CLEMSON, S.C.- Clemson mourns the passing of former goalkeeper Jaro Zawislan. Zawislan was named the 1993 ACC Tournament MVP, despite the Tigers runner-up finish. He played five seasons of professional soccer before embarking on a college coaching career for more than 25 years.
Jaro Zawislan, a former Clemson Soccer player spent the seven seasons as an assistant coach at Syracuse University, and was named the new head men’s soccer coach at Cornell University in 2009. Zawislan replaced Bryan Scales, who resigned after an 11-year tenure directing the program.
Zawislan attended Clemson University, starting every game over his four-year career before graduating in 1993. He was a three-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference and four-time All-South region selection, in addition to being named the most valuable player of the 1993 ACC tournament. He holds school records for career saves (446), single-season saves (134), career wins by a goalkeeper (58) and career starts (88). He was also named an Academic All-American.
Zawislan received a bachelor of arts degree in computer science from Clemson and also earned a bachelor of education from the University of Toronto in 1999. He earned a masters¹ degree in liberal studies from Creighton in 2001.
At Syracuse, Zawislan worked with all phases of the Orange program, including practice planning, scouting opponents, game preparation, player training and recruiting. Zawislan’s tenure at Syracuse was marked by bringing in one of the top 40 recruiting classes in the nation in 2003, according to collegesoccernews.com. As a former goalkeeper himself, he also helped coach the Orange goalkeepers, who have posted some of the program’s all-time best numbers.
Prior to coaching at Syracuse, Zawislan coached at Stanford, serving as an assistant coach and a goalkeeper coach for the Cardinal program. He helped the Stanford men’s team to the national semifinals in 2001 along with its first Pacific-10 championship and best record in program history at 19-2-1.
His coaching career also includes a stop at Creighton for two seasons, helping the Blue Jays to a national runner-up finish in 2000. Zawislan helped the Creighton goalkeepers to a school-record 22 victories. He coached at Creighton for three seasons, posting the nation’s best goals-against average in 1999.
Following graduation from Clemson, Zawislan played professional both in the United States and Poland. He began his collegiate coaching career in 1999 at Creighton, while also coaching the Nebraska Olympic Development Program’s Open U-23 team and the Nebraska state ODP goalkeepers. His career also includes a stop at the Canadian Soccer Academy and as a player-coach with the Columbia Heat of the USISL.
Zawislan also holds a USSF “B” license, the NSCAA National Diploma and an NSCAA Goalkeeper Academy Diploma.
