Zach Young, the girls volleyball coach at Lafayette High School, has been named the American Family Insurance All-USA Coach of the Year. Selected through a vote of readers of USA Today High School Sports, the honor comes to the Wildwood, Missouri based coach after guiding the Lafayette Lancers to their sixth consecutive state championship.
Young has only been coaching for Lafayette for five seasons, the first championship in Lafayette’s six-year run coming under the previous coach. However, it would appear that when Young took over he didn’t miss a beat. With the 2016 Class 4 state championship in hand, the Lancers set the new Missouri state record for consecutive titles, breaking the record they shared with fellow St. Louis area school Incarnate Word Academy, who won five titles from 1983 to 1987.
The Lancers went an impressive 33-6-1 for the 2016 season, their only loss coming in their final regular season match against Francis Howell. Just sixteen days later, Lafayette met their St. Charles based rival again in the championship match, earning a hard-fought 20-25, 27-25,25-21 victory in a best-of-three game.
After their remarkable, record-breaking season, Young earned 40.21% of the vote amongst all other coaches that had been named All-USA Coach of the Year in their respective sports for the 2016-2017 school year. The runner-up, former National Hockey League player Trent Klatt, received 19.69% of the popular vote for his successes as a boys hockey coach in Grand Rapids.
When he is not coaching the Lancers, Young is busy being a father. He and his wife Jill welcomed triplets—David, Hope, and Matthew—in September, to join their three-year-old daughter, Leah.
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