Zaharakis' Atypical Walk On Route

Many collegiate walk-ons share similarities in their stories. Some invited walk-ons will join the team without a formal tryout and other walk-ons will enroll at the university and try out for the team. They then spend their freshman year competing for playing time and potentially a scholarship. The story played out much differently for Zoe Zaharakis, a soccer goalkeeper from Bethlehem, Pa.

Zaharakis, competed at a high level during her high school career, but due to being undersized at only 5 feet and 2 inches, she found herself largely unrecruited with only one D3 offer. Ultimately, she decided to put academics first and attend Temple University in the fall of 2019.

Upon arriving on campus, Zaharakis decided that she wanted to continue her playing career in some form. For that reason, she opted to attend tryouts for the Temple Women's Club Team. "I didn't know if I was going to make the club team because there were, I think between 100 and like 125 girls there," said Zaharakis.

After receiving a callback for the final day of tryouts, Zaharakis was offered a spot on the Women's Club Team as a keeper. She started the season behind another keeper who ultimately stepped aside to focus on her studies.

Zaharakis continued to train, compete and improve until in the fall of 2020 she received a call from the club team captain. In Zaharakis words, her captain said "would you be interested in practicing with the women's team" she explained. "At first I thought that it was just something with the club team, but then I learned that it was with the varsity team."

Due to injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Temple Women's Soccer team was in need of another goalkeeper for practice. "I said yes, because why would I not?" she explained.

Rather than moving back to campus during the pandemic, she commuted from home in Bethlehem on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays to practice with the team.

Although the experience had already been a major change for Zaharakis, her collegiate life was about to change permanently when she was asked to come meet with the team's head coach. In the meeting head coach Nick Bochette asked her if she would continue with the program in the spring when actual competition would begin.

Bochette gave the keeper time to think through the decision with her family over the coming weeks. "I went home and told my parents the news and they were immediately on board" she said, "So then it was like, who would say no to that, so it was an obvious yes for me."

Zaharakis recognized that this was abnormal. "I was in shock, because this is not something that I had heard of before, so I was surprised it happened to me" she said.

The now varsity goalkeeper is on campus preparing for the upcoming 2020-2021 season that will be played in the spring.

Temple University Athletics

Zaharakis' Atypical Walk On Route

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