Obituary: Kristen Zawacki / Only women's basketball coach at St. Vincent College
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Kristen Zawacki
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Kristen Zawacki already had the makings of the highly successful women's basketball coach she became at St. Vincent College when she was a teenager coaching younger girls in softball in Mount Pleasant, remembers Carol Gelet, a former player.
"I started playing softball at the age of 8 and she was five or six years older, and she was already demonstrating leadership as a teenager," said Ms. Gelet, who grew up to become head women's basketball coach at Pitt-Greensburg, a post she left after last season. "She was exceptional with organization and a very good person at motivating. She was a leader."
"No question" those skills carried over when Ms. Zawacki took over the brand-new women's basketball program at St. Vincent in 1983, said Ms. Gelet, of Youngwood. Over the next 27 years she coached the Lady Bearcats to more than 500 victories, a milestone she reached in February.
Ms. Zawacki, who also served as an associate athletic director overseeing women's sports, was found dead Saturday in her Hempfield home. She was 52.
Cause of death was not yet known, and an autopsy was incomplete, but a natural cause was expected, friend and St. Vincent volleyball coach Sue Hozak said Sunday afternoon.
Brother Norman W. Hipps, the college's president, and friends noted that Ms. Zawacki exercised regularly, and her mother, Bridget Zawacki of Mount Pleasant, said she recently got a clean bill of health after a checkup.
"She was under a lot of stress. Work. She worried about everybody," Mrs. Zawacki, 85, said.
The news stunned the St. Vincent community, which has been on winter break. The women basketball players, who are due back on the Latrobe campus Tuesday, were informed by part-time assistant coach Mark Hozak.
First Published December 27, 2010 12:00 am
