Hightstown, NJ – As the old expression goes, there is no “I” in team. There is no “I” in coach, for that matter, either.
Both thoughts seemed relevant as Jeff Zidek, best known in harness racing as the track announcer at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows, reflected on the latest honor he received for his other gig as the head women’s bowling coach at Saint Vincent College.
Zidek last week was named the National Tenpin Coaches Association’s NCAA Division lll Coach of the Year.
“Any coach that has ever won any type of award like this can tell you it’s one person’s name on the award, but it takes the support of a whole lot of people,” said Zidek, who became the program’s first coach in 2017 and guided the Bearcats to a 45-4 overall record this season and second consecutive appearance in the NCAA National Tournament.
“A team has to buy into what you’re trying to do, you have to have good assistants, and you have to have the support of the families – whether it’s my family, the other coaches’ families, and the players’ families. That’s what it takes to win an award like this. It’s never a one-person award. It takes that whole group to put it together.”
Zidek, a 1990 Saint Vincent graduate who served as the college’s sports information director from 2003-2019, also this season earned his fourth Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year award while helping five Bearcats land All-Conference honors. After going 25-26 in his first season, Zidek has since posted a 345-80 record.
“To start the program from scratch nine years ago and go from nothing to being at this level now where we are competing against full scholarship Division l teams and holding our own as a little non-scholarship Division lll team is amazing. I’m very proud of what everyone has done, the work they’ve put in.”
Saint Vincent’s 91.8 winning percent this season led the entire NCAA. In addition, the Bearcats qualified for their first U.S. Bowling Congress Intercollegiate Team Championships, which is being held Thursday (April 16) through Saturday (April 18) in Green Bay, Wisc. Saint Vincent was one of 16 teams competing in the event, which features programs from all NCAA divisions.
“We’re in the vast minority because we are a Division lll non-scholarship program and made it this far,” Zidek said. “It’s the first time in the program’s history we did this. So, we accomplished a lot. Very few athletes in their sport get to say they made it to a national championship, and (our players) have. No one can ever take that away from them.”
Zidek, who works with a staff of all volunteer assistants, said it was those players who have made the program a success.
“You can have talent, but you also have to have a team that buys into the philosophy of what you’re trying to build and the way you do it,” Zidek said. “Any coach of any sport is not going to have everybody agree with their decisions, so you really need that team cohesion. I’ve got players that have bought into what we’re trying to do.
“Basically, I have players now that were good enough to go to more well-known higher-level schools, but chose to come here for a different atmosphere, the atmosphere that myself and the rest of the coaching staff has built.”
And what is that atmosphere?
“That it is possible to be a high-level athlete yet still excel in the classroom, still have a social life, and not have to devote 100 percent of your time to just being an athlete,” Zidek said. “We actually practice far less than people would believe. Some of the schools we are competing against are at it nearly seven days a week between the gym or bowling center. We basically practice about three hours a week, total.”
Zidek, who has been bowling since the age of 7, has won individual and doubles tournaments in western Pennsylvania and rolled multiple perfect games over the years. He has worked at Hollywood Casino at The Meadows in either part-time or full-time roles since 1987 – and fulltime as the track’s announcer since 2019.
“To have the support also of Hollywood Casino at The Meadows to use my days off to do this kind of stuff is really important,” said Zidek, who has turned over the announcing duties to his son, Ryan, while on the road.
“He works in the race office in the mornings and now he gets to call the races in the afternoon,” Zidek added. “That’s special for me, too, to get to hear him do that. I think he’s doing a good job.”