This father-daughter coaching combo at Bishop Miege High School was years in the making
.jpg "Hoops coach dad (Rick Zych, right) has a family member in the Stags coaching community now, in daughter Lindsay Zych, left, who was recently hired as Miege’s head volleyball coach after a successful run at Lansing High.")
Lindsay Zych knew she’d be a coach long before her playing career began.
The youngest of four children, she grew up in the gym at Bishop Miege, helping her father, Rick, the longtime head coach of the Stags boys basketball program.
“I was the little kid with the sweatband,” said Zych (pronounced ZEEK), “holing up the pad in drills, getting water, yelling at them. When I started playing volleyball, I just saw the game from a different lens, and I knew my long-term goal was to be a coach.”
Lindsey served as an assistant at Miege for three years after finishing her collegiate playing career at UMKC. Now she’ll lead the Miege volleyball program, hired as head coach after two successful years as the head coach at Lansing High School.
Zych led the Lions to the Kansas Class 5A state-title match in 2020. Lansing started this past season with a loss to St. Thomas Aquinas before reeling off 38 consecutive victories and winning the 5A state championship — the second in school history and first since 2002.
Lindsay always knew she eventually wanted to be a head coach at a Catholic high school. When the opportunity at Miege presented itself, she knew it was one she couldn’t pass up.
“I knew I’d end up back at a Catholic school. It’s one of my long-term goals,” she said. “I didn’t know if (the) Miege (job) would reopen, but I was really excited (when it did).”
Starting this fall, Lindsay Zych and dad Rick will be leading two of Miege’s most successful programs.
“The coaches she looked up to were great coaches, and life is circling back around,” Rick Zych said. “My wife (Laura) and I are so proud of what she’s done. She works at it, and if you work at it, hopefully some success is around the corner.
“This opportunity came up, and Miege jumped on a good young coach. I just happened to be in the building.”
Lindsay Zych was a member of four state championship teams at Miege from 2009-12. Overall, the Stags program has 26 state titles under its belt. The expectations there are clearly defined, and she welcomes them.
“I don’t feel like there’s pressure. I’m looking to continue tradition of success and discipline and keep the program going, setting standards and meeting standards,” she said. “Most of my core values come from the Miege community and volleyball. I’m hoping the staff I build at Miege will keep that going, because they know the expectations and the steppingstones to be where we want to be.”
Building a program means more to Lindsay Zych than just success on the court.
“I learned how to be a strong, confident young woman at Miege,” she said. “That’s what I tried to do at Lansing, and I’m hoping to install that in the core values of lives of players at Miege. I want to have former players and alumni come back and visit and tell them how it helped shape them.”
The elder Zych is excited to have his daughter returning to Miege as a fellow coach and faculty member this fall.
“There will be two Coach Zychs, the old and young one,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve had my day and I’m just looking forward her day. I’ll be happy to watch her grow.”
There could also be some friendly family competition in their future, in the form of bragging rights and wagers over dinners.
“I think he’s really excited to have me in building and keep the program going and getting to know the kids I coach,” Lindsay Zych said. “He’s been the No. 1 fan for me as a coach, and for it to be home for him, he’ll be excited.
“And for right now, I’ll let him keep buying the dinners.”