Battalion Chief Fires Up Soccer Mission

Whether commanding firefighters at a blazing building or coaching middle schoolers on the field, Teo Baldwin emphasizes the same two principles: Respect your teammates. And know the unique role you play in helping your group succeed.

Baldwin, a 53 year-old Goatville native and current Westville resident, is both a battalion chief at the New Haven Fire Department’s Ellsworth Avenue station and the coach of the New Haven Youth Soccer (NHYS) Middle School League’s Edgewood team.

The 21-year fire department veteran just wrapped up his seventh year leading the fifth-to-eighth-grade neighborhood soccer team, which finished its spring season in mid-June with an undefeated record of 7 — 0, with 27 goals for and only eight goals against.

Baldwin had help coaching his pre-teen athletes this year from his assistant coach (and 17-year-old son) Roger. He’s now looking to encourage more neighbors to volunteer as coaches and more school teachers and administrators to promote participation in the league, which costs $30 per student per season, with financial aid available for low-income families.

“I think it’s important you be a part of the community,” Baldwin said about why he continues to dedicate eight Saturdays every spring and eight Saturdays every fall to the youth soccer league, and why he has encouraged his high school son to do the same.

Baldwin, who is also on the board for the college prep-soccer nonprofit Elm City Internationals, said the youth soccer league embodies everything he loves about the city he has always called home: diversity, accessibility, and good sportsmanship.

“It really is a melting pot,” he said about the soccer team, which this year had around 15 middle school age-students from Edgewood School, ESUMS, and Worthington Hooker. The students’ families hailed from as close as Westville and Newhallville, he said, and as far as Mexico and Poland.

Baldwin said his love affair with soccer stretches back decades. He served as the captain of the Wilbur Cross High School team, where he played as midfielder from 1981 to 1984. His son Roger, who is transferring from Sound School to Wilbur Cross next year, also plays as a midfielder.

Roger started playing soccer when he was 4, Baldwin said. So dad would show up to games to root on his kid and kick the ball around with parents and students on the sideline.

Seven years ago, Baldwin transitioned from being just a supportive sideline parent to the coach of the Edgewood team, for which his son Roger also played until aging out. Dad kept coaching. He’d caught the bug.

This year marked the second time the Edgewood team topped the six-team league’s standings during his tenure as coach, Baldwin said.

“They passed well,” he said. ​“They’re hard workers. And these little kids are extremely courageous.”

He and Roger both singled out their team’s goalie, Branislaw Lasocki, a fifth-grader at Edgewood School and one of the youngest members on the team, as stepping up time and again throughout the season to make some incredible saves.

He said there are surprising similarities between being a battalion chief in the fire department and a coach of a middle school soccer team.

“The team aspect,” he said, and the camaraderie that comes with working intensely and collaboratively towards achieving a specific outcome.

That can mean taking care of someone who has just had a heart attack. Or suppressing a fire in a blazing building. Or placing that perfect pass to a teammate ready to shoot.

“There’s a goal you need to achieve, and everyone has a role.”

The Edgewood team’s spring season roster included: Monique Austin, Ryan Bellamy, Destiny Camacho, Benjamin Card, Ananda Gallardo-Holahan, Nikolas Garcia, Elsa Holahan, Hassan Hussain, Bronislaw Lasocki, Marco Leite, Jack Marchand, Andy Montero, Mia Montero, and Noah Whalen.

Go to http://nhysoccer.grupo.la/ to learn more about the New Haven Youth Soccer league.