Robert Zipp is a retired U.S.

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who currently serves as a youth soccer referee. Zipp attended

O'Dea High School O'Dea High School is a Catholic all boys high school founded in 1923 and is located in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood. The school is named after Edward John O'Dea who was bishop of Seattle when the school was built. O'Dea is a part of the Ar ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

where he was a four year varsity letterman on the boys' soccer team. He was also a two year letterman on the football team. Additionally,

Parade Magazine ''Parade'' was an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 700 newspapers in the United States until 2022. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., ''Parade'' had a circulation of 32 million and a readership of 5 ...

selected Zipp as a high school All-American soccer player in 1980 and 1981. After graduating from high school, he was drafted in the first round of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

(NASL) draft. Records don’t show which team drafted him. However in 1981, Zipp was a member of Washington Diplomats.
/sup> Zipp then played the 1981-1982 NASL indoor season with the Seattle Sounders (1974–1983), Seattle Sounders; however, he never appeared in an outdoor game with the Sounders.
/sup> The Sounders folded at the end of the 1983 NASL season and in 1984, Zipp joined Seattle Storm (soccer), F.C. Seattle for the F.C. Seattle Challenge '84. This four team round-robin series pitted F.C. Seattle, an independent local Seattle “super club” against the New York Cosmos,

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

and Minnesota Strikers. F.C. Seattle was largely stocked with ex-NASL players put out of work by the disintegration of the NASL. In 1985, F.C. Seattle joined with several other independent west coast clubs to form the Western Soccer Alliance (WSA). Zipp continued with the team this season, becoming the team captain after former captain

Jeff Durgan Jeffrey "Jeff" Durgan (born August 29, 1961, in Tacoma, Washington) is a retired U.S. soccer defender who played professionally for the New York Cosmos and seven times for the U.S. national team. NASL Durgan was born and raised in Tacoma, Wa ...

was released following the team’s game with the Canadian national soccer team. In 1986, Zipp moved to the

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

. He remained with the Earthquakes through the 1988 WSA season, after which the Earthquakes folded.1988 San Jose Earthquakes
/ref> Since retiring from playing professionally, Zipp has remained active as a youth soccer referee. He is currently an AYSA referee coordinator.
/sup> In 2004, O’Dea High School inducted Zipp into the school’s Athletic Wall of Honor.
/sup>

References

External links

NASL stats

Zipp
scoring a goal versus Club Deportivo Guadalajara, Chivas {{DEFAULTSORT:Zipp, Robert 1963 births Living people American men's soccer players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players Washington Diplomats (NASL) players Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) players Western Soccer Alliance players Seattle Storm (soccer) players San Jose Earthquakes (1974–1988) players American soccer referees Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Soccer players from Washington (state)