Wake Forest head men's soccer coach Bobby Muuss announced the hiring of Matt Poplawski as the program's new Volunteer Assistant Coach prior to the 2017 season. He enters his second year in 2018. In his first year in Winston-Salem, he helped the Deacs to a 19-2-2 overall record and 7-0-1 mark in the ACC. By winning the ACC Championship, Wake Forest became the first team in the league to finish the ACC regular season and Championship undefeated since 1999. The Deacs were rewarded with ACC Offensive Player of the Year (Jon Bakero) and Defensive Player of the Year (Kevin Politz) honors, as each was also named an All-American. Poplawski is part of a staff which earned the United Soccer Coaches Region Staff of the Year honors in 2017. He helped coach MAC Hermann Trophy winner Jon Bakero and CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year winner Kevin Politz, who became two of the seven Deacons to head to the MLS ranks following the season. Poplawski joined the Demon Deacons from Penn, where he was a 2017 graduate of the Wharton School of Business, and a two-sport varsity athlete. On the pitch, Poplawski was a two-time All-Ivy League honoree and two-year team captain. He also played basketball for two seasons, appearing in 17 games.