After making steady progress in his first two years at the program's helm, Concordia made an enormous leap forward with its first-ever NAIA National Championship under third-year head coach Mike Grahovac in 2011.

Grahovac's 2011 Eagles won a program-record 12 games in a row to close out a regular season where they lost six games in a row to start the Golden State Athletic Conference campaign. The team then went on to win its first-ever GSAC Postseason Tournament title and its first-ever NAIA National Championship Opening Round championship, which punched Concordia's ticket to the 2011 Avista-NAIA World Series.

Coming into their second-ever appearance at the Series as the No. 9-seeded team out of a 10-team field, nobody gave Concordia much of a shot of winning the first-ever national title in the history of both the program, and the GSAC.

Grahovac guided his 2011 squad to a program-best 43-19 record, finishing with a 12-1 mark in postseason play and winning 25 of its last 28 contests overall.

NAIA All-American honorable mention honoree Bryan Nicholson and John Hill were both selected in the MLB First-Year Players Draft, with Hill going to the Philadelphia Phillies in the 19th round (601 overall), and Nicholson going to the San Francisco Giants in the 38th round (1167 overall).

Grahovac, who directly oversees the Concordia pitching staff, also coached Chicago White Sox 15th-round draftee Cameron Bayne in 2009 and Seattle Mariners' 24th-round pick Bennett Whitmore in 2010.

In three years at the program's helm, Grahovac's teams have combined to go 92-69.

In Grahovac's previous coaching stint (2006-08), he led local prep power Orange Lutheran to a Trinity League title in 2008. Grahovac and the Orange Lutheran program produced a total of five players who were drafted by MLB teams.

The most notable draftee was Gerrit Cole, the top pick by the New York Yankees in 2008 and the No. 1 overall selection in the 2011 draft by the Pittsburg Pirates after he played three years at UCLA.

Grahovac had previously served as an assistant coach at Orange Coast Community College from 1992-98 and worked in law enforcement before returning to the diamond in 2006.

While he was on staff at Orange Coast, Grahovac spent the summer of 1996 as an assistant coach for the Alaska Goldpanners of the prestigious summer Alaska League, where he coached future major leaguers Michael Young, Jason Phillips and Jason Lane.

As a player, Grahovac was selected as a catcher in the fourth round of the 1989 draft by the San Francisco Giants, but sustained a career-ending injury in the minor leagues. Before being drafted, Grahovac earned a pair of All-Conference honors while playing for Chapman.

Grahovac earned his undergraduate degree in movement and exercise science from Chapman in 1992, and completed his master's degree in education at Azusa Pacific in 1996.

Grahovac and his wife, Najla, live in Orange and have two children, Peyton (14) and Gavin (7).