Sasho Cirovski

Background

Born in Macedonia, he grew up in Vratnica, a small village.

Career

Born in Macedoniaand raised in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Cirovski led his University of Maryland team to the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship in 2005 and 2008. Cirovski immigrated to Canada at the age of eight and became an outstanding all-around athlete in Ontario schools. A stand-out college soccer player for the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee he was selected the school"s outstanding athlete upon his graduation in 1985.

He earned a master"s degree there in 1989.

He played for the Milwaukee Wave of the American Indoor Soccer Association during the 1986–1987 season and later played and coached the North York Rockets. His subsequent coaching career included stints at both his alma mater and at the University of Hartford, where he led his team to two consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament berths.

In February 1993 Cirovski was recruited by then Assistant Athletic Director Gothard Lane to come to the University of Maryland, College Park, where the soccer program had enjoyed limited success for years. In 2002, the Terrapins began a remarkable streak of four consecutive appearances in the National Collegiate Athletic Association College Cup, the final four of American college soccer.

A vocal and demonstrative coach, Cirovski cultivated a "family" atmosphere on his close-knit teams.

He also earned the respect of his colleagues, who selected him as the chairman of the national collegiate coaches association in 2004, and the national coach of the year in 2005. A young Cirovski can be seen performing his soccer skills in the 1987 Entertainment and Sports Programming Network Home Video, "Teaching Kids Soccer with Bob Gansler.".

Achievements

• Upon his arrival in College Park, Cirovski startled the local soccer community when he announced that his goal was to "win the national championship." Starting with holdover players and two transfer students from Hartford who came to join their charismatic coach, his teams began to turn out winning records within two years. In 2005, they captured the national title with a 1–0 win over top-ranked University of New Mexico. In 2008 he led the Terps to an Administrative Committee on Company-ordination championship win over Virginia, the team"s first since 2002, and also guided his team to the 2008 National Championship over North Carolina by a score of 1–0 in Frisco, Texas.