16 June 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Washburn tennis staff is made up of the ITA central region’s coach of the year, men’s assistant coach of the year and women’s assistant coach of the year.
“There’s multiple points throughout this year that I knew how special of a coaching staff we had,” men’s and women’s head coach Kirby Ronning said.
After a women’s MIAA championship, a men’s MIAA championship, both teams making it to the NCAA championship tournament and the women’s team making it to the quarterfinals, Ronning and his staff are getting the recognition they deserve.
“I think a lot of it has to do with our support staff,” Ronning said. “We have great athletic trainers, really good strength and conditioning coaches, and, you saw this year, we had a great assistant coaching staff. The passion and the consistency that Raul[-Alin Dicu] and Miller [Zeiders] bring every day to our practice, to our matches, really that’s the biggest reason we’ve been successful.”
Ronning has some pretty successful Ichabods on his staff to bring a players’ perspective into meetings.
“I played for Washburn for five years beforehand,” men’s assistant Raul-Alin Dicu said. “It was really fun to be able to be on the coaching side. It really opens your eyes a lot, in terms of being on-court as a player and on-court as a coach. Having such a successful year, I’ve been really happy for the guys. I’ve been really happy for everything they’ve achieved.”
The assistants help communicate details from the coaching side, while helping Ronning understand more about the players’ day-to-day.
“When they’re players on the team, I think your relationship is very different with them than when they’re on the coaching staff,” Ronning said. “They’ve pushed me every single day to be a better head coach and have challenged me on a lot of things, and really help me develop and grow as a head coach. I couldn’t be more thankful that I’ve had these last three years with those guys.”
With the assistants pushing Ronning and the players out of their comfort zones, both teams finished ranked in the top 20.
“The moment you can start working out of your comfort zone is where great things start to happen,” Dicu said. “We always work together. We talk through everything we did, and we always try to improve and see how things go from there.”