FENTON FEATURE: Massasoit’s Anya Welch-Batstone is the comeback kid

by Jim Fenton, The Enterprise

BROCKTON – She was unable to play high school soccer as a sophomore and junior due to a severe left hip injury.

Anya Welch-Batstone, of Avon, could only work as the team manager at Norfolk County Agricultural High School in Walpole those two seasons.

"I was always helping, always there for the games,″ said Welch-Batstone, who lived in West Bridgewater until her freshman year of high school. "I could do whatever I could, but it broke my heart that I couldn't play.″

Welch-Batstone was diagnosed with hip dysplasia and she needed a pair of surgeries at the age of 16, then another two years later.

"Every year I'd be playing soccer, it would slowly dislocate even more and it just got to the point where it was completely dislocated,″ said Welch-Batstone. "I'm not really sure what started it. Each year I was running and shooting and turning, and it just got worse.″

But she was healthy enough to play as a senior at Norfolk in the fall of 2017, getting her soccer career back on track.

Welch-Batstone was hoping to enroll at Mount Ida College and play for the Mustangs, but when the school closed in 2018, she had to look elsewhere.

The path took Welch-Batstone close to home at Massasoit Community College, where she recently concluded a superb two-year career.

Welch-Batstone scored 42 goals to go with 14 assists in 28 career games, earning All-Region 21 first team honors as a freshman and sophomore.

She led the Warriors in goals (21) and points (47) and was second in both categories in the region this season after leading Massasoit in goals (21) and finishing second in assists (nine) and points (51) as a freshman.

The hip is still not 100 percent, but Welch-Batstone overcame that obstacle to become a reliable offensive weapon at Massasoit.

"I have a lot of pain, definitely, but it doesn't get in the way of my soccer,″ she said. "It's just the love of the game that keeps me going. It just makes me get through school, it brightens my day.″

Welch-Batstone, who is hoping to continue playing at Curry College next fall, had seven game-winning goals in her career.

She had seven multiple-goal games as a freshman and four games with at least three goals this season.

"She hits the ball well. She is fast,″ said Warriors coach Jim Stapleton. "You could see her skills get better in two years. She practices with a sincere approach to improving. She's the first one at practice, the last one to leave, always working on her game. She never came off the field for us.

"She scored a lot of goals, but she can play anywhere. She played defensively when we needed her. She scored goals when we needed her. That's just the type of kid she is. She'll do anything for the team.

"In my six years (as head coach), we've had some great kids along the way, but Anya is as good as any as a player and a person.″

Welch-Batstone made a smooth transition at Massasoit, helping the Warriors go 9-5-1 in her first year and reaching the Region 21 final, where they lost in overtime to Holyoke.

"As a freshman, I was just really nervous at first,″ she said. "I didn't know what to expect transitioning from high school to college. I was excited to play soccer, but I didn't know anybody, then I made a lot of new friends the first day. We would all hang out after games. It was all about the bonding.″

After being one of the top scorers in New England as a freshman, Welch-Batstone received more attention from defenses this season, but she managed to match her 2018 output.

"I was definitely targeted to be shut down,″ she said. "But I just always got right back up and wouldn't let them in the way and focused on me and the ball and my team.″

The days of having to sit out back-to-back seasons because of the hip ailment are far in the past for Welch-Batstone.

She established herself as a legitimate scoring at Massasoit and is aiming to play two more seasons at the Division 3 level for Curry while majoring in criminal justice.

"I'm definitely grateful,″ said Welch-Batstone. "My doctor told me before the surgery I may not ever play soccer the same way that I did. I had to strengthen my whole hip. I had to learn from step one. I was always in the gym doing whatever I could.

"I didn't even know I was going to do any of this. I'm so happy and grateful for my teammates and that I trained for this and did so well.

"Sometimes I look back on it, but honestly I'm just grateful for where I am now because, yeah, there's things I could improve on and I will get around to that. But I'm just really happy with how I finished my season at Massasoit and how proud I have made my mom.″