Hayden Knight
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| Hayden Knight | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Hayden Knight | |
| Date of birth | April 19, 1960 (age 46) | |
| Place of birth | Port of Spain, Trinidad | |
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | |
| Nickname | The Black Knight | |
| Playing position | Forward / Defender | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Retired | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| 1977-1979 | Marquette University | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1984-1986 1986-1987 1987-1989 |
Edmonton Drillers Atlanta Chiefs Montreal Manic Team America Golden Bay Earthquakes Chicago Sting Dallas Sidekicks Milwaukee Wave |
8 (1) 9 (0) 30 (4) 16 (2) 2 (0) 10 (1) 53 (8) |
| National team2 | ||
| 1984 | United States | 3 (0) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 1989-2005 1989- |
Cedarburg High School (girls) Cedarburg High School (boys) |
|
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Hayden Knight is a retired U.S.-Trinidad soccer defender .
Knight, a native of Trinidad, moved to the United States with his family when he was a child. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York and attended Marquette University where he played on the men’s soccer team. He holds the team’s career scoring record with 52 goals. He also holds the NCAA record for career assists per game with 42 in 44 games. In college, he also played with the Milwaukee-based Bavarian Soccer Club.
In 1980, the Edmonton Drillers drafted Knight. Although he starred in college as a forward, he moved to defense in the pros. He played a single season with the Drillers before moving to the Atlanta Chiefs. While with the Drillers, he received his first taste of indoor soccer when the Drillers won the 1980-1981 NASL indoor championship.[1] The Chiefs folded after the 1981 season and Knight moved north to the Montreal Manic for the 1982 season.
In 1983, the U.S. Soccer Federation, in coordination with the NASL, entered the U.S. national team, known as Team America, into the NASL as a league franchise. The team drew on U.S. citizens playing in the NASL, Major Indoor Soccer League and American Soccer League. Knight left the Manic and signed with Team America. When Team America finished the 1983 season with a 10-20 record, the worst in the NASL, USSF withdrew the team from the league. Knight moved to the Golden Bay Earthquakes for the 1984 season, but was traded to the Chicago Sting with Manny Rojas on July 10, 1984 in exchange for Ricardo Alonso and Chalie Fajkus.[2] He remained with the Sting until August 1986. During his time with the Sting, he was a member of the 1984 NASL championship team
In 1984, Knight also earned three caps with the U.S. national team. The three games all came within a week as Knight played first on October 11 in a win over Colombia, followed by loss three days later to Guatemala and another loss three days after that that to Mexico.
On August 6, 1986, he signed with the Dallas Sidekicks as a free agent. On July 4, 1987, the team announced that they would not renew his contract and he again became a free agent. He signed with the Milwaukee Wave of the American Indoor Soccer Association where he played as a forward for the next two seasons. At the end of the 1987-1989 AISA season, Knight retired from playing professionally. That year Cedarburg High School in Cedarburg, Wisconsin hired Knight to coach the girl’s soccer team as well as teach. Since then, Knight has remained at Cedarburg, teaching history and social studies as well as coaching both the girls and boys teams. In 2005, he resigned form the girls team, after beating prostrate cancer, but continues to coach the boys which won the state championships in 1989 and 1991.[3] He is also a staff coach at the Mequon Soccer Club
Marquette inducted Knight into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
