A month ago, I attended the Celebrity Bartending event benefiting the Silver Knight Foundation in Skaneateles. While there, I caught up with many players and executives from the team, all playing up the 2017-18 season and how confidence was once again very high. But, there was one hint of news that had me wanting to find out more. One of the executives for the Silver Knights said there had been addition to the front office, a person with a huge connection to the Syracuse soccer community that would help bring the organization to a whole new level of success. To my dismay, the executive could not tell me anything more than that, leaving me guessing and trying to figure out who the addition was.
The answer would finally come this past Tuesday. As part of the press, the Silver Knights sent me a press release about the signings of Nate Bourdeau and Andrew Coughlin, nothing surprising. When I looked further into the email, that’s when the answer to my question appeared in this following sentence:
“For media inquiries, contact Jaro Zawislan.”
Jaro Zawislan, the Vice President of Operations, is the new addition to the front office. Now, many of you are probably wondering who Jaro Zawislan is and why his addition is a big deal. To start, Zawislan is a seasoned soccer player, spending time with Arka Gdynia in Poland and several outdoor and indoor teams in North America, including the Detroit Neon, Toronto Shooting Stars, and the Atlanta Silverbacks. After retiring as a player, he coached a number of college teams, most recently Syracuse University and Cornell University. Most importantly, this past summer, Zawislan founded Syracuse FC, the NPSL franchise whose roster contained many Silver Knights players, including Nate Bourdeau, Ben Ramin, Logan Roberts, and Domenico Vitale to name a few.
To Silver Knight fans, this is a great addition and makes sense. I agree completely. But, I still find it kind of funny. When Syracuse FC was first announced to the public, they made it very clear that they were a completely separate franchise from the Syracuse Silver Knights and had no direct connection with them, though they were open to a friendly relationship with the MASL team. But, once you sign a ton of Silver Knight players and a ton of Silver Knight fans fill the soccer stadium at Onondaga Community College, that separation started to fade. Honestly, it needed to.
Soccer in Syracuse has grown stronger in the past few years. The Silver Knights attendance has gone up with a focus on family fun and the growth of talent on the field. During this summer, Zawislan’s Syracuse FC had several sell-outs and gained a strong following within the Central New York area. However, soccer still takes a back seat to several sports and has troubling relationships with other area teams. The Syracuse Crunch, the local AHL hockey team, absolutely hates the Silver Knights and doesn’t like sharing the War Memorial with them. The Syracuse Chiefs have been supportive of the soccer community for the past few years with General Manager Jason Smorol leading the charge. Now that the Chiefs have been bought by the New York Mets, it is uncertain if the two teams will continue to work with each other, let alone the Chiefs stay in Syracuse (just because the Mets promised not to move the team doesn’t mean they will stick to that promise.)
In order to for both teams to grow in Syracuse and stay in operation, working together is one of the best
things to do. The Syracuse Silver Knights and Syracuse FC are both strong franchises, each proving they
can bring great soccer and entertainment to fans across the Central New York area. By working to
together, they can keep soccer relevant year round and find new ways to bring more fans to games at
the War Memorial and at Onondaga Community College. Even more important, I think an alliance will
grow the game of soccer for the youth is Syracuse. Hopefully, more kids will see the two teams and want
to pick up soccer or improve their own game. As they grown and their careers take off, they will then
hopefully see the strength of soccer is Syracuse and want to stay and play for both teams. Eventually,
Syracuse would become be a major soccer city in the United States boasting great local talent and
attracting talent from across the country and world.
The addition of Jaro Zawislan to the Syracuse Silver Knights organization is great news going into the
2017-18 season. I only see positives coming out of his addition and another connection between the
Silver Knights and Syracuse FC. Let’s hope the impacts come right away as the team starts up next
weekend.