By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph Central announced the hiring of a new head volleyball coach earlier this month.
Northwest Missouri State alum and former Maryville head coach Miranda Mizera will lead the Indians as head coach starting this fall.
Mizera says the way her team has gotten along in these early days of her coaching has been perhaps the most exciting thing.
"The way that the girls get along, it's very special," Mizera said in an interview with St. Joseph Post. "That was something that took time when I was coaching at Maryville. It took time just to create that bond and that trust between players. It seems like coming into Central, that culture has already been built in, which is really, really awesome."
Mizera takes over for Monica Flaska, who coached Central for the last three years. Mizera, who graduated from Northwest in 2017, coached Maryville from 2019-2020, winning two district titles and a state championship in the 2020 season.
Mizera, originally from San Antonio, Texas, moved with her family to Colorado. She became a star high school volleyball player there, and was being recruited by Northwest Missouri State.
At the time, Mizera had no idea where Maryville was, but she signed to become a Bearcat and was a three-time second-team all-MIAA performer as an outside hitter.
After one year of being on the Northwest coaching staff, she led Maryville's team for two seasons, winning two district titles and a state title. She's hopeful her knowledge of volleyball in northwest Missouri will help her transition smoothly into this new position.
"I think that'll be a huge factor," she said. "Just being able to have some familiarity with the area, and kind of know some of these faces outside of high school ball as well."
Mizera, who was approved by the St. Joseph School board earlier this month, says becoming the head coach of a Class 5 program is an exciting and challenging step forward.
"Class 5 all across the board is really competitive," she remarked. "So, I'm looking forward to seeing how the girls work together and compete."
Mizera is hopeful to bring Central volleyball to historic new heights, as the program has never won a state or district title. The way to do that, she says, is not by looking ahead, but by getting better each day.
"That's how I always prep myself," Mizera said. "Just stay with the mindset of one day at a time, one practice at a time. Obviously, we want to do our best to improve upon last year's record. I would say that's the micro goal, but then, yeah. Obviously go as far as we can."
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