Brian Toron is set to begin his sixth season overall and his fourth as an assistant coach on the Penn State Women's Volleyball staff in 2025. He has served in a multitude of roles, including his current responsibilities as the coach of the team’s offense and the head of recruiting.
Toron, an AVCA Thirty Under 30 award winner in 2022, helped guide Penn State to the eighth national title and 18th Big Ten title in program history in 2024. The Nittany Lions went 35-2 overall, including a 3-1 win over Louisville in the National Championship match at the KFC Yum! Center. The season also included a pair of wins over Nebraska, the first to clinch a share of the conference title and the second in the National Semifinal match.
Toron has helped teams reach the NCAA tournament in six of the past seven seasons under three different head coaches. He also holds an overall record of 10-3 as a Division I head coach while serving in an interim capacity at Delaware in 2016.
Since Toron joined the staff at Penn State, the Nittany Lions have been ranked in every AVCA Coaches Poll and advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three seasons as an assistant coach, helping the program extend its streak to 44 consecutive appearances. They advanced to the Regional Semifinal in each of the first two seasons before breaking through to win the national title in 2024.
In Toron's three seasons as an assistant coach, Penn State has had players earn six All-America honors, nine all-region accolades and 11 All-Big Ten awards, including nine first-team selections. With a primary role of working with the team's setters, he helped guide Izzy Starck to the AVCA National Freshman of the Year award and a second-team All-America nod in 2024, as well as Mac Podraza to a first-team All-Big Ten honor in 2023 and Seleisa Elisaia to a spot on the second team in 2022.
The Nittany Lions had the No. 2 ranked recruiting class in the country in 2024 which was highlighted by Starck as the No. 1 overall recruit. This came just one year after bringing in the eighth-ranked class.
Working as Penn State’s director of operations under seven-time National Championship coach Russ Rose, Toron helped mentor four AVCA All America honorees. While handling the teams logistics and operations, Toron also acted as the program liaison for the Penn State Women’s Volleyball Booster Club.
Toron arrived in State College after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at Hofstra, where he was in charge of the program’s recruiting efforts. The Pride went 42-20 overall and 23-9 in the Colonial Athletic Association during the two seasons with Toron on the coaching staff. In his first season as an assistant coach, the Pride went 25-8 overall and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament after winning the CAA regular season and Tournament titles. It was the program’s first CAA title since 2014. He helped the Pride earn one AVCA All Region award, as well as five individual CAA award winners, highlighted by the 2018 Freshman of the Year, Setter of the Year and Coaching Staff of the Year.
Toron assisted in all aspects of the Hofstra program and was in charge of the team's recruiting efforts.
Prior to his time at Hofstra, Toron worked as a technical coordinator at Northwestern. As a member of the Wildcats staff he assisted with practice planning, inputting DataVolley information and producing scouting reports. During his tenure, the Wildcats improved 70 spots in the RPI from the previous season.
Toron began his coaching career as a member of Delaware’s volleyball staff, where he served in a variety of roles from 2014 until 2016. He began as a volunteer assistant coach before moving up the coaching ladder to become the director of volleyball operations for a year before being named the interim head coach during the 2016 campaign.
After being named the interim head coach, Toron led Delaware to a 10-3 record and a spot in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship match. That season Delaware had two All-CAA first team honorees and one player on the CAA All-Freshman team.
Toron has extensive experience with USA Volleyball as he is a lead scout for the NDTP.
In addition was named the head coach for USA Volleyball in the upcoming Maccabi Games in 2025.
Toron was inducted into his Fair Lawn, New Jersey High School Hall of Fame in 2024 for his contribution of helping lead his team to a New Jersey State boys volleyball title.
Toron, a University of Delaware alum, resides in Bellefonte with his wife Samantha Toron and their dog Tater.