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 first season as head men's and women's volleyball coach at Park University in the 2009-10 season.

“Rick is an outstanding recruiter and has the energy and enthusiasm that it will take to run two successful programs on the high level we expect at Park University,” said Director of Athletics Claude English. “He possesses all the tools to get the job done on this campus, and it starts with his ability to bring in the kind of quality student-athletes who can make a difference both on and off the court for our volleyball programs.”

Mischka comes to Park from Kansas Wesleyan University, where last season, 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 2008 campaign.

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

“Rick will run disciplined programs, but at the same time, our student-athletes will get the most out of their experience at Park University because of his energy and character, which are both outstanding,” English said. “We are very excited to have someone of his caliber on our staff.”

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.

“This is my dream job,” Mischka said. “I have wanted to be a dual head coach since graduating from college, and Park is an elite program within the NAIA. Park has the resources to be a nationally recognized program on both sides – men and women – so this is a very exciting move for my career.”

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 three 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 Yellowjackets before graduating in 2006 with a double-major in Philosophy and Religion. He is currently pursuing his Master of Arts in Human Development at Saint Mary’s.

He is also a certified firefighter, and holds a valid Emergency Medical Technician license, obtained through the Wisconsin Technical College system.

Brett Ferguson is in his first 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 in her first 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.