It was a hot Saturday afternoon on July 13, 2019, in Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford Athletic was off to a rough start in its first season in the USL Championship, entering its inaugural match at Dillon Stadium with a mark of 2-5-4.
However, in front of a sold-out crowd and against USL Championship veterans Indy Eleven, Hartford Athletic welcomed USL soccer to the city with a 2-1 win.
At the center of that Hartford Athletic victory was former Indy Eleven player and Bradley Brave, Wojciech Wojcik. In the 72nd minute of the match, he took a scorching hot shot off of a cross to score the winning goal.
“That was a special day for sure,” Wojcik said. “My family in the stands, playing against a former club, to come off a win and scoring a game-winning goal, was a pretty special day.”
Wojcik now plays for USL League One side Forward Madison FC, but his journey in professional soccer has been a long one, all leading close to home.
As an infant, Wojcik and his family immigrated from Poland to Elmwood Park, Illinois. From a young age, he knew that he wanted to play soccer for the rest of his life. He started off playing for a local Polish club.
Growing up in the Chicagoland area, Wojcik was immersed in a rich soccer culture, eventually scoring a tryout for Chicago Fire’s academy team.
At first, Wojcik got a spot as a “developmental player,” meaning he trained with the academy team, but still played with his home club. He got the call to be a full-time academy player when he was 15. Throughout his time in the academy, he played at a variety of college showcase tournaments, where many different schools were interested in him.
When on his college search, staying close to home and being set up for the pros was important for a potential school.
“[Bradley] kind of came out of nowhere,” Wojcik said. “Bradley was quite successful in creating MLS draft picks and bringing guys to the pro level. It was also a very good school for getting an education … I didn’t really have to think about it too long.”
Here on the Hilltop, Wojcik majored in history secondary education, while also stacking up accolades on the field. In 2013, he was awarded Missouri Valley Conference player of the year, co-led the NCAA in assists and was named to both the MVC first team and MVC tournament team.
His individual success came with team success as well. During his time at Bradley, the Braves made three NCAA Tournament appearances and won the MVC tournament twice.
While Wojcik did enter the MLS Draft, he was not selected. So thanks to some connections, he found himself leaving Peoria for Finland, playing for two different teams there.
“[Playing overseas] was something that I wanted to experience, you want to go where there’s interest,” Wojcik said. “I was able to experience what my parents went through, going to a new country, not knowing the language, going there to look for work, but also follow my dreams.”
After a year overseas, Wojcik came back to the U.S., thanks to Bradley’s assistant soccer coach Tim Regan, who was an assistant coach for Indy Eleven at the time.
“It was close to home,” Wojcik said. “For me, it was very important to be close to family and close to friends … That was kind of my decision-making process in terms of wanting to come back home and still pursuing my dream.”
In between his time at Indy Eleven and Hartford Athletic, he spent time with Oklahoma City Energy FC, and the now-defunct New York Cosmos B.
When Forward Madison FC showed interest, Wojcik jumped at the opportunity to once again be close to home.
“Madison being two hours from Chicago is really great,” Wojcik said. “There’s a lot of promising things happening in Madison in terms of professional soccer and I wanted to be a part of that.”
Currently, Madison is halfway through its 2020 campaign with seven games remaining, sitting in seventh place after a 2-1 loss to FC Tucson on Wednesday night.
Due to modifications because of the pandemic, USL League One decided to change its postseason format. Now, the top two teams will play in a one-game championship. Despite being seven points back from second place, Wojcik remains optimistic.
“We still [have] time to make things right, which is exciting,” Wojcik said. “We’ve slowly gotten back to the normal grind of USL League One soccer.”
