SUNY Cortland Athletics

This is part of a series of interviews that Cortland track and field/cross country runner Shannon Imbornoni '21 conducted in 2020 with former Cortland track and field and/or cross country individual national champions.

Interview Menu

Jake Zanetti ’09

Jake Zanetti is a one-time individual NCAA champion and a two-time All-American. Since 2009, Zanetti has held the school record in the outdoor pole vault with a height of 5.06m (16’ 7.25"). Additionally, Zanetti won the Cortland track and field Red Letter Award for outdoor in 2009. Today, Zanetti teaches physical education and coaches multiple high school sports in his hometown of Saratoga Springs, where he lives with his wife and newborn baby.

Some of the questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.


Why did you choose Cortland?
It’s kind of funny how I ended up choosing Cortland. I was on an official visit to Syracuse University and my mom just said, ‘hey, Cortland is right down the road, why don’t we take a detour and check it out?’ While we were there, we ended up finding out that the pole vault coach, Peter McGinnis, was and is, one of the best pole vaulting minds ever. Hearing about him and knowing that Cortland was such a strong physical education school, it was a really great spot for me and I threw it into the mix of schools I was applying to. When everything was said and done as far as the physical education program, the pole vault coach and the monetary factor going to a SUNY school instead of Syracuse, it made a ton of sense for me and I think it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
 
What do you remember about your national title season?
I knew I really wanted to focus and dedicate myself to peak performance for my senior year. It was cool because I student-taught in the fall, so I checked that box as far as my academics went and that left me a really nice spring semester. After student teaching, I only needed 12-credits to get through graduation, so I only had classes on Mondays and Wednesdays and substitute taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was able to really dedicate myself to the track team and to doing well on the national level. I never worked harder in the weight room, on the track and in vault practices. I sacrificed a lot of the going out on weekends and living the college lifestyle because I wanted everything in me working towards peak performance. I definitely made sacrifices with the idea of putting my best foot forward at the national level. Coming out of indoor nationals with a weak performance, I knew I needed to gear it up and do all the right things for May, as outdoor nationals was approaching. The whole season wrapped up was a culmination of doing the little things with the ultimate goal of performing well at nationals that May.
 
What is your favorite memory of Cortland?
I had a really great group of friends. My friends on the second floor of Hayes Hall were so great, instead of hanging out with the track guys on the weekend, I hung out with the guys I lived with. My freshman year, I had a really great group of guy friends that over the course of the four years at Cortland, meshed with the track team. Sophomore year, we moved into Smith Tower and we had the corner suite and the women’s basketball team had the corner across from us. Six track girls had the other corner suite too. Junior year, the six girls from the track team and nine guys all moved into a house off campus together, so there was 15 of us all living under one roof. Myself and the six girls were all on the team, so it was really cool because I had my guy friends from freshman year and I had the girls, who we all trained and went to meets together, for all of junior year. Then for senior year, most of the people stayed living together while myself and two other guys moved just down the street because I really wanted to hammer down, really focus on student teaching, the competition of pole vault and representing myself well there. Still, we were always together having fun together senior year. Since the pandemic started, we’ve been doing zoom meetings and happy hours with everyone. My group of friends is my best memory of Cortland aside from my successes on the vault runway.
 
What have you taken from being a part of the team?
I am a physical education teacher in Saratoga [Springs], where I went to school. I actually teach at the elementary school I went to and coach at the high school I went to. I coached the track program for eight years and so much of the workouts, our attitudes, and my coaching philosophies stem from my experiences at Cortland. Steve Patrick and Pete McGinnis are great, as was Coach [Larry] Czarnecki. All these guys had big impacts on my life. As a teacher and coach, I make sure to relay the many lessons I learned as a competitor to my athletes. Now, I’m the head wrestling coach and I’m looking to be the golf coach in the upcoming fall. So many things I learned from Patrick and Pete are reflected in how I talk to the kids, the relationships I build and my overall coaching philosophy.
 
What are you doing now?
I am in my eleventh year of teaching physical education at Lake Avenue, the elementary school I attended. I coached spring track for eight years and stepped away because I’m really getting into golf. I also work a gold course here in Saratoga in the spring and the summer. I’ve coached soccer for the past five or six years and now I’m looking to get into coaching golf. I live in Saratoga, my wife teaches at one of the other elementary schools and we have a two-month-old baby who is keeping us busy.
 
Do you have any advice for Cortland XC/TF athletes now?
There are two things that come to mind. First, trust your coaches. They know what they are doing and trust the process. I remember going through the program and kind of second-guessing what we were doing as far as training, especially as a junior. As a junior, I got injured during indoor and had a really rough time at indoor nationals and during the outdoors season. I was really second-guessing myself and the training, but as a senior, I bought in 100 percent to the lifts Patrick was planning, the sprints he planned and the stuff Pete had us working on, on the runway. I did everything they said absolutely perfectly and I trusted the process that the coaches created. The second thing is the importance of establishing a routine. Start as a freshman and by the time you are a senior, the routine becomes so natural and organic. It allows you to stick to your game plan and when things don’t go your way in competition, it gives you a good solid baseline to get back to. Trust the coaches, trust the process, buy-in and work hard as early as you can with establishing a routine and have faith in it.