STUDENT VIEW: Is the man they call ‘Z’ ready to work his postseason magic again?

TROY — If the Troy boys soccer team is able to make a run through this state tournament, there will certainly be one possible reason that jumps out.

Coach Brian Zawislak.

Zawislak, in his first year at the helm of the Troy varsity boys soccer team after a stint with the junior varsity boys team and currently also the coach of the Troy varsity girls soccer team, has an uncanny knack for winning games on the biggest stage — the state tournament.

“We believe that he knows how to win in those big games, and we’re going to look to him for leadership,” senior defender David Eicher said. “We just have to trust him, we all have to trust each other, and that’s how we’re going to win.”

Zawislak has a distinct game plan for how to approach the state tournament — he treats every regular-season game like a tournament game, and then his team is ready.

“I hope that can instill a lot of confidence in them in that we’ve been here before, this coaching staff has been to the regional finals and beyond, it’s just up to you guys to trust us and let us lead you to the next level,” the coach said.

Zawislak has a state semifinals appearance, a state quarterfinals appearance, and a state finals appearance in three years with the Troy girls soccer team. Most recently, his team dismantled six straight teams by a combined score of 26-2 last spring on the way to the state title game, including the revenge of a loss and a tie from the regular season.

His preparation for the tournament taps into a new level of his team that it never reached in the regular season.

For example, the girls’ soccer team last year faced a similar situation to the boys’ team this fall. The Colts played Rochester Adams twice during the regular season — a 1-1 tie and a 1-0 win. Then, they played the Highlanders again in the Division 1 regional semifinals.

It wasn’t even close, as Troy jumped all over Adams, 3-0.

The boys’ team draws Adams sooner — in a D-1 pre-district Monday at Troy. But the Colts will have Zawislak to turn to.

“We watch film of the other teams, we look for how we need to prepare our guys for that particular team, and it’s just cyclical — we scout, try evaluate the game, try to then prepare our kids in practice, and then just hope that after all that, the game plays out,” Zawislak said.

More often than not, it does. Last year, Troy trudged to the regional finals against Grand Blanc and lost 3-1. This year, the team has the same record heading into the tournament, but with one more win, and expectations are high again.

With the league slate a few weeks in the past, the Colts, led in preparation by the coach they call “Z,” are singularly focused on the tournament.

“When we’ve been scrimmaging lately, we’ve been giving the team scenarios — you’re down a goal, you’re up a goal, you’re down two goals — and when we’ve given that scenario, then we’ve given them a formation that they have to play and try to get a goal back and they’ve done a pretty good job of it in practice,” Zawislak said.

Though the practices have been geared towards the tournament lately, the mindset has been focused on the tournament all season. Zawislak has likened each game to a situation in the postseason, situations like coming back from down a goal and playing with different formations and schemes.

“That’s the great thing about soccer is that we can’t shout plays out from the sideline, we just have to give them a general idea of the pattern and what we’d like to accomplish,” Zawislak said.  “(We) hope that they execute that pattern and hope that they bring that mental toughness and that mental edge to the game.”

He’s been forming that mental toughness all season.

In the tournament, anything is possible with “Z.”

(Jake Lourim is a junior at Troy High School and part of the AdaVan Media Group’s Student Correspondence Program at www.northoaklandsports.com.)

Tags: Bosy Soccer, high school boys soccer, Jake Lourim, Prep Boys Soccer, Rochester Adams Boys Soccer, Student View, Troy Boys Soccer

Category: High School, High School (M-Z), Prep Wraps, Rochester Adams, Student Columns, Troy, Where Are They Now?