Ken Murczek

Hometown: Chicago, Ill. Position: Assistant Coach Alma Mater: San Diego State, 1998

Assistant Coach Ken Murczek
phone: (785) 864-3921
email:kmurczek@ku.edu

Ken Murczek enters his second season as a Kansas volleyball assistant coach. He joined the KU volleyball staff on March 20, 2008, after spending the 2007 season as an assistant at the University of Virginia. A Chicago, Ill., native, Murczek works with the Jayhawks' outside hitters and is also responsible for team travel, video editing and assisting with recruitment.

In his first season working with Kansas' front row players, outside hitter Karina Garlington was named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District and finished fifth in the Big 12 averaging 3.66 kills per set. Garlington also earned an AVCA National and Big 12 Offensive player of the week awards.

While working at Virginia, Murczek was responsible for training the Cavaliers' outside hitters and helped develop hitter Sarah Kirkwood into a two-time AVCA All-American, the first player to do so in Virginia volleyball history. In the summer of 2007, Murczek also spent time at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he assisted with skill development and on-court training of the United States Women's National Volleyball Team.

In addition to his stint at Virginia, Murczek has also served as an assistant at Western Michigan (2005-06) and a volunteer assistant at Purdue (2004). At Western Michigan, Murczek was instrumental in the daily training of the setters, recruiting and served as the director of the Bronco Volleyball Summer Camp. Over the two-year span, Murczek helped guide six all-conference players and aided in the Broncos receiving the highest honorable mention award for the 2006 recruiting class according to prepvolleyball.com. In addition, Murczek was integral in the development of senior setter Jenifer Sulewski, who broke the school record for single-season assists.

In his stint at Purdue, he helped the Boilermakers to their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1990 and first-round upset over nationally-ranked host Colorado State.

During the 2002 and 2003 seasons, Murczek was head coach at Division II St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Ind. In his first year, the Panthers doubled their league win total and advanced to the conference tournament for the first time in three years. Murczek also spent a season at the helm at Cuyamaca College, a community college in San Diego, where he guided the team to its first conference tournament bid in school history.

Aside from his coaching experience at the collegiate level, Murczek also has spent time coaching both high school and club volleyball in San Diego, Chicago and Kalamazoo, Mich.

A successful player at all levels, Murczek began his volleyball career at Marist High School in Chicago where he became an all-state selection in 1993. Following high school, Murczek played for Lewis University before transferring to Division I San Diego State, where his team received top 15 votes during his senior season. Murczek also finished ranked fifth in the country in digs per game. He then went on to the University of Arizona where his club volleyball team won back-to-back national championships.

After college, Murczek played four seasons of professional six person indoor volleyball in Gelterkinden, Switzerland; Biendenkopf, Germany; Niort, France and Bandung, Indonesia. He has also competed in several beach volleyball tournaments during the summer months throughout the United States.

Murczek earned his B.S. in kinesiology from San Diego State University in 1998 before going on to earn a master's in teaching and teacher education from the University of Arizona in 2000. Murczek also holds a secondary education teaching credential in physical education and science from the state of Indiana, and an M.S. in sport management from Western Michigan University (2007).

Murczek and his wife, Jennifer, married in August 2007.