TWINSBURG, Ohio — People in the city of Twinsburg are mourning the loss of two members of their community.

Antonine Battle, a longtime former bus driver, passed because of a prolonged illness the same night head varsity baseball coach, Jeff Luca, died in a Pennsylvania car accident.

Jeremy Soppel, one of Luca’s former players, said the news of his passing has left the Twinsburg and baseball communities heartbroken. 

“Well at first, I had heard from one of my former teammates from last season and obviously I was just hoping it wasn’t true,” Soppel recalled of hearing the news of Luca’s passing. “You could always come to him about anything we needed, regardless of whether it has to do with baseball, or it had to do with school, or if it was just something in our life that we needed to talk about, he was always there.”

Brian Fantone, the athletic director for Twinsburg schools, said Luca leaves behind a wife and three children, one of whom is currently a sophomore at Twinsburg High School. 

“For me, its been its been a comforting thing in the past 24 hours just to see how well liked and loved Jeff was all around,” Fantone said. “I hope that his family feels that same amount of support right now from everyone.”  

Fantone said Luca was a staple in their community and mentored athletes of all ages, not only at the high school level but also coaching the city’s recreational league.

“The word that I keep going back to is just first class, top-notch, does everything right by kids,” Fantone said. “That was Jeff, doing everything he could to give kids a good opportunity to be successful.” 

The school district had councilors on hand Wednesday to help students and staff process their grief.