Jorge Peñate joined Baylor Volleyball in July of 2023 as an assistant coach.
In 2024, Peñate helped steer the squad to a season with 23 wins, including 14 in conference for a third-place Big 12 finish. BU went to its school record ninth-consecutive NCAA Tournament, hosting the first and second rounds for the fifth time in eight years. The Bears were the regional fourth seed and the No. 15 seed overall headed into the tournament. The green and gold saw multiple NCAA Tournament records be broken for the program including kills, attack percentage, service aces and digs in a five-set match. Peñate and company helped coach senior Elise McGhee to an Honorable Mention AVCA All-America finish as well as being unanimously named First Team All-Big 12, while Jackie Barrett Frazier, Lauren Briseño and Allie Sczech were named to the second team. Briseño entered the Baylor record books for her 89 career service aces and 1,412 digs. McGhee entered the record book for her 30-kill match against TCU (10/25), while Barrett Frazier also saw her name etched in history for the first triple-double by a BU player since 2009, posting 10 kills, 16 digs and 23 assists against Iowa State (10/30). McGhee capped off her senior season being the first Bear to be drafted to the Pro Volleyball Federation, called as the 34th overall pick, second in the fifth round of the PVF draft by the San Diego Mojo. The Bears were featured in all AVCA Coaches' Polls, finishing the season in 20th and 20th in RPI.
Peñate helped coach the Bears to their eighth-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament in his first season in Waco, 2023. Baylor had three AVCA All-Region honors coupled with four All-Big 12 honorees for the season, along with three being named Academic All-District. Peñate saw his student-athletes break multiple personal records on the season, and three Bears enter the record book for attack percentage, career assists. Baylor won out in Colorado State’s Ram Volleyball Classic, notched a win over No. 19 Ohio State, and carved out season sweeps against Cincinnati and UCF while splitting series with Iowa State and Kansas State.
Previously, Peñate served as the Director of Operations & Analytics with Houston volleyball. Prior to his time with the Cougars, Peñate was the Technical Coordinator for Cal volleyball in Berkeley. He spent a year as the volunteer assistant for the Saint Mary's College women's volleyball team as well in 2017-18.
Peñate has been active with the USA Volleyball National High Performance department since 2012. He was a part of the coaching staff for several National Training Programs across various age groups.
Peñate coached varsity teams at Bay Area high schools, including The Branson School, Bishop O'Dowd HS and Berkeley HS. At Branson, he served as co-head coach for one season, joining the Bulls’ Michelle Brazil, and helped lead the team to their eighth-consecutive NCS pennant and as CIF NorCal semifinalists.
At Bishop O'Dowd, he served as a varsity head coach and a director of the volleyball program for two seasons. He led the Dragons to an overall record of 55-19, back-to-back undefeated WACC league championships, an NCS pennant and two trips to the CIF NorCal playoffs. Prior to Bishop O'Dowd, Peñate also coached at Berkeley High as a head coach and led his team to place second in the WACC league standings.
Peñate has also been involved in the junior club volleyball scene since 2010, starting with Golden Bear Volleyball Club. Since then, he was a coach for the Xceleration Volleyball Club from 2012-14, Red Rock Volleyball Club from 2014-18, the Adversity Volleyball Club from 2018-19 and the Houston Juniors Volleyball Club from 2019-21, having numerous teams qualify in Open, National and American divisions.
The Los Angeles, Calif., native graduated from UC Berkeley in 2011 with his bachelor’s in Geography with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship and Technology.
