Marie Zidek Named Assistant Volleyball Coach

BUFFALO, NY - University at Buffalo volleyball head coach Todd Kress has announced today the hiring of Marie Zidek as assistant volleyball coach.  Zidek comes to Buffalo after spending three seasons on the staff at DePaul University.

While at DePaul, Zidek played an intricate role in player development, particularly with the setters and liberos, in addition with assisting in team travel logistics and camp coordination.  Prior to her time with the Blue Demons, Zidek served as a graduate assistant at Oregon State.

"I am thrilled to have Marie join us at Buffalo," said Kress.  "She is someone who is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about the game of volleyball and she is someone who has high integrity and great character.  As our recruiting coordinator, I am excited for the caliber of student-athletes that she will attract here as continue our process of a championship program."

While at OSU, Zidek contributed to all aspects of the program including facilitating practice, scouting, and tracking student-athlete academic progress. In addition, she was responsible for analyzing video and statistics, and played a vital role in developing volleyball camps for the Beavers.

Zidek has been mentored by some of the best teachers in the game, including current Beaver head coach Terry Liskevych, who led the U.S. Women's National Team to a bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

In her three seasons with Oregon State, the Beavers amassed 36 victories, one All-American honoree, five All Pac-10 awards and routinely put numerous student-athletes on the Pac-10 All-Academic Team.

Zidek completed her Master's Degree in Sports Medicine from Oregon State in June of 2010.

Prior to her time at OSU, Zidek, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, spent five months working in the High Performance Training Center of the Kuortane Sports Training Institute in Finland. In her time there, Zidek worked as a strength and conditioning coach, as well as an assistant coach for the Finnish National Volleyball Federation's U-20 men's team. In addition, she gave lectures on the basics of psychology of sport, and participated in long-term training designs for the rehabilitation of injured athletes.

On the club circuit Zidek spent nearly a decade as both a player and a coach with the Celtic Force, a club based in Palos Heights, Ill.

Her collegiate-playing days were spent at Northern Illinois, where Zidek was a four-year letter winner. She earned several academic awards, including Mid-American Conference All-Academic team honors. Zidek graduated with distinction in 2006 with a degree in Kinesiology.

"I am extremely excited for the opportunity to work with Todd and the volleyball team at the University at Buffalo," said Zidek.  "I loved the energy I saw in the athletic department on my interview and I am humbled to have been given an opportunity to join it.  I can't wait to get started working with the student-athletes."