Hackworth Named US Assistant

U-17 Coach to Connect Youth Team with Men's Squad

October 24, 2007

CHICAGO – John Hackworth, the longtime U.S. Soccer Youth National Team coach, has been appointed assistant coach to Bob Bradley and U.S. Men’s National team.

Hackworth will join the national team staff about a month before the United States’ final game in 2007, a Nov. 17 tilt against South Africa in Johannesberg.

“Joining Bob Bradley’s staff as that team gets focused on World Cup qualifying in 2008 is a great next step as a coach,” Hackworth said in a statement released by U.S. Soccer. “I’ve known Bob for many years and we have a great connection in terms of how we see the game, both technically on the field and in the ways you can help prepare a team off the field. I’m greatly looking forward to being a part of his staff on the road to South Africa.”

Hackworth will also serve as the Development Academy Director in U.S. Soccer’s new player development initiative that launched earlier this year.

The development program, which launched this fall and has been extensively covered by Soccer New England, is designed to improve the environment for elite players throughout the country. Hackworth will be the primary liaison to Academy clubs on all technical issues, focusing on ensuring technical compliance within each of the 64 clubs in the system, as well as communicating policy decisions, training guidelines and, ultimately, connecting the clubs to the National Team program.

“John is a great addition to our coaching staff,” Bradley said in the statement. “He’s had a tremendous amount of success helping to create a framework for the player development initiatives within all of our national teams, and now that vision is being executed within the Development Academy. Having him on our staff, while also working directly with the technical aspects of the Academy program, is going to help us forge a very strong connection between those youth clubs all the way through the elite national team level.”

Hackworth took over the reigns of the U-17 National Team in November of 2004, after joining U.S. Soccer in early 2002 and serving as an assistant under John Ellinger for more than two years. As a head coach, he led the team through two FIFA Under-17 World Cup cycles, twice advancing the team into the tournament’s second round.

In 2005 in Peru, Hackworth’s squad took the top spot in their group to advance to the quarterfinals and eventually finish in fifth place. Two years later in a newly-expanded 24-team World Cup, the U.S. advanced to the Round of 16 with a second-place group finish before falling to Germany.

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