Jerry Arvin has served Point Loma Nazarene University as head coach in men’s and women’s track & field since 1995 and guided both cross country teams from 1994-2022. Arvin's teams have won seven GSAC titles in women's track and field: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2008; with two men's titles: 1998, 2010. His men's track & field team placed an all-time best second at nationals in 2000, while the women reached as high as eighth place in 2007.
Coach Arvin has earned numerous accolades during his tenure at PLNU. Following the 2002 GSAC meet, he was named as Men’s Cross Country Co-Coach of the Year while in both 2005 and 2009 he was selected as Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year. He was named GSAC Track & Field Men's Coach of the Year in 1995, 1998, and 2002 and GSAC Women's Coach of the Year from 1997 to 2000 and again in 2004, 2005, and 2007.
In 2019, the PLNU women's track & field team had one of its best seasons ever at the NCAA level. The PacWest Championships highlighted the season as Point Loma placed second with 153 points. Freda Kallenberg and Zita Molnar led the way. Kallenberg was named the PacWest Field Athlete of the Meet after collecting 39 points, which included winning the javelin and the heptathlon. Molnar won both the 3k steeplechase and the 5k to become the first Sea Lion to ever earn PacWest Track Athlete of the Meet. Both, along with Hannah Benoit Bucher, would move on to compete in the NCAA Championships.
Since joining the NCAA, Arvin has helped guide five different Sea Lions into the NCAA Outdoor Championships, and many more to PacWest Conference titles. He has placed over 225 student-athletes on the PacWest All-Academic team, and last year (2020) the women's track & field team had a cumulative grade point average of 3.537.
In 2018 he was named the PacWest Women's Cross Country Coach of the Year after leading PLNU to its first-ever conference title. Arvin has also been selected as NAIA Far West Region Women's Coach of the Year in cross country in 1994 and was selected as one of seven NAIA Regional Coaches of the Year in women's track and field for 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008. In 1999, he was honored with induction into the Point Loma Nazarene University Athletic Hall of Fame for Outstanding Achievement as a Coach.
Arvin has mentored 152 All-American performances in track & field (101 women and 51 men) and five in cross country (three men, two women). Ten of his track & field athletes became national champions. He has also mentored 159 NAIA Scholar-Athletes in both cross country and track, and many others have gathered in All-GSAC, All-PacWest, and GSAC/PacWest Scholar-Athlete honors.
A standout runner at Warren Central High School in Indianapolis, Arvin continued his running career at Greenville College in Illinois, where he is now a member of the school's Athletic Hall of Fame. He earned his Bachelor's Degree at Greenville in 1969 and received his Master's Degree in education from Butler University in 1975.
Arvin lives in San Diego. He and his wife Janice of 53 years (who passed in 2020) have two daughters: Christy Schneider and Allison Rainey, both graduates of PLNU. They have five grandchildren: Andrew, Abigail, Alexander Luke, Charlee, and McKinlee. Professor Arvin also teaches in the PLNU Kinesiology, Physical Education, and Athletic Training Departments.
