Joey Zalinsky: Captain, veteran of Rutgers men's soccer backline
Senior defender Joey Zalinsky was only a sophomore when the Rutgers men's soccer team won its first Big Ten Championship in 2022, but he was far from inexperienced.
Hailing from Brick, New Jersey, Zalinsky did not play high school soccer for Brick Memorial High School. Instead, he committed his time to the New York Red Bulls Academy, eventually becoming a starter for New York Red Bulls II in 2021.
With offers to play collegiate soccer for the Scarlet Knights, Syracuse and Louisville, Zalinsky chose to stay in New Jersey and close to home.
"I met with the coaches a lot," he said. "Also staying close to home so my family, it's only 50 minutes away … it's a lot to easier to be able to go home, see them and also stay connected with them and everything. Just being able to play for a school that's in Jersey, my home state, which is really nice."
Zalinsky wasted no time settling in on the Banks. In his first season, he appeared in 15 matches, made 14 starts and was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team at the end of the 2021 season.
So, what led to Zalinsky becoming a key defender for Rutgers so quickly? His experience.
"Red Bulls, playing with the second team before I came over gave me a lot of experience and confidence coming into my freshman year," he said. "It definitely helped out because playing with a lot of older guys that had more experience than me not only gave me advice but also I had coaches that played at the top level gave me a lot of confidence playing at Red Bulls. So when I came over here it was just basically the same thing, I just played my game and that was really it."
Zalinsky's sophomore season would be his most pivotal yet. He started 19 games and played the full 90 minutes in all but two of those contests. Zalinsky also notched his 1st career goal and assist, but there was still more to come. The Knights went on to win their first-ever Big Ten Championship in program history, with Zalinsky at the heart of the defense.
"A huge step in the right direction for this program," Zalinsky said on the Big Ten title. "I definitely came here with the mindset of winning titles and winning trophies … it was definitely a great feeling for being the first men's team at Rutgers to win a Big Ten Tournament trophy."
In Zalinsky's junior season, he was named a team captain. With a young defense consisting of sophomore defenders Nick Collins, Devon Stopek and Erick Ruiz, who were freshmen at the time, Zalinsky was thrust into a leadership position.
"It's definitely cool because I can share advice from my experiences with them that they can learn from," he said. "On or off the field, there's definitely huge aspect to that. I feel like just being able to help them out with their game is definitely a huge plus for them, but also for me, becoming more mature as a leader … It kinda means a lot when guys come to you to ask questions or rely on you to help figure out what's going on in the game at times."
This season, Zalinsky has played at right-back instead of his usual spot at center-back. He's no stranger to the position — Zalinsky played there during his time with the Red Bulls Academy — and he started the 2024 season with two assists and 1 goal in the first two games, resulting in Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors.
"Definitely something I had to get used to again though, because I haven't played there in a couple of years," he said on the position change. "It was definitely weird at first but I enjoy it now again and hopefully I can contribute to more wins or smaller goals like assists before the season ends."
With his senior season coming to an end, Zalinsky reflected on his time at Rutgers.
"It's been great, I love it," he said. "It's been one ride of ups and downs, obviously, but hopefully my one goal is to obviously make the Big Ten Tournament this year, hopefully win another trophy, a Big Ten ring and then making more history of being able to make it further in the (NCAA) tournament than my sophomore year … being able to get past that first round that would be huge for us."
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