Assistant Coaches

David Risch will be assisting with the Concordia track team this season after serving as head coach for the past 10 years. Risch, who has also headed up the Cougars' cross-country team for the past 12 seasons with five championships and four Coach of the Year honors to his credit, is responsible for 13 track records being set since the 1998 season.

Risch, a 1987 graduate of Concordia, earned his B.A. in elementary education. He taught junior high at Bethel Lutheran in Chicago for 10 years where he was Director of Athletics, coach of numerous sports, and Chairman of the Lutheran School League of Chicago for eight years. In addition, he was one of four finalists for the Good News Award for excellence in teaching in 1996.

Risch was a four-year letterman at his hometown Seymour (Ind.) High School where he received the Senior Athlete of the Year Award in 1983. He was a four-year letterman in Concordia's track and cross-country programs, the team captain in Concordia's first-ever conference championship, and all-conference for four seasons in both sports. In addition, Risch received NIIC All-Scholastic honors twice and as a senior received Concordia's Terry-Schubert Award for Christian Service.

Coach Risch is currently an active member of the United States Track Coaches Association, United States of America Track and Field, American Running Association, Illinois Track and Cross-Country Coaches Association, International Amateur Athletics Federation, National Federation of Interscholastic Coaches Association, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Bell-Lap Ministries.

 

 

David Zemke begins his third season with the Concordia coaching staff as an assistant, working primarily with the throwers. Zemke’s success in track began at an early grade when he won the Illinois state championship in the shot put as an eighth grader at St. Paul in neighboring Melrose Park. He attended Walther Lutheran High School where he won the Warren Hoger Most Athletic Award in 2000 by earning a total of 11 letters between track, football and wrestling. That same year, he was also awarded the Zemke Christian Athlete Award, named for his father Herman, a long-time principal at Walther. Zemke went on to Augustana College where he competed in track and football, earning four varsity letters in each sport. He landed all-conference honors in both, competing as a thrower (shot put, discus and javelin) in track and as a running back in football.

Zemke is enthusiastic about both this season and the overall future of the track program at Concordia. "I am excited that our numbers are growing, especially with the throwers. It makes the internal competition more challenging and, in the long run, everyone will benefit from it. We have a good young group of kids with great attitudes." Zemke further notes, "Everyone is excited with the presence of Coach Beisel; he brings a lot of energy and excitement, along with a great commitment and vision for the team."

Zemke works for Expeditors International/Ocean Imports traffic in Bensenville.  

 

Andy Chizzo returns to the Cougar coaching staff after a previous stint during the 2004 season. He will assist the team in the pole vault and decathlon events.

Chizzo was a five-year Division I athlete at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he excelled in the pole vault, hurdles, javelin and decathlon. By his senior year of 1994, Chizzo was captain of the track team and recorded a 15'5" pole vault, a record that stood for the next 10 years. His mark of 170' 2" in the javelin, recorded that same year, remains among the school's top 10 in that event. He graduated in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in graphic design.

Chizzo currently resides in Oak Park with his wife Sara and three daughters; Natalie, Evelyn and Audrey.

 

Andrew Tirmenstein is in his first year as an assistant coach for the track team.

"I am very excited to have the chance to work with this coaching staff and these athletes," says the former Cougar. "I look forward to seeing where this program could go in the next couple of years."

Tirmenstein returns to his alma mater after serving as an assistant coach for the past two years at Walther Lutheran High School. In 2005, he took two seniors to the Illinois state meet in the long and triple jump with one of the long jumpers finishing ninth. Two of his triple jumpers reached the state meet in 2006.

Tirmenstein competed in the Cougar track program for four seasons between 2003 and 2006 as a sprinter and jumper. During the indoor season of 2003, he ran the 400-meter leg as part of the distance medley, and that foursome holds the school record to this day with a time of 10:54.72.

Tirmenstein also played three years of soccer at Concordia and was a key contributor to the 2005 conference-winning team. He just completed his first season as a soccer assistant in the fall of 2007.

A native of St. Louis, Tirmenstein lettered four years in both track and soccer at Lutheran North High School. He was part of the 2001 Missouri state champion team, competing in relays and hurdles.

Tirmenstein graduated Concordia in 2006 with degrees in secondary education and visual arts. He currently works at Run Chicago in the neighboring suburb of Forest Park and continues to pursue his goal of making it to the Olympic trials in the long jump.