Robert Jachym (born October 28, 1974) is a Polish-American former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He played professionally in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

and

USISL The United States Interregional Soccer League (USISL) was a semi-professional men's outdoor soccer league that played six seasons from 1989 to 1994. It was the first outdoor league to be operated by the organization known today as the United ...

, and was the 2003

USL D3 Pro League The USL Second Division (commonly referred to as USL-2) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, operated by United Soccer Leagues (USL). It was at the United States soccer league system, third tier of soccer in the United ...

MVP.

Player

The Early Days

Born in Poland, Jachym moved to the United States with his family when he was five. He graduated from Francis T Maloney High School after being named a 1991 First Team High School All American soccer player. He then attended

University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. It enrolled approximately 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students as ...

where he was a 1996 Second Team All American soccer player. Jachym played five seasons with the Hawks, losing his junior season to injury. As a result, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1996 and a master's degree in finance in 1997. In 2004, Hartford inducted Jachym into its Athletic Hall of Fame.

Professional

In February 1997, the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...

selected Jachym in the first round (third overall) of the

1997 MLS College Draft The 1997 Major League Soccer MLS College Draft, College Draft was held on February 1 and 2, 1997 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The draft took place in conjunction with the Umbro Select College All-Star Classic. The first round of the draft took pla ...

and Jachym signed with them. He then signed with the New England Revolution for the remainder of the 1997 season and into 1998. He then signed with the

Worcester Wildfire Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

. He finished the season with the Wildfire, then signed with the

Western Mass Pioneers Western Mass Pioneers is an American soccer team based in Ludlow, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1998, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American soccer pyramid. The team plays its home games at Lusitano Stadium ...

on December 15, 1998. In 1999, the Pioneers won the USL D-3 Pro League championship as Jachym scored the game-winning goal. Jachym finished the season with 28 goals in all competitions for the Pioneers in 1999. After having arthroscopic knee surgery during the pre-season, Jachym played limited time in 2000. He retired at the end of the season to devote himself to coaching. In July 2001, he returned to the Pioneers. In 2003, Jachym led the USL Pro Select League in scoring and was named both as League MVP and First Team All League. He retired again at the end of the 2004 season.

Coach

In addition to playing professionally, Jachym spent several years as an assistant with the Wethersfield High School boys' soccer team. In 2000, he became Wethersfield's head coach and took the team to four state championships over nine seasons.Boys soccer has new coach
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jachym, Rob 1974 births Living people Footballers from Mielec Polish men's footballers American men's soccer players Men's association football forwards American soccer coaches Columbus Crew players Connecticut Wolves players Hartford Hawks men's soccer players Major League Soccer players Milwaukee Rampage players New England Revolution players Seacoast United Phantoms players Western Mass Pioneers players Worcester Wildfire players A-League (1995–2004) players USL Second Division players Columbus Crew draft picks 20th-century American sportsmen