Ira R. Herr Athletic Hall of Fame
Jay D. Varrato spent three seasons as Elizabethtown College men's soccer's starting goalkeeper from 1988-90 and was the winning keeper on the Blue Jays' 1989 National Championship team.
Originally from Naperville, Ill., Varrato left his name all over the E-town men's soccer record book. His 50 total (solo+combined) shutouts were an NCAA record across all divisions at the time. He was a two-time All-American, three-time all-region and all-conference first team performer. His No. 1 jersey hangs from the walls of the Ira R. Herr Athletic Hall of Fame as one of just seven –in all sports– to be retired in College history.
Varrato enjoyed a stellar first season as a sophomore starting keeper in 1988. He produced eight solo shutouts and seven combined shutouts (15 total) while leading the Blue Jays to the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) title game.
Varrato earned MAC Northern Divsion First Team All-Star, NSCAA All-Mid-Atlantic Region and NSCAA Division III Second Team All-America honors at the conclusion of the '88 season. He started all 24 games and made 83 saves. The Blue Jays finished 19-2-3 and were ranked No. 1 in the nation from Sept. 18 to Nov. 26.
In the team's MAC Northern Division championship game against Drew, Varrato posted a 3-0 clean sheet.
While his senior season in 1990 was unquestionably his best from a statistics perspective, it was the 1989 season that is remembered most vividly. Elizabethtown won 24 games, a school record that remains and defended its way to the program's first and only NCAA Division III National Championship on its home turf at Ira R. Herr Field.
Varrato and the Jays allowed only one goal in five NCAA tournament games and it was his diving save on Jim Hill that advanced Elizabethtown past Ohio Wesleyan 1-0 (5-4 in penalty kicks) in the quarterfinals.
When the Final Four arrived on campus, Varrato stepped his game up even further. He blanked defending national champion UC-San Diego 1-0 and then played all but the final few minutes of the team's 2-0, national title clinching, win over Greensboro.
After adding 18 more shutouts (eight solo) in '89, Varrato went on to captain the team in 1990 when it went 23-1-1, won the MAC Championship over Moravian and advanced to the NCAA Division III Quarterfinals by capturing the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Region Championship.
Varrato posted a school record 16 solo shutouts (17 total) in being voted to the NSCAA Division III All-America First Team and NSCAA/Met Life All-Mid-Atlantic Region First Team. He started all 25 games and stopped 62 shots on his way to those accolades.
While Varrato's on-field accomplishements still resonate throughout D3 soccer history –his 32 solo shutouts rank tied for eighth all time– his career was defined by the success he was able to have off it.
A biology (pre-medicine) major, Varrato was an adidas Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention All-America selection in 1988. In '89, he moved up to the third team. As a senior in '90 he was named GTE College Division Academic All-District II First Team At-Large and All-America At-Large First Team while backstopping a team that held the No. 1 spot in the national poll for better than two months.
Varrato earned his bachelor of science from Elizabethtown in 1991 and went on to obtain his doctor of osteopathy from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1995.
Dr. Varrato, DO, currently works as a neurologist with the Lehigh Valley Health Network at the Lehigh Valley Hospital.
