The massacre in Newtown, Connecticut hits close to home for a local soccer coach. The Head Coach for ETSU Men's Soccer grew up in Newtown. While he didn't attend Sandy Hook Elementary as a child, he's very familiar with the town and its people. News 5 talked with the coach Saturday afternoon about the tragedy in his hometown.

Police swarming an elementary school, parents rushing to find their children, and hands held a little tighter in Newtown, Connecticut. This is the hometown of Scott Calabrese, Head Coach for the Men's Soccer Team at East Tennessee State University. "When I grew up there and all the experiences that I had there, all the memories I have there, I can't think of a moment that I felt unsafe," he said.

Right now Calabrese is traveling out of the country, he says he heard the devastating news from a friend, "I'm abroad right now, he sent me a text and said 'There's been a shooting in Connecticut.' I of course said, 'Where?'"

Disbelief and shock only begin to describe how Calabrese is feeling and he says he's finding it hard to process this deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. "I can't think of anything worse than having these children, completely innocent children, suffer this," added Calabrese.

Calabrese says he still has family and friends in Newtown but none of them were killed or injured in this tragedy. Still he says this massacre will define his community, "That's where I grew up, so I think it hits home for me and is very very real because of that. But I think in terms of this tragedy, it's something way beyond Newtown, this is a national tragedy."

Since Calabrese is out of the country, he says he's getting updates about Newtown and the shooting through Facebook and Twitter.