Joshua Schirmer enters his first season as an assistant coach with UMass Lowell womens soccer in 2018.   An English FA Level 1, NSCAA Advanced National, USSF C and UEFA B license holder, Schirmer most recently coached for the Sparta Prague professional womens team. He led the team to a Czech First Division championship, Czech Womens Cup, and UEFA Womens Champions League qualification as a seeded team.   Before that, Schirmer was on the womens soccer staff at the University of North Florida, where the teams win total increased each season after his arrival.   He has also worked at Eastern Florida State College, first serving as an assistant coach of the mens team and later as associate head coach of the womens team. He helped the mens team to a fifth-place finish in the NJCAA and the womens team to third and second-place finishes in 2014 and 2015.   The Jacksonville, Fla., native played at Tennessee Wesleyan College, graduating magna cum laude in 2004 with a bachelors degree in business finance and an economics minor. He was a two-time NAIA Scholar All-American and a three-year member of the Appalachian Athletic Conference All-Academic Team.   After graduating, he played professionally for one season in Hong Kong and spent seven years in Japan, including with the Urawa Reds from 2009-2012.   He is currently finishing his masters degree in educational leadership from the University of North Florida.