Dr. Ken Murczek enters his third season as an assistant coach with the San Diego State volleyball program.
A former Aztec men's volleyball player, Murczek brings a wealth of coaching experience to Montezuma Mesa, including nine years as a head coach at the NCAA level.
Prior to his arrival on The Mesa, Murczek was the head coach of the men's volleyball program at the University of Charleston in West Virginia during the spring of 2017, following a three-year stint as head coach of the women's team at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
In his latest role,, Murczek will be responsible for SDSU's offensive development and will train Aztec setters and defensive specialists.
In his lone season at Charleston, Murczek helped engineer one of the biggest turnarounds at the NCAA Division II level, as the Golden Eagles recorded a program-record 12 victories, capping eight-game improvement over the previous campaign.
Prior to his arrival at Charleston, Murczek guided the women's volleyball program at Wake Forest from 2013-15, leading the Demon Deacons to the best start in team history at 12-0 during his first season at the helm. In all, he coached 19 Atlantic Coast Conference all-academic honor roll selections, while his squad earned the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for maintaining a collective 3.4 GPA.
Murczek's first recruiting class at Wake Forest produced two ACC all-freshman performers and eventually one all-conference player. In addition, he increased the program's game attendance by 81 percent in his three seasons, fostering a tremendous relationship with the community through the Deacon Volleyball Academy juniors program.
Before his move to Wake Forest, Murczek spent three seasons as head coach at the University of North Texas, where he led the program to 63 victories and a pair of Sun Belt Conference West Division championships in 2010 and 2012. The latter squad tied a school-record 26 wins and reached the finals of the conference tournament for the first time in program history.
While at UNT, Murczek's coached five all-Sun Belt players and four conference all-tournament picks. His teams were also successful off the court, with the Mean Green receiving AVCA Team Academic honors in 2011 and 2012.
During the 2008-09 seasons, Murczek served as an assistant at Kansas, where he coached eight Big XII all-academic selections, including two ESPN academic all-district honorees. In addition, he helped found the Jayhawk Juniors youth program for Lawrence, Kansas, and surrounding communities.
Prior to his tenure in the Sunflower State, Murczek completed a one-year stint at Virginia in 2007, helping the Cavaliers to 18 victories in the highly competitive ACC. He also assisted with recruiting and trained the outside hitters, including two-time AVCA All-American Sarah Kirkwood.
In addition, Murczek served as an assistant at Western Michigan (2005-06) and a volunteer assistant at Purdue (2004).
At WMU, Murczek mentored seven all-Mid-American Conference players and aided in the Broncos' 2006 recruiting class that received the highest honorable mention, according to prepvolleyball.com. In his stint at Purdue, he helped the Boilermakers earn their first NCAA Tournament berth since 1990 and register a first-round upset over nationally-ranked host Colorado State.
During the 2002 and 2003 seasons, Murczek was the head coach at Division II Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, as the Panthers doubled their conference win-total in his first season at the helm.
He has also assisted with USA Volleyball in Colorado Springs, Colorado, helping with skill development and on-court training for the United States Women's National Volleyball team since 2006. Murczek has received his USA Volleyball Coaching Accreditation Programs (CAP) Level III and has trained to be a Cadre for the program.
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. He played collegiately for Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois, before transferring to San Diego State, where he helped the Aztecs to a top 15 ranking during his senior campaign in 1998. That season, he also ranked fifth in the country in digs per game. Murczek then enrolled as a graduate student the University of Arizona where his club volleyball team won back-to-back NIRSA national championships.
After college, Murczek played four seasons of professional indoor volleyball in Gelterkinden, Switzerland; Biendenkopf, Germany; Niort, France and Bandung, Indonesia.
In addition to SDSU, Murczek has two other ties to San Diego, serving as head coach at Cuyamaca College in 2001, as well as a stint at West Hills High School in 1998, where he served as the head coach of the freshman team while assisting with the varsity squad.
Murczek received his bachelor of science degree in kinesiology from San Diego State in 1998 before earning a master's degree in teaching and teacher education from Arizona in 2000. He also holds a secondary education teaching credential in physical education and science from the state of Indiana, and a master's in sport management from Western Michigan University (2007).
In 2919, Murczek completed his doctor of education in kinesiology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
Murczek enjoys spending time with his wife hiking, biking, and camping in their 1987 Volkswagen Vanagon with their Belgian Malinois “Truus.” He still plays both indoor and beach volleyball competitively.
Murczek currently holds his CBVA AAA rating on the beach and has won back to back gold medals (2018-2019) at the USA Volleyball adult nationals with Team Pineapple.