Peter Nowak, 44, serves as Team Manager for Philadelphia Union and is responsible for all facets of the club's training and on-field performance. Nowak has won MLS Cups as both player and coach, the only individual to have accomplished the feat in league history. A captain of the Polish National team for three years, Nowak most recently served a dual role as Head Coach of the Under-23 U.S. Men’s National Team and Assistant to Bob Bradley with the full national team.
In 2004, Nowak led D.C. United to a championship in his rookie season as Head Coach after he had led the expansion Chicago Fire to the 1998 MLS Cup title in his first season in the league as a player. He is the only coach in the last half century of U.S. sport to win a championship within two years of retiring as a player.
Nowak began his 23-year professional playing career in his native Poland in 1979 when he was just 15 years old. After stops in Turkey and Switzerland, he moved to Germany and Dynamo Dresden before joining Bundesliga side FC Kaiserslautern in 1994. Transferring to 1860 Munich the following year, he earned Best Playmaker of the Year honors for the 1995-96 Bundesliga season.
After joining the Chicago Fire for their inaugural MLS season, Nowak promptly established himself as one of the league's premier players. Nowak patrolled the Fire’s midfield for five years, being named to the MLS Best XI three times. In 2005, as part of its tenth anniversary celebrations, Major League Soccer named Nowak to its All-Time Best XI, a selection of the best eleven players in the history of the league.
After working in the Fire front office for one year following his retirement, Nowak was named Head Coach of D.C. United in 2004. In his first year, Nowak led his team to a 3-2 MLS Cup victory against the Kansas City Wizards after the team had finished no better than fourth in the Eastern Conference during the previous four years. In three years with United, Nowak led the team to a combined 42-27-25 regular season record, including winning the Supporters’ Shield for best regular season record in 2006 with a 15-7-10 record. Before becoming Team Manager of the Union, Nowak worked with both the full national team and the U-23’s. Together with Bradley, Nowak coached over 70 players between both teams and orchestrated the USA’s championship winning run in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Hackworth reunites with Team Manager Peter Nowak as Philadelphia Union’s Coach and Youth Development Coordinator. Hackworth comes to the City of Brotherly Love from the United States Men’s National Team that recently qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa.
Hackworth spent the last two years alongside Nowak as an assistant with the USMNT and helped guide the squad to a first place finish in group play in the World Cup Qualifying Round and a second place finish in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. In addition to his position with the USMNT, Hackworth also served as the Development Academy Technical Director in U.S. Soccer’s player development initiative that launched in 2007.
Prior to his position with the USMNT, Hackworth spent more than six years at the helm of the U.S. Under-17 Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla., leading the team to first place finishes in CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying in 2005 and 2007. During that time, he was instrumental in producing some of the United States’ best young professionals, including Michael Bradley, Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Jonathan Spector and Troy Perkins.
Born and raised in Dunedin, Fla., Hackworth was also a top level college coach for nine years, spending four as the head coach at University of South Florida and five years as the top assistant at Wake Forest.
Hackworth was an accomplished collegiate player at Wake Forest under Philadelphia soccer legend Walter Chyzowych, where he helped the Demon Deacons to a No. 3 ranking nationally in 1991 and 1992. He went on to play professionally for the Carolina Dynamo of the A-League in 1997, helping the team finish as national runners-up.
After helping the University of Maryland
men’s soccer team to seven straight NCAA tournament appearances and two
NCAA national championships, Rob Vartughian graduated to Major League
Soccer and Philadelphia Union. Vartughian joins Team Manager Peter
Nowak’s Technical Staff as Assistant Coach/Goalkeeper Coordinator.
As
an assistant coach at Maryland, Vartughian helped guide the Terrapins
to an Elite 8 finish in the 2009 NCAA tournament. In his time with
Maryland, the versatile Vartughian was instrumental not only in working
with the keepers, but with all aspects of the program, from video
breakdowns and training session planning to tactical decisions and
adjustments on game days.
Vartughian has guided the careers of
young goalkeepers at Maryland for the past seven years with great
success. Perhaps the best example of his influence was the development
of then freshman Chris Seitz in 2005 who, in the final against the
University of New Mexico, stopped a penalty kick to preserve a 1-0 win
and an NCAA championship.
Prior to his work at College Park, the
former St. Bonaventure and Wake Forest goalkeeper worked as an
assistant at Penn, where his keepers earned All-American and All-Ivy
accolades as both the Quakers’ men’s and women’s teams won Ivy League
titles.
