On Tuesday, May 30, U.S. Soccer announced that long-time USMNT assistant coach B.J. Callaghan will guide the team through this summer’s Concacaf Nations League Finals and Gold Cup after head coach Anthony Hudson departed to accept another opportunity.
Here are five things you should know about B.J. Callaghan:
Coaching Start
After playing collegiate soccer at Ursinus College, Callaghan began his coaching career with the Black Bears. He went on to hold various coaching positions within the Philadelphia soccer community, working with FC Delco, Montgomery Soccer Club and EPYSA/Region I ODP programs before moving up the collegiate soccer ladder as an assistant coach first at Saint Josephs and then to Villanova University.
Callaghan was something of a legacy at ‘Nova, where his grandfather Jack Kraft had coached the Wildcats men’s basketball team from 1961-1973, helping guide them to the 1971 NCAA Championship game.
While the sports they coached were different, Callaghan said he still picked up valuable coaching lessons from his grandfather.
“I think I really got a sense of the player-coach relationship from him and how that sort of transcends a game here or a game there,” he told The Athletic in 2018. “The memories or the stories (his players) would all tell, it was more about the importance of how you treat people.”
A few years into his time at Villanova, Callaghan connected with fellow Philadelphia native and long-time MLS veteran Jim Curtin, who returned to his alma mater as a volunteer assistant coach in early 2010. That connection would prove fruitful for the duo moving forward.
Move to the Philadelphia Union
Curtin moved to work in the Philadelphia Union Academy during the summer of 2010 and two years later Callaghan followed. Pulling double duty the first year, Callaghan continued his work as Associate Head Coach at Villanova, while concurrently assisting Curtin with the Union’s U-17 Academy side which won the 2012 Generation Adidas Cup.
With Curtin elevated to a first team assistant coaching position in 2013, Callaghan moved over to work with the Academy fulltime. And when Curtin became interim head coach of the first team midway through the 2014 season, one of his first acts was to call down to the club’s Academy and tell them he needed Callaghan on his technical staff.
