By Jacob Russell//
The Hood College men’s soccer team has officially begun a new era; one that will be helmed by new head coach, Jesse Zafiratos.
Over his five-year head coaching career, Zafiratos holds a collegiate soccer record of 58 wins, 20 losses and 5 ties, with multiple titles, championships and awards. Despite the impressive record, Zafiratos said he doesn’t want to be seen as someone who is no-nonsense with no time for leisure. He said he doesn’t let coaching and soccer consume every facet of his life, he understands the value of free-time and mental health days and does his best to insure his players feel the same.
“The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized that having a balance in life is so important. I love visiting family and friends and going to sporting events,” Zafiratos said. “I’m a real low-key kind of guy. All these little things and some downtime helps us recharge our batteries so we can feel better.”
Zafiratos is no stranger to strenuous collegiate athlete workloads but said he hasn’t seen anything quite like what COVID-19 has brought to the world of collegiate sports.
“There’s a lot of limitations to where and when you can train, recruiting events being cancelled, not being able to see kids play as much,” Zafiratos said. “The overall interaction experience has definitely dropped a little bit, and we’ve got a whole lot of Zoom meetings now.”
Now, while these specific COVID-19 related challenges may be new, adversity is certainly nothing that Zafiratos isn’t accustomed to.
Zafiratos’ career has been filled with difficult situations. In 2019, he took a Rosemont College men’s soccer team that finished dead last in their conference the prior season to their first conference championship appearance in seven years. During his tenure at Penn State Brandywine, he led the team to their first national championship and won two coach of the year awards.
Zafiratos said that he credits a lot of his success to his mentors and former coaches. Two mentors in particular, the former La Roche men’s basketball coach, the late Scott Lang, and the former Widener men’s soccer coach, Brent Jacquette. Both Lang and Jacquette played huge roles in Zafiratos’ life.
“Coach Lang was a father figure and coaching mentor to me. He always looked out for me and would get on me about certain things. He helped me grow as a person and as a player,” Zafiratos said.
Coach Lang passed away in Dec. 2010 at the age of 41 after suffering a heart attack, but Zafiratos said he will never forget the lessons Lang imparted in him.
“He pushed me to be great. Recruiting, my work ethic and all these other areas, I all took from him,” Zafiratos said. “He was honest and truthful, and helped me become not only a great coach, but a great person and even though I can’t call him for advice anymore, I know he’s looking down, proud of me.”
All of Zafiratos’ past accomplishments and expertise will be put to the test in what he calls “The conference of death,” the Mid-Atlantic Conference, in which Hood College plays. The Blazers men’s soccer team haven’t played an official conference match since Nov. 16, 2019. They finished the 2019 season with a 10-9-2 record, slightly above a .500 winning percentage.
“There’s some work to do, we gotta get better at the little, small attention to detail things. I love our recruiting class so far, we’ve added a lot of speed, a lot of size, and a lot of diversity,” Zafiratos said.
The Blazers men’s soccer team will officially begin scrimmaging in March, taking to the field for the first time in over two years. While the players may take some time to find their footing, Zafiratos remains hopeful in his team.
“I think we’re gonna shock some people,” Zafiratos said. “Our conference is brutal, but my goal for this team is to make the playoffs, and once you’re in the playoffs, anything is possible.”
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