Two assistant coaches have deep Vermont ties.

Vermont Sports Hall of Fame 2025 inductee Kyle Dezotell coached Tufts University to the national men’s soccer championship with a thrilling, 2-1, come-from-behind win in overtime to beat Trinity of Texas on Sunday afternoon.

Tufts tied the nail-biting game with 4 seconds left in regulation and scored the game-winner in the opening minutes of the extra frame to capture the Division III national crown.

The Jumbos of Medford, Mass. under Dezotell ended the season 20-1-3. Trinity, which scored in the first half, finished 20-2-1.

The top assistant coach for Tufts is Adam Batista, who, like Dezotell, is a graduate of both North Country Union High School in Newport and Middlebury College. Two of the wins for Tufts this year came from Middlebury.

Adam is the son of legendary and Hall of Fame soccer coach Joe Batista of NCHUS.

Also on the Tufts coaching staff is Montpelier Police Chief Eric Nordenson, who served as an assistant for many years for Dezotell, including 10 years when he led the Norwich University soccer program.

Dezotell also was inducted into the Vermont Principals’ Association Hall of Fame in 2022 for both his soccer and skiing career as a student-athlete at North Country.

The VSHOF noted at North Country Union High, Dezotell was the Gatorade Vermont Player of the Year and All-American in boys soccer for 1998. That year he scored 36 goals to set a Metro Division scoring record that still stands as he led the Falcons to an unbeaten season and their last Division I championship. The previous Metro record holder was VSHOF inductee Guy Gaudreau, also a North Country alum.

Adam Batista spent one year as an assistant coach with the Vermont women’s soccer program after graduating in 2014 from Middlebury. Batista was a team captain and three-year starter for the Panthers, who won the 2010 NESCAC Championship en route to the NCAA quarterfinals.

Nordenson is a former high school varsity soccer coach in Vermont and later was an assistant coach at St. Michael’s College for two years. He played at Castleton State College.