The Barometer Online

Issue date: 4/21/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Annie Miles Marie Zidek is a coach for the Oregon State volleyball team and also a graduate student working for Dr. Mark Hoffman studying the nervous system.

By Keegan Warrington

The Daily Barometer

It is hard to describe Marie Zidek, an Oregon State graduate student and volleyball coach. Adventurous, creative, motivated and workaholic are just a few to name and are also reasons for her being such a good volleyball coach.

Zidek grew up on the south side of Chicago, and starting from a young age, Zidek lived, ate and breathed volleyball. Her mother played volleyball at the collegiate level and went on to coach all different ages. From early childhood, Zidek attended her mother's practices and games, where she came to learn and love the sport of volleyball. Marie played volleyball at the junior, high school and eventually the collegiate level at Northern Illinois University.

Today, Zidek is a key member of the OSU volleyball department, where she is on the auxiliary volleyball staff. Zidek and the other members Cody March, Bradi Voigt, Brendan Brucker and Kiley Woods work directly with the athletes to improve their volleyball and life skills.

"They work their brains out for this program," Zidek said about her co-workers. "I could not do my job if they did not do theirs so well."

Zidek is an extremely motivated coach whose philosophy is not only to prepare players for on the court but for off the court as well. Zidek looks to bring a fun yet hardworking atmosphere to the practices. Her philosophy fits well with head coach Taras [Terry] Liskevych and is one of the main reasons she came to OSU.

"It has been completely rewarding being part of the process to build a winning program," Zidek said.

Ultimately, her goals for the athletes is to make them better people and better athletes as well as to promote the athletes to continue playing their sport after their volleyball careers have ended, even if only for fun.

"I feel my purpose here is to make people have fun, because physical activity should be fun and I would love for people to carry on their sport throughout their lifespan," Zidek said.

Besides coaching Zidek is also a graduate student in exercise and sports science, where she works under Dr. Mark Hoffman studying the nervous system and how it modulates itself. In simple terms, it has do with how the body filters information from the environment around it in order to react. From hours of research to writing a thesis, Zidek has a lot her plate.

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