Rick Mischka became the fifth head coach in the history of the Park men’s volleyball program and the sixth head coach in Pirate women’s volleyball history, on May 13, 2009, and enters his second season as head men's and women's volleyball coach at Park University in the 2010-11 season.

In his first year as the women’s coach at Park, Mischka led the Pirates to a 7-24 record and had two Daktronincs-NAIA scholar-athletes in Bethany Buehler and Crystal Cole. 

Four Pirates were also named to the Academic All-AMC team and sophomore setter Gabriela Garcia was named to the Honorable Mention All-AMC team for her stellar play.

On the men’s side in his first year leading the program, the Pirates went 16-15 overall and 8-4 in MAMVIC West play, which earned them a tie with Missouri Baptist for the MAMVIC West Conference regular season title.

He also coached one of the premiere outside hitters in the NAIA game in 2010, as junior Fray Luis Fajardo Arteaga was one of only 10 players named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association, NAIA Men’s Volleyball All-America Team.

In his two seasons as a head coach in the women’s volleyball game, Mischka is 19-48 and including his one season as a men’s head coach, his career record is, 35-63.

Mischka came to Park from Kansas Wesleyan University, where in 2008, he coached the Coyotes to a semifinal appearance in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament and five wins in the team’s last nine matches of the ‘08 campaign.

He also coached one first-team All-KCAC performer, as well as one Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athlete in 2008.

Before Kansas Wesleyan, Mischka was an assistant coach at NCAA Division-III Saint Mary’s University in Winona, Minn., where he was responsible for all aspects of the program, and was a major part of the recruiting process. In his two-plus seasons at SMU, the Cardinals rebounded from a 10-19 record in 2006 to a 17-12 overall mark in 2007.

Mischka has also been strongly involved in the USA Volleyball Junior Olympic program for the last five years, spending the past two with the Southern Minnesota Volleyball program. During those two years, he has served as head coach of the 17-elite team that finished the 2007 season 35-22 and was 34th out of 64 teams at the AAU Nationals in Orlando, Fla.

Before Saint Mary’s, Mischka was an assistant coach at Graceland University, where he worked with both the men’s and women’s programs for two seasons.
Mischka played two years at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where he was co-captain, player-coach and team treasurer for the Pointers’ NIRSA collegiate club team. While at UWSP, he received NIRSA Club National Championships All-National Team honors as a setter.

Mischka then transferred to Graceland where he played for two seasons as setter and right side hitter for the Yellow jackets before graduating in 2006 with a double-major in Philosophy and Religion.

He has just obtained his Masters of Humanities degree from Tiffin University in Ohio, with a focus on Philosophy and Religious Studies.
 

Brett Ferguson is in his second year as an assistant coach for the men’s and women’s volleyball programs at Park University, joining the Pirate programs after a  year away from the Parkville campus.

In 2008, Ferguson served as a volunteer assistant coach with the UMKC volleyball program and head coach Geno Frugoli. Ferguson helped coach the Kangaroos to 12 wins, and UMKC had many individual honors in Ferguson’s lone season with the program, including 10 academic all-conference honorees and an all-freshman team honoree in the Summit League 

Ferguson is a 2008 graduate of Park University, playing on the Pirate men’s volleyball squad from 2005 to 2008. While playing for the Pirates, Ferguson helped the team reach the NAIA National Tournament in each of his four seasons. In 2008, he helped lead Park to the NAIA National Invitational Tournament Championship, while the team was the national runner-up during his junior campaign when it finished with a 30-3 overall record.

During his four years at the school, the libero/defensive specialist helped the Pirates to a 102-16 overall record, appearing in 34 matches and in 64 games during his career.

Ferguson holds a degree in social studies and history from Park and during his time as a student in Parkville, he was an active member of the Park Zeta Omicron (Phi Alpha Theta) Chapter, serving as the organization’s president during his junior and senior years.

Jenn Lee is also about to embark in her second year on the volleyball coaching staff at Park University, coming to the Pirates after a successful playing career in both volleyball and basketball at Kansas Wesleyan University.

Lee was a member of the Coyote volleyball squad in 2008 under current Park head coach Rick Mischka where she served as the team’s setter, averaging seven assists per game with 11 matches of 30 assists or more and 874 total assists during the 2008 season.

She also finished her senior campaign with 41 kills and 12 service aces, and defensively, Lee was third on the team in digs, averaging 2.7 per game and totaling 342 on the year.

Lee played for the Kansas Wesleyan basketball program in the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons under head coach Gordon Reimer, scoring 117 points in two seasons while passing out 52 assists in the Coyote backcourt.

She was a 71-percent career free-throw shooter for the Coyotes and defensively, she picked up 30 steals in two seasons at KWU.

Prior to her three-year, two-sport career at Kansas Wesleyan, Lee played at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, Calif., where she was an all-conference basketball and volleyball player, helping the Marauder basketball team to the 2005 California State Final Four.

Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in athletic training from Kansas Wesleyan and she is currently pursuing a master’s degree from Park University in Healthcare Leadership.