and that they shy away from no challenge. Prior to his head-coaching debut at BYU in 2005, Watson had amassed 11 years as an assistant coach at four universities. After an All-American playing career at BYU from 1990-1994, where he was a four-year starter and two-time captain, Watson coached for two years under his former coach, Carl McGown before beginning his career in women's volleyball with extremely successful stints at Kansas State, Arkansas State and Montana State.

Ron Larsen Ron is the current Women's Head Coach at the University of California at Riverside, where he recently completed his first year. Ron finished four years as the First Assistant Coach for the USA Men with a Gold Medal in the Bejing Olympics, after six seasons at UCSD. Larsen came to UCSD in 2000-in the school's final year of NCAA Division III affiliation-and led the Tritons to one of the most memorable seasons in the program's history. UCSD won the Molten Division III Men's Volleyball Invitational Championship that season and recorded the most wins or a Triton team in 10 seasons. While at UCSD, Ron was also awarded the MPSF Coach of the Year Award in 2004. Ron's coaching career began at the University of California-Berkeley, where he led the Bears' men's volleyball team to a record of 102-29 at the club level. He coached at Cal from 1980-84 and again from 1987-89. He also served as an assistant coach of the women's volleyball team at St. Mary's College from 1987-88 before moving on to the University of California, Davis in 1989. At Davis, he served as assistant coach of the women's team for four seasons and as head coach of the men's team from 1991-93, leading the Aggies to a 65-31 record and a fifth-place finish at the 1993 national club volleyball tournament. Ron served as head men's and women's coach at Rutgers-Newark from 1993-99, compiling a record of 97-80 in men's volleyball and 111-79 with the women's team. The men's team was consistently ranked in the nation's top 15. Ron was named New Jersey Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1996 and 1998 and Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) Coach of the Year in 1998. Ron's coaching experience also includes the 1995 USA Olympic Festival, where he served as head coach of the North Men's Team and led his squad to a silver medal. He also coached the 1996 USA Boys Youth National Team, featuring the nation's top 18 high school players

Rob Browning Rob Browning recently completed his sixth season as the head women's volleyball coach at Saint Mary's College of California. In 2009 Browning led the Gaels to their first-ever West Coast Conference Championship. The Gaels dominated the conference, leading in every statistical category by the end of the season. The Gaels have been to the NCAA tournament three times in Browning's six years as head coach. Browning was an assistant coach and technical coordinator for the USA Men's National Team for six years prior to joining Saint Mary's. He has been to three Olympic Games with the USA men's team, 2000 in Sydney, 2004 in Athens, and 2008 in Beijing where the team won the gold medal. Prior to assisting the men's national team, Browning served as a volunteer assistant on the BYU men's volleyball team for three seasons, culminating in BYU's first NCAA Men's Volleyball National Championship in 1999.

Chris McGown Chris McGown is entering his first year as the Men's Head Coach at Brigham Young University. Prior to accepting the head coaching position, Chris was an assistant with both the men and women's programs at BYU. Chris has also been involved with Gold Medal Squared since its inception in 1998, working as both an administrator and a coach/clinician. During the course of his career with GMS he has worked with hundreds of schools and clubs and thousands of volleyball players. Chris took a break from coaching and playing immediately after college to work as a manufacturing engineer and worked closely with companies such as IBM, Boeing, General Electric, General Motors, Merck, and the Department of Defense. His experience as an engineer served him well as background for implementing the science behind the GMS systems. Chris left engineering full time in 2003 to work exclusively with Gold Medal Squared. As a player, he was a three-year letterman at BYU from 1990-1994. He experienced the ups and downs of playing for his father, Carl McGown, and lived with the team through its early growing pains to one of the more dominant programs in men's collegiate volleyball. He still maintains close ties to the BYU men's program, and is the Volunteer Assistant for the women. Currently, Chris is the principal clinician for Club Coaching events at GMS, and has spent countless hours with his father at our summer clinics. He also has a significant part in the administration of GMS, managing finances, the GMS website, clinic scheduling and staffing, and marketing/advertising. He continues to work with athletes at Clubs and High Schools, and loves to be on the court. When not involved in volleyball, he can be found skiing, golfing, mountain biking, and chasing after his two beautiful daughters.

Mike Wall Mike Wall has been an integral part of Gold Medal Squared since 2003, and is currently working full time with the company. Mike runs and operates the summer camp side of Gold Medal Squared and assists with coaching clinics. Furthermore, Mike has been the driving force behind the development of the coaches toolbox. From 2006-2008 Mike served as the first assistant coach for Arizona State University Women's Volleyball. In his first nine months with ASU Mike helped the Sun Devils go from an RPI ranking of 152 in 2005 to a ranking of 25 in 2006. Mike also helped the Sun Devils back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 4 years, advancing to the second round. In 2005 Mike served as the first assistant coach at the University of Utah. The Utes won the MWC Tournament, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Before Utah, Mike was coaching at Saint Mary's College. While on the Gaels' staff, Wall helped the team to a 24-4 overall record. The Gaels beat the eventual national champions Stanford twice during the regular season and even went as far as the Sweet 16 before losing to Washington. SMC started the season ranked out of the top 50 and finished ranked No. 10 in the country. Prior to his stint at Saint Mary's, Wall was an assistant coach at UC-San Diego in 2003-04. There he helped UCSD to its best season in program history. Mike gained valuable experience playing volleyball at the international level as well. His international exploits began during the 2001 season when he participated in the World League Tournament with the USA National Team. After finishing his senior campaign at Brigham Young, Wall returned to the US National Team to take part in the Dallas and Italian tours. From 2002-04, Wall played volleyball overseas. He began playing in the Swiss National League A in 2002-03 and spent part of 2004 playing for San Sebastian Volleyball Club in Puerto Rico. Wall played college volleyball at Brigham Young from 1997-2002 and was a part of two National Championship squads. In 2001, Wall was named a first team All-American. After beating UCLA in three games to take the NCAA Title, Wall was named the Final Four MVP. In 2002, Wall was again named a first team All-American and also was named BYU's Most Competitive Athlete. Currently, Wall holds eight records at BYU.

Tom Melton Tom is also working full time with Gold Medal Squared, along with running a club program in Chico, CA. Tom oversees the GMS summer camp coaching staff and assists at clinics. Tom has been coaching at a variety of levels over the last 14 years. He began his coaching career as the head coach of the Chico State men's varsity club team in 1991. Upon receiving his teaching credential, Tom moved into coaching at the High School and Club level. In 2000, Tom began hosting coaching clinics and running camps for Gold Medal Squared. Subsequently, his teams at Pleasant Valley High School went on a 115-11 run in the following 3 years. In Tom's final season at PVHS, the team finished 3rd in the California State D2 Championships with a final record of 45-3. During the summer, Tom is busy helping to organize camps, coordinating coaching staff logistics, and directing camps. Also, Tom works with our sponsors helping to bring additional value to our clients.