Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

2/1/2010 - (Exclusive to Mugs Media) Levens, Falcons Part Ways

As you walk down the hallway toward the athletic director’s office at Jefferson Township High School, the walls are covered with various plaques and photos of championship teams from Jefferson’s past.

The first thing you notice, however, is how many of those championship photos belong to one program—the softball program. The second thing you notice? You notice how original the photos are, they aren’t your run-of-the-mill, grip-and-grin shots with kids surrounding a trophy.

No, sir.

“I refused to take a typical sit in the bleachers picture,” said Ed Levens, who guided the Falcons to 18 Sussex County Interscholastic League titles, 12 section crowns, four Morris County titles and two state championships in an epic 30-year run.

“So we took pictures on a fire truck, a police car, a boat and even went to Picatinny and got on an Apache helicopter which was great,” said Levens. “The one I always wanted to do and never did was getting everyone in fishing boots in a stream with a caption that said “Fishing for another championship.” But it was just too dangerous.”

Unfortunately, for Levens and the Falcons, they will never get that chance to hit the water as the Jefferson Township Board of Education decided not to bring back Levens for a 31^st season.

Levens, who retired from 43 years of teaching last June, was informed of the decision in December right before the holidays. A decision he didn’t agree with, but as always, Levens showed great class and didn’t make a fuss.

Marianne DiRupo, the very successful bowling coach at Jefferson and a former All-State softball player at Roxbury will take over the program. As you noticed, I didn’t use the word replace because you don’t replace Ed Levens, not after 614 wins.

“Ed retired from teaching and the decision was made to have a coach in district,” said Jefferson AD John DiColo. “He was told of the decision and he understood and accepted it.

“We are going to miss Ed,” he added. “You know his record and he is known statewide. He has more wins and records than any other Jefferson coach in school history. Plus his personality. He is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and he was great for the school and the sport.

“He was an old-school character,” DiColo said. “Everyone knew who Ed was. I still keep in contact with him and we talk. Hopefully down the road we can do something to honor what Ed has done for the school.”

Levens said that when he retired from teaching he fully intended to keep on coaching. But when he got his 600^th win last year, I had a sneaking suspicion that he knew something was on the horizon.

Levens didn’t verbalize it per se, but he said that hopefully Jefferson would take him back. You could tell there was some doubt in his voice.

“I didn’t leave the pantry bare, that’s for sure,” said Levens, whose young squad went 18-6 last year. “It is just the way it goes. What can you do? I bleed Jefferson blue and gold and I will miss it.

“I will miss the people of Jefferson and the kids who were great to me over the years and all my assistants like Jimmy O’Connor and when I started John Cinotti,” he added. “We accomplished everything you can accomplish, league titles, state titles, county titles and 600 wins. I’m very fortunate.

“I coached softball for 30 years and football even longer,” he continued. “You don’t see that anymore. I guess when the SCIL broke up I went with it.”

When I sat down to write this blog I decided I wanted to celebrate Levens outstanding and colorful career. He deserves that and even more, considering his also a very proud Vietnam veteran serving two tours in the 1960s.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t say that Jefferson’s Board of Education made the wrong decision here and did not handle it well. I don’t blame DiColo, and no one else should, either. This was a board decision.

The board should have told Levens before last season that if retired he wouldn’t have been brought back to coach and he could have received a proper send off by the Jefferson softball community and the local media, who all love Levens.

He deserved to go out on his own terms. It is a shame he didn’t and I hope the school does something in his honor this season to make up for it.

All right, off the soapbox and back to Levens, one of my favorite coaches and people of all time. When I got him on the phone the other day we talked and laughed like we always do, but I was very sad to realize that this would be the last time we would talk about his career at Jefferson.

And what a career. He took over a program in 1980 that was dead in the water. The Falcons went 1-19 in his first season and then reached the state final a season later. Talk about a turnaround.

Jefferson joined the SCIL in 1983 and from that time to the demise of the league last year, the Falcons won or shared an amazing 18 titles in 26 seasons. Incredible. His final record of 614-156 (.797) is second only Pete Fick of Hunterdon Central who is 641-223-1 in 35 years.

But when I was reminiscing with Levens, the state, league and county titles were not the first memories to come up. He talked about going up to a frigid High Point his first season and how the Falcons broke all the wooden bats they brought.

Yes, they used wooden bats back then. He also recalled how the school didn’t have a pitching machine and he had to throw BP by himself. He joked, “I was dying out there. My one arm was bulging.”

But when it comes to softball, the one thing I will remember about Levens was that he was a master motivator and a great big-game coach. I chronicled some of his biggest games, including the state titles, in a blog last year when he got his 600^th win, so I won’t repeat myself.

But if there was one coach I could pick to win one softball game it would be Ed Levens. His players believed in him and he in them. And when it comes to high school athletics, you can’t put a price on confidence. Some kids have fragile egos and Levens knew exactly who he could push and who needed a pat on the back.

I will always remember the games that the Falcons were the underdogs and they found a way to win and just watching Levens smile that great big grin of his afterwards.

Everyone loves “Lev.” All of his former players still keep in contact with him and I have never heard one of his former players say a bad word about him. Even opposing coaches respect and like Levens, even though he has feasted on the local competition for years. You can’t not like Ed because of his personality.

Here is a typical Levens’ story that I can use in a family blog. When Vic Paternostro used to coach the Pope John softball team, Vic would sit on a piano stool at home plate and hit grounders for infield.

Back then Vic had a pretty good team, but Jefferson was still one of the top dogs in the SCIL. So when Vic and the Lions came down to Jefferson Vic found a surprise at home plate. Levens had placed a rocking chair for Vic to sit in.

Vic made his way to the chair and he smiled and said, “You public school guys have no class,” and both sidelines erupted with laughter. Vic was a good sport and I think only Levens could have gotten away with such a prank.

I will miss Levens’ sense of humor and all the good times I have had covering him over the years. You deserved better Ed, but as always, you have taken the high road. Ed Levens is one of kind and the pictures on the walls at Jefferson illustrate that point perfectly.

Good luck, my friend and hopefully I will see you in the spring because it wouldn’t be softball season without you.

That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.

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Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

2/1/2010 - (Exclusive to Mugs Media) Levens, Falcons Part Ways