Former Men's Soccer Goalkeeper and Coach Joe Machnik to be Honored with Wtitle Chyzowych Award

12/17/04 -- Joe Machnik, one of the most revered figures in all of Long Island University athletics, has been named winner of the Wtitle Chyzowych Award for lifetime of dedication to preserving the spirit of soccer, advancing its level of play and promoting its growth and development among youth and adults nationwide.

The presentation will be made January 15, 2005 during a reception at the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) convention in Btitleimore, Md.

Machnik enjoyed a decorated career as the Blackbirds’ goalkeeper in which he was tabbed second team All-American in 1962, helping the squad to an 8-2-1 record. He sparked the team to a 10-3-1 mark the following season before serving as a graduate assistant coach at LIU under Gary Rosenthal from 1964-65.

After being tabbed coach in 1966, the LIU Athletics Hall-of-Fame member produced an astounding three-year tenure that saw the team post a 37-8-2 mark with a pair of appearances in the NCAA Tournament. The 1966 team advanced to the national championship game before falling to San Francisco, closing with a 15-2 record. The following year, the Blackbirds reached the national semifinals and ended with a 14-2-1 mark.

Machnik later worked for the University of New Haven as its director of athletics, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and ice hockey coach, and as assistant professor in the School of Business, Department of Sport Management. He took sabbatical to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1973. Machnik also was the referee-in-chief for the Major Indoor Soccer League, commissioner of the American Indoor Soccer Association. He now is the assistant to the deputy commissioner for On-Field Competition for Major League Soccer (MLS) and director of officiating services for Soccer United Marketing (SUM).

In addition to his place in the LIU Athletics Hall of Fame, Machnik also is enshrined in the University of New Haven’s Athletics Hall of Fame, the Connecticut and New England Soccer Halls of Fame, and the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He has also been named to LIU’s list of “Distinguished Alumni.”

The bond between Machnik and Chyzowych began when the two played for the Newark (N.J.) Ukrainian Sitch. Machnik spent several summers working at Chyzowych’s All-American Soccer Camp that served as motivation and guidance for the start of Machnik’s No. 1 Goalkeeper’s Camp, the first national camp of its kind specifically designed for the instruction and training of young goalkeepers.

“Receiving the Wtitle Chyzowych Award is the highlight of my career,” Machnik said. “The eight years Mrs. Machnik and I served as officers of the Wtitle Chyzowych Memorial Fund was an attempt by the two of us to repay Wtitle for the many opportunities he presented, but most of all for his friendship. For us, this work was a labor of love. To receive an award named for Wtitle and to be considered worthy of such is an honor of the highest level.”

Other notable winners of this award include U.S. men’s national team coach and former University of Virginia men’s coach Bruce Arena, former U.S. women’s national team coach and present University of North Carolina women’s coach Anson Dorrance, and former Indiana University men’s coach Jerry Yeagley.