{"id":4947,"date":"2021-10-13T21:52:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T02:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=4947"},"modified":"2021-10-13T21:52:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T02:52:03","slug":"getting-to-know-cucs-new-mens-volleyball-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=4947","title":{"rendered":"Getting to Know CUC\u2019s New Men\u2019s Volleyball Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

In August, the Concordia University Chicago men\u2019s volleyball team signed on new head coach Ron Katarzynski, more widely known as \u201cCoach K.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Katarzynski came to CUC because it offered the best direction and fit for his personal criteria.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the focus on family and faith here and it just feels like a good fit for where I\u2019m at in life right now,\u201d Katarzynski said, adding that CUC “has a great campus feel to it.”<\/p>\n

All told, Katarzynski brings 30 years’ worth of coaching experience to the CUC men\u2019s volleyball program. <\/span><\/p>\n

During his college and young adult years, Katarzynski played in a few intramural and park district volleyball teams. He then began coaching at various high schools and volleyball clubs, including St. Pius, St. John’s, Side Out VBC, Avalanche VBC, and West Chicago High School. From there, he began to work his way up through higher levels of coaching. <\/span><\/p>\n

Katarzynski eventually became a head coach at Sports Performance Volleyball Club, a private program based in Aurora, Ill. for high school-aged players. There, he coached the number 25-ranked team in the nation in 2013 and the top-ranked team in 2014. In 2016, he coached his first college team at Aurora University.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Katarzynski hopes to build a team that is centered around more than just great volleyball play and winning streaks. \u201cI value a family atmosphere, a good culture, and having each other\u2019s backs,\u201d Katarzynski said. \u201cThose are the foundations of everything I do in coaching. Obviously skills and techniques are important, but without that strong culture, you won\u2019t be successful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Katarzynski praised his players for forming strong personal bonds and creating team unity before he arrived at CUC. \u201cI think building team chemistry is one of the hardest things to coach, but I feel this team already has that,\u201d said Katarzynski.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Freshman outside and right-side hitter Josh Rapley described how Katarzynski often speaks one-on-one with players to develop personal relationships. \u201cHe keeps up with us,\u201d Rapley said. \u201cWe have meetings with him, individually, every week because that\u2019s just how close we are with our coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the recent team-building events involved bringing the players to his lake house in Reddick, Ill. for a day. Staying together all in one place created a family atmosphere that strengthened the team\u2019s connection, Rapley said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The players believe their coach will lead the volleyball team in the right direction. \u201cI definitely see ourselves being very successful this season,\u201d Rapley said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of great guys coming back and strong freshmen coming in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The volleyball season officially starts at the beginning of the spring semester in January 2022. If there are no interruptions due to COVID-19, the men\u2019s volleyball team should be able to play a full season in front of a full crowd for the first time since 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In August, the Concordia University Chicago men\u2019s volleyball team signed on new head coach Ron Katarzynski, more widely known as \u201cCoach K.\u201d\u00a0 Katarzynski came to CUC because it offered the best direction and fit for his personal criteria. \u201cI like the focus on family and faith here and it just feels like a good fit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":4985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}