Evan Zakow is not like most attackmen.
Sure, the Walt Whitman senior likes to feed and finish.
He also enjoys doing something you won’t hear a lot of players at his position ever even mention.
“I love to ride,” Zakow said. “Attackmen don’t get revenge often on the long-poles and I hate watching the ball on the other side of the field, so I try my best in those situations.”
Zakow will take his unique style of playing down south. He signed a National Letter of Intent to attend Jacksonville University, a Division I program that has joined the MAAC Conference.
Now, here’s a Q&A with Evan on his commitment:
What were the main factors in your decision?
Jacksonville was the best fit for me because it is a great school academically and fit me financially as well. I am very happy and comfortable with the coaching staff, and Jacksonville has done great in its first two years. They have a young team and are capable of competing with the top teams in Division I. I feel this is the best fit for me all around.
What other schools were you considering and what schools did you visit?
Binghamton, Marist,Towson,Salisbury,Washington & Lee, USMMA, NY Tech and Cortland State.
What are your strengths as a player and how would you describe your style of play?
I believe my strengths as a player are my lacrosse IQ,quickness,vision and finishing. My style of play is very unique. I consider myself more of a feeder but can also finish anything from inside 10 yards.
I’m most comfortable at X, but can dodge from anywhere I like to read how the defenders guarding my teammates are covering them and dodge off of that.
I also love to ride. Attackmen don’t get revenge often on the long poles and I hate watching the ball on the other side of the field, so I try my best in those situations. It’s not easy to strip a guy at high level of play so I tend to keep my defenders topside and prevent a fast break against my defense.
What areas of your game do you think you need to improve on?
There’s a few areas of my game that I feel I need to work on. First is my shooting on the run. Playing from X its extremely hard for a goalie to react on a shot from around the cage and that would help tremendously also my 5/5 dodges need some work. If i can get those down pact it would be very hard to guard.
When did you first realize you had the potential to play at the college level?
Summer going into my sophomore season playing with the (Whitman) varsity, I knew I could play at the college level because many of the players I was playing with and against were planning on playing at the college level and I was playing at their level of competition.
That season as a sophomore, I finished with 50 points (33goals,17assists) and was names Suffolk County Rookie of the Year and that helped boost my confidence.
What were some of the big summer showcase events you’ve competed in the last couple of years and how id you do at them?
Blue Chip 225, Top 205, Nike Blue Chip, Adidas All-America Showcase, Hofstra Summer Tourney, UMass Summer tourney. Blue Chip 225 was pretty good I made the All-Star teams two consecutive years and played well in both as a junior and a senior.
Nike Blue Chip was an extremely good camp I played pretty well there. That had the best competition and exposure. With all the talent there the speed of the game seemed as if it was played at a college level and this helped me because i like to play at a fast pace.
The Hofstra and UMass tournaments were very good as well I played in those with my school team and helped lead our team to only one loss in 9 games between both. Adidas All-America Tournament was my best performance. I scored a game winning goal with two seconds left against the defending champs Maryland Private to bring my team into playoffs where we lost to the quarterfinals. I made the all-star team there as well and played very well in that game, too.
For more info on Evan, check out his player profile by clicking here.
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Posted In: Long Island lacrosse, Recruiting Rundown, Section 11
