Jaro Zawislan said he feels like a contestant winner on the show “Survivor.” And in many ways, the description fits perfectly.

Zawislan has paid his dues with assistant coaching stints at Syracuse, Stanford and Creighton. After a successful playing career at Clemson, he toured professionally both in the United States and his native Poland.

And now after an extensive interview process, the former standout goalkeeper has landed the head coaching position at Cornell. He’ll have his hands full with a team that finished just 1-15-0 (0-7-0 in Ivy League), but with a diverse background and a unique philosophy Zawislan is poised to tackle the challenge.  

Take me through the process of landing the job after former coach Bryan Scales resigned in January?

“The process was exhausting. I have to give a lot of credit to everyone involved at Cornell. There were a lot of great candidates and after a round of phone interviews I was able to visit the campus which gave them the opportunity to get to know me (and vice versa). I was very comfortable with the process. The final stage was a phone interview I had with former coach (Dave Sarachan) and from there the AD called and offered me the job. I was obviously very excited.”

Since you’ve been appointed coach, what’s on your laundry list?

“I’ve been diving right in. The very first thing was to arrange the spring season and really make the most of it. My top priority was to involve the players we have currently to see what type of talent we have so that we know how to adjust formations and so on. In the meantime, we’ve started to finalize the recruiting class and turn our attention more to 2010, as recruiting starts earlier and earlier each year, it seems like.”

Talk about your coaching philosophy. What can your players expect?

“I’ll definitely be very demanding but yet very approachable. I won’t expect for every player to breathe and drink soccer but if they do, great. Most important will be the balance between social life and academics. Players, when they go through playing careers never realize how much performance on the field dictates how much coaching is done. You always look for things to improve but most of my work is done in the preparation. How they perform will dictate how much I have to coach during a game.”

What style of play are you looking to implement with this team?

“It’s a little premature to say. Our formations will be set up based on the players we have. We want to put the 10 best field players and goalkeeper on the field that we can. With style of play our players have to read the game and adjust to what’s on the field. Soccer eventually is the players’ game. As a coach you shape their soccer perspective in training sessions but you give the game back to the players.”

How does your international background shape your coaching perspective?

“With the experience I’ve had as a player and a coach it’s not about trying to mimic or replicate any particular thing. You try to pick up the good things and how players reacted to the things that worked and maybe look at the things that haven’t worked over the years. I was fortunate to be exposed to different styles of play throughout my career. Every country has its own style of play and flavor, and I’m very open-minded to bringing the best things from around the world. All those things inform my coaching.”

What’s the ultimate vision for this program? How will you define your success?

“Our responsibility to the university and the city is to put the best product on the field. People can say that we’re rebuilding, but we’re actually reloading. My goal is to work to maximize the potential of the players currently in the program as well as the new faces coming in. We’ll be working to get a positive result every time we step on the field – nothing less. The first thing I told the players when I came in is that they can’t think of themselves as the team in 2008. They must think of themselves as the 2009 team that starts with a record of 0-0-0. It’s a new beginning.”