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Knight Moves: An inside look at no-frills college hoops in Queens

By Dylan Butler

For the members of the Queens College coaching staff, there are no defined roles. Sure Kyrk Peponakis is the head coach and Wayne Zweigbaum and Kirk Liddelow are the assistants.But as far as their weekly duties go? That gets divided up based on availability. Such is the reality when the entire staff is part-time.This is nothing new at Queens, it's been the same way since Peponakis took the reins from Norm Roberts 11 years ago. He brought Liddelow in the same year and retained Zweigbaum. Along the way, Peponakis also got some valuable help from Jerry Ingenito and the results have been unprecedented – three NCAA Division II Northeast Regional bids and two NYCAC tournament championships.Peponakis is the third head coach Zweigbaum has worked under in a quarter century on the Queens College sideline. He spends his days as a physical education teacher and girls' tennis coach at Francis Lewis High.”It's something that I've always wanted to do and I found a place where I'm very comfortable,” he said. “I've enjoyed it thoroughly.”This year, extra help has come from Shaun Bertin, who capped off a stellar playing career last year and is a graduate assistant on the staff. While he is learning on the job, Bertin is especially valuable because with just eight scholarship players, he is often needed as an extra body on the practice court.”Coming from a coaching perspective, I see where Coach is coming from the last four years I played here,” Bertin said. “I never saw it on the court. I see it now.”