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Unforgettable: Batista hangs it up at CV
From Trinity to CV, coach made impact on local soccer
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Article RatingEd Batista didn’t have the luxury of experience when he started his coaching career.
How could he? Soccer hadn’t really been around in the American northeast all that long.
Yet, 26 years later, Batista retires as one of the most prolific Cumberland Valley athletic coaches in the school’s history.
Since the implementation of the District 3 playoffs, no Eagles team under Batista ever missed qualifying for the postseason — a string of 19 straight district playoff berths. His teams won nine district titles, reached the PIAA playoffs 11 times and landed in the PIAA finals three times.
Not bad for a guy that, as a youth, never formally competed in the sport.
In his days growing up just outside New York City in Yonkers, N.Y., Batista was primarily exposed to soccer through his father, Arnand. At that time, soccer wasn’t a readily-organized sport, leaving Batista to gain his experience by watching his father compete in social/athletic events.
“For an urban area, you would think, with the immigrants, they would have had soccer,” Batista said. “My father was a member of a social/athletic club, but I was too young (to compete with him).”
Batista must have picked up a lot from his father.
After attending Manhattan University, which did not have a soccer program at the time, Batista moved to central Pennsylvania where, in 1983, he was approached by individuals from Trinity High School to help build the school’s fledgling soccer program as its first head coach.
“They didn’t have a program yet,” Batista said. “I had kicked the ball around in picnics with my father, but because I knew a little bit about the game I was, we’ll say, recruited.”
Though he didn’t originally think his gig with the Shamrocks would last very long, Batista ended up spending seven years as Trinity’s soccer coach. While there, he won 78 of 132 games (78-43-11) and helped break in an assistant coach, fresh out of college, that would eventually become a mainstay of the Trinity boys’ soccer program.
“Coming in I was very inexperienced as a coach,” said Al Blackledge, who worked under Batista from 1988-89 and has now been with the Trinity boys program for 21 years. “What I learned from Ed isn’t so much the soccer aspect, but how to manage the team, to handle the team and handle the kids.
“That was my experience, getting to observe that. That was extremely valuable. Between (Batista) and Harry DeFrank, I had two very good mentors.”
After the 1989 season, Batista left the Shamrocks in Blackledge’s care and moved on to a pair of new jobs, simultaneously working as the Elizabethtown College head women’s soccer coach in the fall and as the Cumberland Valley high school head girls’ soccer coach in the spring.
At Elizabethtown, Batista inherited another developing program — the Blue Jays women’s soccer team had only been around for two years prior to the 1990 season, going 11-14-1 under original head coach Jim Jones.
When Batista stepped in as the Blue Jays’ skipper, he made an immediate — and lasting — impact.
Through four seasons as head coach at Elizabethtown, Batista posted a record of 40-25-4, including a 13-1-1 season in 1990 that stands as the program’s single-season win percentage record.
“It was the opportunity, I wanted to see if I could coach at a collegiate level and would like that,” Batista said. “But, with recruiting and the time demand, I wasn’t on the staff full-time and that was a drain.”
So, Batista decided to focus on his other job — directing the Cumberland Valley girls through 20 superior seasons.
“I liked coaching at the high school level ... there was a kind of camaraderie, if you will,” Batista said. “(Soccer) was just getting started for girls in 1989 ... but it was that team spirit.
“It was a big shift going from coaching guys to girls. Thankfully, Elizabethtown was a good transition. The guys typically wanted to take everyone on and dominate another player. The girls had a tendency to be not-so-aggressive and pass the ball off. With the guys, you almost had to emphasize passing the ball out of trouble and with the girls it was the opposite.
“You have to make a mental shift. It’s not as obvious, quite so extreme as I’m pointing out but there’s a mental shift. A girls’ coach has to be more aware of their tendency to emphasize teammates off the field. What I liked about CV is that they were friends off the field.”
On the field, Batista got the most out of his players. A psychologist by profession, the coach molded his CV teams into perennial postseason contenders through a controlled, composed approach.
“The one thing I really appreciated (working under Batista) is that he always kept himself calm,” Blackledge said. “I’m an excitable person, he was always real composed when dealing with the officials. That had a big impression on me. He’s a psychologist ... I’m sure it did help (in dealing with athletes).”
But after 26 years and 31 seasons as a head soccer coach, Batista has decided it’s just his time to step aside — to let a younger generation take over.
“Let’s put it this way — I felt old enough, but I’m not (Penn State football coach Joe Paterno’s) age,” Batista said with a laugh. “I’m just doing what JoePa said, when it’s your time, it’s your time. The guys I’ve been coaching with, they have more vitality and should have a chance (to take over). Besides soccer, I’m breaking in a couple clinical psychologists ... I have a lot on my plate. I’m pretty busy. I had to schedule all my appointments (over the years) between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., so my secretary is relieved (by my retirement).
“It’s amazing my clients were able to accommodate me for so many years.”
His clients weren’t the only ones accommodating these last two decades. Even if his Eagles squad slumped out of the gates a little — in 2004, the team began 0-2 after losing both games in its host tournament — there was never any pressure on the coach to turn things around, never any emphasis that his job would be on the line if he didn’t do so.
“I never felt that way, people would talk about when you have that type of program (success), you’re expected to do that well. But no one put that pressure on me,” Batista said. “If we didn’t make it to the finals or states, hey, tough year, you’ll get back next year.”
From leisurely kicking a ball around with his father in Yonkers, to guiding varsity players through the increasingly-competitive PIAA playoffs, Batista has come a long way. But, the veteran coach insists his retirement is final — no more head coaching jobs in the future, but he would lend a hand here or there if needed.
“I have many fond ties with CV as well as Trinity, so if the coach called in and asked if I could fill in at a practice, I’d do that,” Batista said. “I’d like to stay on as an unpaid assistant ... I wouldn’t (demand) anything, that would be presumptuous of me.”
One thing’s for sure — even without playing in high school or college, Batista brought a natural affinity for the sport to Trinity, Elizabethtown and Cumberland Valley. Something built into who he was that helped the young Trinity and Elizabethtown programs bloom and something that carried CV on an historic two-decade-long ride.
“Soccer is a particular skill,” Batista said. “You either got it, or you don’t got it.”
