Legend Coaches on at DCCC

Photo courtesy of Brian Bayliss

On Nov. 7, 2010, Joe Paterno was carried off the field at Beaver Stadium after his team rallied from a 21-0 deficit to give Paterno his 400^th win as the football coach at Penn State University.

The coach, in his 45^th year, waved to the raucous crowd as they gleefully chanted “JoePa,” and all the television experts weighed in on Paterno’s place in the history of the greatest coaches of all time.

This past May another seasoned Pennsylvania coach left the field after a big win. However, Delaware County Community College baseball coach Paul Motta didn’t leave with the fanfare of Paterno.

No bright lights, no multi-million dollar contracts, no ESPN montages, and no analysts debating whether he was the greatest coach of all time.

Motta, 74, hopped in his car and drove home, as he has done after every DCCC Phantom’s baseball game for the last 39 years.

This was the quiet reality despite the fact that DCCC’s final win had improved their record to 16-0 and completed the first undefeated season in the 43 year history of the Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference.

This victory also gave Motta his ninth EPCC championship since his tenure began.

Motta was coaching football in 1970 when one of his former players approached him asking if he would consider starting a baseball program at DCCC.

“I was a little wary,”  Motta said. “But after a couple good conversations with the dean, Bob Cutlier, I figured ‘why not?’”

Beyond nine league championships, Motta’s baseball program has enabled countless players to play baseball at four-year schools and even at the professional level.

“From our small program we’ve sent 15 kids into the minor leagues,” Motta said. “Fourteen of them were pitchers and one of them, Todd Rizzo, made it all the way to the Major Leagues, where he pitched for the Chicago White Sox. For a small program, that’s really pretty good!”

Motta made it clear that success doesn’t always come easy when you are working within the uncertain framework of community college athletics.

“It’s hard,” Motta said. “You have to put out an almost entirely new team every year. People come and go so quickly in the community college atmosphere….You don’t deal with that in high school, and you don’t deal with that at four-year colleges. It’s a unique challenge.”

Motta expressed how getting the money needed to support a baseball team hasn’t always been a simple process either. “From the schools perspective, a baseball team isn’t exactly priority number one when it comes to receiving funding,” explained Motta.

All of that is changing this year, however.

“The school just built new dugouts for us,” Motta said. “They also re-sodded the field. They spent thousands of dollars in doing it, and it should be ready for this coming season… It took 40 years to get funding, but it’s certainly better late than never.”

Motta explained how some of these difficulties are what make him so passionate about his job.

“It’s not like big colleges, or even high school,” Motta said. “Most of these kids have jobs. They play baseball, but they also have to go to classes, pay their own way through school, and still manage to be able to take their girlfriends out once in a while.”

Motta said he wishes that his players efforts would be recognized more through people from the school coming out to watch the team play.

“I feel bad for the kids sometimes,” he said. “It’s hard when you see them work their tails off all week only to end up playing in front of a handful of people.”

Motta has received offers to coach at more prominent schools, but turned them down because of his passion for the community college setting.

“That’s what I love about doing this,” Motta explained. “I love being able to work with and continue teaching the game to these hard working community college students.”

Even in light of his success with the school, Motta said that coaching was never his main priority. Motta taught business at Upper Darby High School before retiring in 1998.

“The coaching title was always a funny one for me,” Motta said. “Because I always viewed myself as a teacher instead of a coach, I always thought of it as another opportunity to teach…It’s all about these kids.”

This sentiment was certainly expressed by his players.

“Coach Motta is an amazing person,” said Travis Wrambel, who played on last year’s championship team before transferring to a four-year school. “He didn’t just help me become a better baseball player, but also a better man, student, and a more well rounded person…He loves spending time with his players, and cares very much about them.”

This coming spring will mark the beginning of Motta’s 40^th season, but it is by no means the end of the road.

“[I will coach] as long as my health holds up,” Motta chuckled. “I work out a lot. I have to because I’m always hanging out with kids. As long as my health is there and they want me back, I’ll keep coaching. I love these kids.”