Saint Vincent College lost a legend in every sense of the word with the untimely passing of Kristen Zawacki, longtime Bearcat coach and athletic administrator, on December 25, 2010 at the age of 52.
The lone coach in the history of women's basketball at Saint Vincent, Zawacki amassed a 512-276 career record, one of just 13 coaches in the nation to enter the 2010-11 season with at least 500 career wins. In addition to her achievements on the basketball sidelines, she was also integral in establishing the school's softball team in 1985, while she successfully guided the school's athletic department during her tenure as Associate Athletic Director.
With just eight players on the team's inaugural roster in 1983-84, the Bearcat women's basketball team exceeded expectations by finishing 14-10, and reaching the NAIA District 18 playoffs. It was just a sign of things to come, as over the next 26 years, the Bearcats reached the postseason 23 times, including nine District 18 titles, four American Mideast Conference titles, and eight trips to the NAIA National Tournament. Fourteen Saint Vincent players received NAIA All-America honors during Zawacki's tenure, while 22 players scored at least 1,000 points.
In an interview conducted shortly after Zawacki won her 500th game in March of 2010, the coach was quick to deflect praise for all of her accomplishments.
"I think it takes a lot of factors to achieve a milestone like this," she said. "It takes a lot of factors to sustain a program for this long, period. To have 24 winning seasons, 14 20-win seasons, the graduation rate is exceptional.... that all starts with the athletes in your program. The support the college has been just tremendous. The administration, the faculty, the student body, and all the great assistant coaches I've had the pleasure working with during my years all have made a difference."
Zawacki's achievements with the basketball program hardly went unnoticed. She was named District 18 Coach of the Year seven times, and was honored as the top coach in the American Mideast Conference three times. She was selected to the Saint Vincent College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.
In just the team's sixth season of competition, Zawacki's Bearcats made NAIA history, as the 1989-90 squad was the first to go undefeated in District 18 competition, posting a perfect 14-0 mark. In fact, it would take nearly two years before the Bearcats would drop a district game, as they again went 14-0 in 1990-91, eventually stretching the district winning streak to 38 games, a national record.
The 1990s were a decade of prominence for the Saint Vincent women's basketball team, as the Bearcats went a combined 222-85 between the 1990-91 and 1999-2000 campaigns. The team won the District 18 title every year from 1989 through '97, and in 1997-98, the Bearcats' first year of competition in the new American Mideast Conference, SVC made quick work of its opposition, posting a 16-0 conference mark and a 25-7 overall record. By the end of the decade, the Bearcats appeared in the NAIA National Tournament in seven of 10 years.
In the 2002-03 season, the Bearcats recovered from a 4-6 start to finish with an overall record of 22-12, winning the AMC North Championship and advancing to the National Tournament for the eighth time in team history, and Zawacki was again honored as AMC Coach of the Year.
In the middle part of the decade, the Bearcats suffered a trio of lean years in conjunction with the move of Saint Vincent from the NAIA to the NCAA Division-III level in 2006, as the team went just 32-43 between 2005 and 2008. However, it would prove to be nothing more than a hiccup, as the Bearcats responded by going 16-8 in 2008-09.
The 2009-10 Bearcat roster was comprised of seven freshmen, two sophomores, and three juniors, and Zawacki was unsure what to expect from such a young group.
"I thought we could have a nice year," she said following the season, "but before the year, you never know what can happen. We were just concerned about getting such a young team acclimated to the college game."
The Bearcats quickly erased all doubts, as the young, up-tempo squad went 23-5, ending the year with eight straight wins, including a nail-biting 60-58 victory over Juniata in the ECAC Championship game. Fourteen days prior to the ECAC fray, the Bearcats achieved what arguably could be considered one of the biggest wins in program history.
Sitting on 499 career victories, Zawacki's squad wrapped up the regular season against perennial PAC power Thomas More College, a consensus top-10 pick and a team that had defeated the Bearcats by 19 points just five weeks earlier.
The day would belong to the Bearcats, though, as the hosts stunned the Saints 64-56, giving Zawacki her 500th career victory and setting off a raucous celebration in the Carey Center. It was the first win in program history for the Bearcats over the Saints, and it gave SVC its 20th win of the season, an achievement Zawacki was more concerned about than the monumental career victory mark, and she gave all the credit to her team.
"Defeating a nationally-ranked team like that to seal a 20-win season is a huge accomplishment for our players," the coach said following the game. "I have tremendous respect for the Thomas More program."
The Bearcats entered the 2010-11 season ranked in the Top 25 by d3hoops.com, and after opening the year with seven straight wins, the team ascended to 19th in the d3hoops rankings and 16th in the USA Today/Women's Basketball Coaches Association poll. The team recovered from an early-December loss to Juniata by winning its final three games of the 2010 calendar year.
Three days before Christmas, the Bearcats took to the court against Randolph Macon in the final game of the Daytona Beach (FL) Shootout. In front of a bevy of family that resides in the Daytona area, Zawacki would walk off the court as a 72-52 winner in what turned out to be the final game of her long, illustrious career.
In addition to her exploits on the basketball court, Zawacki also served as the head softball coach at Saint Vincent from 1985-89, and again from 1996-2006. In her first stretch with the team, the Bearcats amassed a combined record of 50-32, reaching the District 18 playoffs twice.
In Zawacki's second stint as SVC's softball coach, she led the Bearcats to the AMC playoffs twice, and the team saw a number of individual records shattered, both hitting and pitching. Following the 2006 season, Zawacki handed the reins over to one of her prodigies, 2004 graduate Nicole Hinerman, who owns nearly every offensive record in team history.
Zawacki's role at Saint Vincent extended far beyond coaching, as she was the school's Associate Athletic Director for 25 years, while also serving as the Senior Women's Administrator as well as a stint as the SVC's Sports Information Director.
As Associate Athletic Director, Zawacki oversaw day-to-day operations of 17 of the school's varsity sports, and the athletic department blossomed. Ten new varsity sports were added to the campus under her watch, while she was integral in the complete 2004 remodeling of the Robert S. Carey Center that made the facility one of the finest small-college athletic venues in the region. Along with Athletic Director Fr. Myron Kirsch and Assistant AD Sue Hozak, Zawacki also played a large role in helping the school successfully complete the transition from the NAIA to the NCAA Division-III level, as Saint Vincent was granted full NCAA membership in 2010.
While the student-athletes that Zawacki coached enjoyed great athletic success, they were just as impressive in the classroom. In her 27 years as the women's basketball coach, Zawacki's teams boasted an astronomical 96 percent graduation rate. Over a dozen basketball players were named NAIA Scholar Athletes, while nine different players were named to the Presidents' Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll between 2006 and 2010. Her former players have landed successful jobs in numerous fields, including medicine, law enforcement, business management, teaching, sales, and many more.
The accomplishments and accolades of Zawacki's 27-year tenure at Saint Vincent are unparalleled. While she may be gone, she will never be forgotten, and each person who ever had any contact with "Coach Z" had a brush with true greatness.
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