HIGH SCHOOL

5 questions with Elmira Express girls soccer coach Zach Sarno after win No. 150

Andrew Legare
Elmira Star-Gazette

Zach Sarno reached a milestone Monday with career victory No. 150 as a girls soccer coach in the Elmira City School District thanks to the Express' 2-0 road win over Ithaca.

Sarno, 43, is the only head coach in Express girls varsity soccer history and has guided the team to five Section 4 titles since the program's first season in 2011. Before that, he turned around a struggling Southside program, coaching the Green Hornets to a sectional final in his second season in 2008.

Monday's win left Elmira with a 3-1-1 record this season. The Express is seeking a ninth consecutive Southern Tier Athletic Conference West Division title.

As a player at Elmira Free Academy in the mid-1990s, Sarno contributed to three consecutive Section 4 finals appearances and the 341 career victories of legendary coach Sam Kutchukian. Sarno teaches fifth grade at Broadway Elementary School.

Elmira girls soccer coach Zach Sarno and his players pose for a photo after Sarno reached 150 career wins Sept. 13, 2021 in a 2-0 victory at Ithaca.

Q: What does it mean to you to reach 150 wins?

A: I hit 100 in 2016 in sectionals. It was kind of special. Because it was in sectionals, it wasn’t that it wasn’t a big deal or that it’s really even about being a big deal for me – I’m always so centered about the team anyway – but that happened and it was like, wow, OK. I remember we had a little celebration and the girls brought cookie cake after. We had to play Horseheads the next day in the section final, so it was kind of short-lived and bang, we were back out there after beating Corning in the semifinal.

I never thought about it until we got to that point of 100. Starting at Southside, I think we won one game in three years before I got there. Thinking about where I started there and to think I just hit 150 wins is crazy to think. Because I got there it was nothing and now you look at what you have and what we’ve built up and it’s all a testament to the student-athletes and the players who have come this year and before.

I always say it’s not about me and I truly do believe that, even though I’m here to facilitate the game and make the experience worthwhile, that the girls want to play and they want to be here and they want to have success and they want to be part of a team. I’m just one piece of that.

More:Section 4 high school girls soccer results: Daily scores, top players

More:OT win caps emotional night as Horseheads girls soccer team remembers Miranda Novitsky

Q: When you took over at Southside in 2007, did you envision you'd still be coaching now?

A: No. I love coaching, but starting out I was only in my mid-20s at the time. I loved the game, I didn’t know where it would take me. Before I was the varsity coach at Southside I was the boys JV coach for a couple seasons. I definitely didn’t envision that and the funny part is before I had started coaching at Southside in 2007 I had never even coached girls. That was a whole new ballgame in and of itself. To think that’s all transpired into what we have now is pretty unbelievable sometimes.

Elmira head coach Zach Sarno talks to his players at halftime of a 5-1 win over Union-Endicott in girls soccer Sept. 8, 2021 at Ernie Davis Academy.

Q: How do you correlate the 150 wins with the big picture of your teams’ accomplishments?

A: I was looking last season at overall the seasons. It kind of breaks down if you do a division of 15 seasons to about 10 wins a year. That’s about what we’ve averaged as the Express, except for our very first year where we won nine. We’ve won like 10 games the last nine years going into this year. Especially the Express part of it, we’ve always been successful.

That’s a credit to the players who have come before all these players we have now. The program itself, it’s gotten to a point where it has a good reputation, things run smoothly. In fairness, the players that come up see the players before them on varsity. I think that fuels them wanting to be part of this program. That’s why success keeps breeding itself.

Q: What fuels you to keep coaching?

You know what fuels me to come out here every single day is the relationships. That’s what it’s about for me is the relationships and the players who are student-athletes and whether they go on to do other things as far as soccer goes at a collegiate level.

Another thing I’m really proud of is the amount of signings we’ve had over the years. We just had three this past spring and two of those girls were just playing on the weekend, and several of our former players from a few years back. That’s one thing that definitely fuels me a little bit, to see players go on, have success and say, wow, they were part of this program. It's pretty amazing. We’ve had quite a few of those.

Just to see the players out here laughing and fooling around and having a good time but also knowing what the program stands for, what we expect, and how to be serious when we really need to be and how to bridge the gap of both is tremendous.

This year, with everything that’s happened with COVID and a modified season last year and getting back to trying to be normal this year, when I came out the first day of preseason I just got back out on this field and we had a regular preseason and I just knew I was in the right place. Just that feeling you get. You just know it’s right.

Q: Coach Kutchukian had 341 wins at EFA. You think you can get there?

Wow, I saw his name over there (on a tribute wall at Ernie Davis Academy). He was certainly one of my mentors, Sammy K. was. Obviously I played for him for all the years I was here. I knew he was in the 300s. That’s quite the goal right there. But you know what, I never thought I’d be at 150. You never know what’s going to happen because I still feel like I have the passion, the fire to be out here each day and if I didn’t I wouldn’t do it.

As a coach once said to me, ‘If you’re not feeling it, then it’s time to give it up.’ That’s why when I came out this year in the preseason I said to myself I saw the same passion and fire that I had 15 years ago and here we are at 150 wins.

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.