John Turner - Executive Director GHVCA

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the tournament in 2017 the tournament name was changed from the Texas Volleyball Invitational to the John Turner Classic to honor Coach Turners years of service to the game of volleyball.

Coach Turner has long been a name synonymous with girls volleyball not only in the state of Texas but across the nation. During his coaching career he amassed a career coaching record of 806-238. 

He graduated from Lamar University and immediately started coaching in 1984 as an assistant coach at Friendswood High School. After one year, he accepted the head coaching position at Channelview for 4 years taking his teams to district champions each year and finishing as State Semi-Finalist in 1987 and State Finalists in 1988.

Coach Turner then went on to coach at Baytown Lee for two years where his team was district runner-up and then district champions losing in the Regional Quarterfinals.  He then decided to accept an Assistant Coaching position at Lamar University for two seasons before going back to his true love – high school volleyball.  He served one year as an assistant coach at Alvin before moving on to Pearland High School where he has served as the head coach for the past 23 years.  He also coached club volleyball for 20 years as a coach and director/founder of Club Texas Volleyball. He was the director of the nations largest high school volleyball tournament for the past 19 years raising over $250,000 for various charities to fight cancer and promote the educational process.

He is the current Executive Director of GHVCA which he has held for the past 5 years since it’s inception.  He has been named District Coach of the Year – 14 times for Districts 19-4A/21-5A/22-5A/23-5A/22-6A.  He has been selected as an TGCA All-Star Coach in 1988 and 2000.  Selected as GHVCA All-Star Coach in 2013.  He has had 18 players named to the TGCA All-State Teams; 13 players named to the TGCA All-Star Teams; 92 players named to the TGCA All-State Academic Teams; 12 players selected as District MVP’s; 4 players named as High School All-Americans – all from Pearland High School. Turner has been credited with founding and forming the new state coaches association TAVC in 2016 a long time dream of his since starting GHVCA five years ago.