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Forward Wojciech Wojcik Has Long-Standing Bond With Coach Regan

The 23-year-old is relishing his chance to play for Tim Regan
Indy Eleven Staff | Jul 23, 2015

Common ground. It’s not always a thing that players and coaches have, but that’s certainly not the case for Indy Eleven forward Wojciech Wojcik and interim head coach Tim Regan. As natives of the south side of Chicago – Wojcik of Elmwood Park and Regan of Orland Hills – and graduates of Bradley University in Peoria, the stop in Indianapolis obviously isn’t the first time the two have crossed paths, and perhaps it won’t be the last either.

“There’s a common ground that you understand about people that come from the same place as you,” Regan reiterated. “Because of that, it’s easy to communicate with him, yell at him, and be nice to him since we know each other fairly well – even when you’re quite disconnected in other ways.”

The familiarity the two share has played an important role in how “Woj” – as he’s known to his teammates and coaches alike – has acclimated to his new surroundings in the Circle City this season.

“I’ve known Tim for a while now.  He was at Bradley a while before me, but when he was working with U.S. Soccer and up in Toronto he would always travel to Illinois. I remember seeing him at one of my preseason games,” Wojcik recollected. “Tim talks to our coach at Bradley [Jim DeRose] as well as Bret Hall at Bridges [FC] all the time, and I do also.”

It was partly Regan’s unique ability to motivate that helped Wojcik keep working through a Spring Season in which, despite starting in seven of the team’s 10 games, he wasn’t able to make a dent in the goal column – although he did earn an assist with his deft header that set up Sergio Pena’s “Goal of the Year” candidate at San Antonio.

While the goals didn’t come in the spring, his continued effort paid off in more tangible ways when the 20-game grinder that is the Fall Season got underway earlier this month.  After notching a goal in the opener at New York on July 5 and following that with an early second-half equalizer six days later at home against Carolina, the freshly-turned 23-year-old is making life difficult for Regan, but only in regards to filling out the lineup sheet.

“His minutes have come from a good level of training, as well as within the team when an injury or two can change the lineup,” Regan sain. “When a guy gets a chance and wants to take advantage of it, then of course it’s going to help, and Woj did that.’

Wojcik added: “The first goal was definitely good for me to get off of my shoulders. Now it’s something I look forward to in every game is to put myself in positions to help my team score and win. Scoring is one thing, but we have to defend and make sure they don’t score back.”

Take one look at the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Wojcik and it’s easy to see why another sport might have taken precedence during his days growing up in Chicagoland after his family moved there from Poland when he was a young child.

“I actually started playing basketball when I was younger,” Woj said. “I got into soccer when I was seven or eight, playing for a local Polish club called AAC Eagles.”

He decided to take the next step with his soccer career when he tried out for the Chicago Fire Academy team while in high school. After playing for two years in the Fire system, Wojcik went on to Bradley University to play under the longtime head coach DeRose, racking up 14 goals and 22 assists.  He ended his four-year tenure in Peoria in 2013 on a high note, co-leading all of the NCAA’s Division I with 14 assists during his senior season and being named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year.

After attempting to catch the eyes of Major League Soccer clubs by attending the league’s combine, his undrafted status would lead him to a much different route, heading overseas to Finland to play for the second division side Tempereen Ilves.  His two goals in 17 games helped the club earn promotion the following season, but Woj wouldn’t be around to reap the rewards after being given the opportunity to join Indy Eleven as a trialist last fall.

“Last October he was in here for a few weeks, so we got a good up-close look at him,” Regan commented. “When it came time to make a decision, we wanted to do it before somebody else got him.”

From the beginning of the “Regan Regime” with Indy Eleven in June, the team has played with a different attitude, looking to pick teams apart and be the aggressor on the field. It’s a “win every play” mentality personified by Wojcik’s intense defensive pressure, whether he’s hounding opposing goalkeepers and defenders or tracking back deep to snuff out opposing attacks.

“It all starts in practice, and that’s the type of mentality that Tim has been hammering down on all of us,” Wojcik said. “Even though it’s practice, it ultimately does come down to winning. If you win in practice and pride yourself in winning every time in every game that we have, it becomes second nature and you want to do everything to put yourself in the position to win. If we keep that up in training then it will convert into games.”

Wojcik acknowledges that the team has continued to play better each and every game, and while he played a crucial role in the team’s recent four-game unbeaten streak, he chalks up the results as a testament to “a multitude of things.”  Those things will have to come together once again if the team will start another successful run Saturday against a Cosmos team that has been frustrated by Indy Eleven since its on-field birth last year – and you can be sure that the effort shown by Wojcik and others will be on the top of that list of intangibles.

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