Jordan Zielinski '25 Recruiting Profile

I have played soccer since I was a little kid. My parents put me in it at age 3, as I was just like every other crazy little kid with too much energy that my parents needed to get out of the house. Since I was old enough to understand what went beyond high school and club soccer I have known that I wanted to go to the next level and play collegiately. 

I have very good leadership skills, and try to use those to communicate with my team on the field and help the overall team performance. I have been voted team captain for the last 4 years and it has really shown me the importance of effective leadership, it took me a long time to not be a perfectionist and learn that sometimes you need to sit back and let your teammates figure it out, and sometimes you need to guide them in the right direction. I am a big watcher of the Premier League and the National Teams, which I believe allows me to see the field in a completely different way, significantly helping my vision on the field with my team. 

I have a deep love for the game, I am truly so passionate about it. Especially after tearing my ACL in October of 2022. I was in a place where my coach had pretty much completely ruined the sport for me. As strange as it sounds I see tearing my ACL as a gift, even though PT was terrible and the pain that followed was unbearable at times, I never would have truly realized how much I love the game had I not been forced to sit on the sideline for 11 months. Tearing my ACL has also sparked my interest in Physical Therapy, as I saw first hand and that it is a very comforting feeling when you know that your PT understands what you are going through as they have gone through it too. I have been given the opportunity to relate to the teenage kids who were just like me who though that their sport would never be the same, and they would never get back to where they are; and make them realize that it is 100% possible. With that, I plan to study physiotherapy, sports medicine, and sports psychology, aiming to become a PT. 

I am a big believer in staying close to home. I am in Omaha, NE and as much as people believe that Nebraska is a state full of cornfields and nothingness, I absolutely love it and its home, and I have no intention of leaving the Midwest. I am too big of a family person to leave them to go half way across the country. I believe soccer wouldn't be anywhere near as enjoyable without my family on the side line. I am looking for a school that is far enough away for me to live on my own, but close enough to come home whenever I get homesick. 

In the classroom my parents hold me to a very high expectation. Soccer at the end of the day is an extracurricular and if my grades at school begin to slack, soccer will be taken away. School has always been my #1 priority. There is nothing as valuable in this world as education, and I prioritize school over anything else.