Zadrozny headed to Mississippi to play college soccer

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 30, 2015 11:26 PM

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rcoggins@newsargus.com

Leaving childhood buddies behind is never easy for a teenager.

Now, Ethan Zadrozny -- maybe -- can rekindle some of those friendships when he returns to his home state of Mississippi.

The Eastern Wayne senior signed a national letter-of-intent to play soccer next fall at Hinds Community College on Saturday morning. The school is located in the small town of Raymond, which is near the Louisiana border.

Zadrozny's father, Tony, played soccer at Hinds.

"I didn't know that until the other day," said Zadrozny, whose family moved to Goldsboro the summer before his eighth-grade year and now plans to move once he graduates.

"It's a love and hate (choice). You gain a lot of friends, you learn a lot and you don't want to move away because you've already done it once. I needed to be back home and it all worked out to where I could play soccer, too."

It's a good faith move for HCC head coach Doug Williams, too.

He signed Zadrozny based on recommendations from other coaches who knew about the center midfielder. Williams never saw Zadrozny play in person or view any game footage.

"I think that's pretty trustworthy, pretty monumental," Zadrozny said.

Hinds finished 7-8-4 overall last season and 5-2-3 against Mississippi Association of Community and Junior College opposition. The Eagles compete in the North Division.

Williams lost 12 sophomores to graduation, but is expected to return 11 players according to the team's online roster. Zadrozny isn't sure where he'll fit into the Eagles' system -- maybe as a center defensive midfielder or possibly on the wing, a position he normally plays with the Triangle Futbol Club.

Zadrozny handled distribution duties for the Warriors this past fall. He produced eight goals, dished out three assists and guided Eastern Wayne to an appearance in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A playoffs.

The Warriors ended the year 9-9-0 overall.

"I'm not the biggest guy out there, but I'm still going to give it 100 percent, and I'm not afraid to go up and challenge a bigger guy," said Zadrozny, who concluded his high school career with 14 goals and six assists.

"I try to stay calm a lot of the time when it's needed because aggressions and intensity can get pretty high. (It's) also just vision, knowing where a ball needs to be played by either pushing it up the middle or on the wing."

Zadrozny has used his travel club experience to help fine-tune his mental game, touch on the ball and shooting on goal. While travel ballgames tend to be a tad faster than on the high school level, Zadrozny says the speed of the college game will be a challenge.

And he doesn't know Williams' starting alignment.

"I am sure things will be mixed up until (coach) figures out a good system," Zadrozny said. "I may play very well with the team as a winger there, but may play better as a center midfielder. Whatever flows the best is what's going to happen."

Zadrozny plans to get a two-year degree in business administration. He hopes he can return to North Carolina to play for a Division I program.