Ross Irwin is a former professional soccer player from Glasgow, Scotland. His former teams include Fareham Town F.C. (England), FC Stade Nyonnais (Switzerland), Bahama Royals (Bahamas) and the Boston Bolts and Albany Capitals of the American Soccer League. Irwin is currently a high school mathematics teacher in Medfield, Massachusetts.
After the collapse in 1984 of the NASL featuring the New York Cosmos, the United States Soccer Federation realized that they had to develop home grown talent in order to be in a position to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. In 1988 Professional Soccer returned to the US in the form of the American Soccer League which had two divisions : Northern Division - Albany Capitals, Boston Bolts, Maryland Bays, New Jersey Eagles, Washington Stars ; Southern Division - Miami Sharks, Tampa Bay Rowdies, Orlando Lions, Washington Diplomats, Fort Lauderdale Strikers. Each franchise had a quota of only two non American players. Irwin was the first player to be signed by the Boston franchise as one of their two foreign players.
Soon after, Boston signed their marquee player Jeff Duback who was the current US National team goalkeeper. During the 1988/89 season as sweeper and vice captain of the Boston Bolts, Irwin was selected as the only Boston player to the American Soccer League (ASL) All Star Team. He was one of two Scotsmen on the All Star team, being joined by former Scotland goalkeeper Alan Rough. The All Star team played against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers who had the legendary George Best making a guest appearance.
In 1988 at Nickerson Field, Boston University, Irwin scored the winning goal for the Boston Bolts v Orlando Lions past Alan Rough in a penalty shootout. This was the Boston Bolts first home game of the 1988/89 season and their first win. In 1989, following Irwin's selection to the ASL All Star team, he was signed by the Albany Capitals. He joined US national team players John Harkes, Brian Bliss and Mike Windischmann, and former England international Paul Mariner.
Ross Irwin has been teaching high school math for 26 years. He has taught at the prestigious L'Institut Le Rosey (Guinness Book of Records 'most expensive school in the world') in Rolle/Gstaad, Switzerland in addition to St Johns College in Nassau, Bahamas. For the past 19 years Irwin has been teaching math at Medfield High School in Medfield, Mass, USA.