Bio

Paul Giesselmann has served as Midland University’s head volleyball coach since 2010. Entering the 2024 season, Giesselmann has coached the Warriors to a 333-128 overall record, making him the all-time winningest coach in Midland Volleyball history. He also holds program records for most wins in a season (37 in 2013), conference wins in a season (14 in 2016 and 2022), and single-season winning percentage (.892 in 2015).

Under Giesselmann’s guidance, the Warriors have been a top national program while competing in one of the country’s premier volleyball conferences, the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). The Warriors claimed the GPAC Postseason Tournament Championship in both 2013 and 2015, and were the GPAC Regular Season Co-Champions in 2016. During the 2022 season, Coach Giesselmann guided the Warriors to their fourth final four in program history Midland has been consistently ranked in the NAIA Coaches Poll Top-25 during Giesselmann’s tenure, including a stretch of 70-straight appearances in the polls (August 20, 2013 to November 18, 2019). 

In just his fourth season, Giesselmann led the Warriors to the program’s first NAIA National Championship Tournament in that 2013 season, sparking a run of six consecutive appearances from 2013-18. That Warrior began the season with a program-record 22-straight wins which was matched by the 2015 team.

Over the past decade, Midland has made nine NAIA National Tournament appearances and has had great success at the final site. They've advanced out of pool play seven times in nine trips to Sioux City, Iowa. They've made runs to the National Semifinals in 2016, 2018, and 2022, and played in the National Championship match in 2020.

In addition to on-court success, Giesselmann has cultivated success off of it with his teams winning the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award in 14 consecutive seasons (2010-22).

Giesselmann took over at Midland after serving as a recruiting coordinator and assistant coach for Creighton University from 2003-09. During his time with the Bluejays, Giesselmann worked heavily with individual on-court training and helped produce the program’s first two All-Americans at the middle blocker position in Kelly Goc and Jessica Hotus.

Thanks in part to Giesselmann’s recruiting work, the Bluejays earned seven selections to the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) All-Freshman Team in seven years, which tied for second in the league, and Creighton became one of two schools in league history with multiple All-Freshman picks in consecutive seasons (2004-05).

Prior to his time at Creighton, Giesselmann was the head coach at the College of Saint Mary from 1994-2001. As the all-time winningest coach in CSM program history (227), Giesselmann earned NAIA National Coach of the Year honors in 2000, Region Coach of the Year honors in 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2001, and Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference (MCAC) Coach of the Year honors in seven consecutive seasons from 1995-2001. He was also the Omaha World-Herald Nebraska State College Women’s Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2013.

Giesselmann led the Flames to a No. 2 national ranking in 2001 and to four consecutive NAIA National Tournament appearances from 1998-2001. The Flames advanced to the National Quarterfinals twice (1999, 2001) and to the National Semifinals once (2000). Giesselmann’s CSM squads earned two regional championships, six consecutive MCAC regular-season championships (1996-2001), and seven consecutive MCAC Tournament championships (1995-2001). All eight of his teams at CSM earned AVCA National Team Academic Awards from 1994-2001.

During his tenure at Midland, Giesselmann has coached 4 Academic All-Americans, 17 All-Americans, 47 All-GPAC athletes, 5 GPAC Player of the Year athletes, 10 NAIA Championship All-Tournament Team players, and 1 NAIA National Setter of the Year.

Giesselmann earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education with an Endorsement in Health and Physical Education K-12 and an Endorsement in Coaching from Wayne State College in 1988. He and his wife, Dr. Paige Groppe, have three children; twin boys Hunter and Garret (both former Midland golfers), and daughter Ansley. The Giesselmann’s reside in Fremont.