Jim Cherneski

When Cherneski was nine years old he moved to Florida, where he was coached on various youth teams including the Countryside Cosmos coached by Richard Dieckman, Peter Mellor, Steve Heighway, Gordon Hill and Derek Smethurst.[2] Cherneski was a starting defender for the Florida Class 4A state high school champions in 1991,[3] and after a brief and ultimately unsuccessful trial at English side Brighton and Hove Albion, played college soccer at Towson University alongside Pete Medd, leading the team to a Top 15 Division 1 NCAA National Ranking and serving as captain during his senior year.

After a brief coaching stint at Towson, Cherneski subsequently played for many years in the USL, having stints with the Baltimore Bays, the Eastern Shore Sharks, the New Hampshire Phantoms, the Rhode Island Stingrays and the Worcester Kings.

After having taken several years off from football to concentrate on family issues, Cherneski received an email from a former college coach that ultimately inspired him to set up his own team in his hometown of Baltimore. Whilst in England on a college tour in 2006, Cherneski met with a representative from Crystal Palace, who were interested setting up a team somewhere else in the world. Over the course of the following year representatives from Palace flew over to America, ultimately resulting in the creation of Crystal Palace Baltimore.[2]

Cherneski became player-manager of the team prior to its inaugural season in 2007, in which they finished fifth, and took the team to its first post-season playoff campaign in 2008, where they ultimately lost in the USL2 semi finals to the Charlotte Eagles. In addition to managing the team, Cherneski still occasionally makes playing appearances. Cherneski scored two goals in a 6–3 loss to FC Tampa Bay[4] in the last game of Baltimore's 2010 USSFD2 regular season campaign.