Kickin' It

Kickin' It With Ethan Zohn

Ladies and gentlemen, after a long lay off, it's good to be back and "Kickin' It" with all of you. With the fall season rapidly approaching, we at D3Kicks.com wanted to make our first interview of 2007 a very special one, so we tracked down one of the most famous D3 players in recent history, Survivor�s Ethan Zohn. Ethan was a 1996 graduate of Vassar College, where he tended the pipes for Andy Jennings and his fellow Brewers. Zohn still holds several goalkeeping records at Vassar, including most career wins and most career shutouts. In 1995, Zohn led Vassar to the ECAC championship. After graduation, Zohn played professionally for the Hawaii Tsunami and Cape Cod Crusaders of the United Soccer Leagues and in Zimbabwe for Highlanders Football Club. After hanging up his boots, Zohn acted as assistant coach at D1 side Farleigh Dickinson for five years, leading the team to an elite eight finish in 2001. Following the 2001 season, Ethan was a contestant on Survior: Africa, where he ended up winning the contest and the $1,000,000 purse. With the money, Ethan started "Grassroot Soccer," an organization whose goal is to mobilize the global soccer community to combat the AIDS epidemic in Africa. In 2005, Zohn began to co-host the Metro Soccer Report (later renamed MSG Soccer Report) on the MSG Network, a weekly show dedicated to Red Bull New York of Major League Soccer. As of April 2006, Zohn hosts FC Fox on the Fox Soccer Channel.

D3Kicks: First of all, we at D3Kicks.com want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer a few questions for the D3 soccer community.

Ethan Zohn: Thanks, my pleasure.

D3K: During your four year tenure as a Brewer, what is your favorite soccer related memory?

EZ: Without a doubt, it was winning the 1995 ECAC Championship. However, my most interesting soccer memory was when the seniors made the rookies dress up as girls and run around campus all day and then visit the frats and the biggest party of the year. I didn�t think much of it at the time, just friendly fun, but guess what pictures end up in the National Enquirer announcing "Ethan From Survivor Is a Cross dresser." Try explaining that to your mom. However, it turned out I ended up getting more offers for dates from those pictures than actually winning Survior.

D3K: You still hold quite a few goalkeeping records at Vassar. Do any of these records stand out among the rest?

EZ: Well it is always nice to hold records and leave a legacy, but I would give them all up if we could have made it to the NCAA tournament. That was my true dream.

D3K: After graduating from Vassar, you went on to play on several professional soccer teams and also spent some time coaching at Farleigh Dickinson. Tell us a little bit about your experiences with these teams and how you feel your four years at a D3 school helped in your development as both a soccer player and coach.

EZ: Well, I had every intention of playing at a top D1 school, however I realized I would most likely not play until my junior year, so I chose a different path. I decided I could be a big fish in a small pond and get a really good education at the same time by playing D3 soccer. I never intended on making soccer my career, so this was a perfect option at the time. I got to play and start all four years. Andy Jennings was an amazing coach and friend. I think I matured as a keeper more in this environment than I would have playing at a D1 school. After Vassar, I moved to Hawaii and tried out for the Hawaii Tsunami in the USISL and got selected. I then went on to play for five years in the USA and one year in Zimbabwe for the Highlanders F.C. Following my time playing, I went on to be an assistant coach at Farleigh Dickinson University to stay fit and get great coaching experience at the D1 level. We made it to the NCAA four out of five years I was there and advanced to the elite eight in 2001, so I got to see what the NCAA tournament was all about.

D3K: Off the field, you have been very successful as well, CO-founding "Grassroot
Soccer" and helping in a variety of other soccer related charities. Could you tell us a little bit about these organizations and your role in them?

EZ: "Grassroot Soccer" is a nonprofit organization I helped co-found along with Dr. Thomas Clark, Kirk Friedrich, and Methembe Ndlovu, all former pro players in the United States and Zimbabwe. Our mission is to mobilize the global soccer community in the fight against H.I.V./Aids. "Grassroot Soccer" trains soccer stars in the world's most H.I.V. - affected countries to deliver prevention messages to the kids who idolize these players. We started in Zimbabwe and now have programs running in eight different African countries.

"Grassroot Soccer" has an African teaching fellowship for college students who would be interested in helping out. Also, we are always looking for smart young athletes to spend time with "Grassroot Soccer" and use sport for social change. Sports are truly an awesome instrument for enabling lives and communities to change. Sports are a natural infrastructure for things to get done, any sport. For example, Grassroot Soccer is now working with Hoops4Hope in South Africa and Breakthrough Sports Academy in Zambia, which focuses on track and field, soccer, and netball. Sports and the leaders they create grant you instant access into a community, breaks down cultural stereotypes, and brings people together.


D3K: After your victory on Survivor-Africa in 2002, you have been involved in quite a few soccer related activities including being part of the FC Fox Team on the Fox Soccer channel. Knowing that you are a huge soccer fan, what has this experience been like for you?

EZ: It has been a dream come true. To be a complete soccer fanatic my whole life and then get the opportunity to hang out with the biggest soccer stars, coaches, and celebrities is beyond words. In addition, I like to think I did my little bit to help the sport grow. Every week for 13 weeks on "Survivor," twenty million people watched as I was labeled "the soccer player." For a sport that is still pretty new in the United States that was pretty cool. Perhaps people tuned into my soccer shows to see "the Survivor guy with the afro," maybe they tuned in to see soccer�either way they are watching soccer and learning about the world�s most popular sport.

D3K: Finally, if you were on Survivor-Soccer with your former Vassar coach Andy
Jennings, fellow FC Fox member Heather Mitts, ESPN soccer analyst Eric Wynalda, US soccer president Sunil Gulati, and the new golden boy of MLS soccer, David Beckham, who would you form an alliance with and who would you try knock off?

EZ: Great question, and if you can organize this I think it will be a huge TV hit. Wynalda can�t keep his mouth shut for more than 90 minutes, so he would drive me crazy. Sunil may need to be the leader out there, so he would get voted out early. Jennings can�t leave Vassar without tearing up. Mitts is too hot and I wouldn�t be able to concentrate with her around, so, I�d have to go with the golden boy, Becks. He doesn�t need the money, works hard, and if we became good friends he may introduce me to his wife. That is worth an alliance right there.

D3K: Once again, thanks again from D3Kicks and all the D3 fans out there.

EZ: Thank you. If anyone wants to get involved with "Grassroot Soccer" please check out our website at GrassrootSoccer.org