From bartender to ball coach: Meet one of college football's youngest head coaches

Bartender, bouncer, NCAA head football coach.

There is nothing linear about that path, but there’s also nothing by the book for the career arc of Joe Battaglia. 

Then again, unorthodox is Battaglia’s present station in life as one of college football's youngest head coaches at NCAA Division II Lock Haven University. 

Not because Battaglia hasn’t grinded for this moment; his roots trace to student-teaching, scarcely any money and long nights at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, hotspots scraping together enough cash so morning work in Coastal Carolina’s football program could provide footprint to a dream.

“From being a student-coach at Coastal Carolina, and then you fast-forward 12 years and all of a sudden you're sitting in the big chair,” Battaglia tells FootballScoop, “you think about the mentorship and places I’ve been, the people who have poured into me. I think one of the biggest questions people asked me going into this was, ‘Are you ready?’ 

“I don't think you’re ever ready, but it is a matter of diving in and trusting your training.”

Adhering to that training, years under Merrill Lynch executive-turned-college-football-coach Joe Moglia, as well as Dave Patenaude and Geoff Collins, is what Battaglia credits as having him in his current station.

Not just as head of the Bald Eagles but in being almost five months – Sept. 15 marks five months exactly – as Lock Haven’s full-time head coach.

The four months prior to that announcement? 

Kind of like a mystery cocktail at Battaglia’s old Broadway at the Beach haunts: trust the recipe.

“That was tough, not only tough for me but our entire staff stayed” after previous head coach Dan Mulrooney left in January to become Brown University’s defensive coordinator, Battaglia, with an undergraduate degree from Coastal Carolina and master’s degrees from Georgia Tech and Temple, said. “Their trust and belief that this thing was gonna work out; that's blind trust, blind faith. 

“Between the staff staying and we didn't have a single kid hit the (NCAA Transfer) Portal until the end of the semester when we had to make some moves. The relationships of the last three years really helped us sustain that. You knew at end of the day, you could be doing all this stuff for absolutely nothing [if an outside candidate was named head coach] but control what you can control. You can't do anything about what happened, but you can control right now.

“And I didn't wanna be in the boat of half-assing this thing and then get named head coach. We're thankful everything worked out.”

Because it worked out then, things just now are getting started for Battaglia’s Bald Eagles. 

Lock Haven is 1-0, downing a visiting Glenville State on the heels of an 7-4 campaign last week, 16-13. 

Battaglia, 31, has a game ball, as well as his first win as head coach in joining the likes of Texas-Permian Basin’s Kris McCullough (29), Stony Brook’s Billy Cosh (33) and Marist’s Mike Willis as among the sport’s youngest leaders at the NCAA Division I and II levels.

But the number Battaglia, after sifting through nearly 100 congratulatory text messages and voice mails that filled up storage, is targeting is 44 years. It’s been since 1981 that Lock Haven’s had a winning football season.

“We feel really good about this thing,” says Battaglia, the program’s offensive coordinator the previous three seasons including back-to-back 5-6 campaigns in 2023-24. “Lock Haven University, in general, has been a bit of a roller coaster in not having a winning season in 40-plus years, since 1981.

“It’s been cool the last couple years getting close to it, but the buzz and energy and momentum has never been higher around here. Central Pennsylvania where we are, Penn State’s about 30 minutes up the road, but rural Pennsylvania is football and wrestling country. And it’s cool seeing this town and community and alums really getting on board and embracing us.”

All that energy, coaching staff continuity and roster consistency supply Battaglia with the hope of shaping Lock Haven Bald Eagles football like the only thing he knows: big-time college football.

“When you look at what college football is now, especially from a D-II model, everyone in D-II and D-III wants to go play D-I at the end of day,” says Battaglia, his team traveling Saturday to face Indiana (Pa.). “When you look at the bones of Lock Haven has and what it is, look at the vision of what this place is capable of, I don't think anyone’s ever pushed those limits before. This place can be pretty damn special.

“We’re going to do everything in our power to give them the best student-athlete experience here and just the changes the last few months are night and day from three to four years ago when we first got here.

“Our conference, PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) football, is the closest you’re gonna get to FCS football at D-II. There’s a reason FCS teams don't want to play PSAC teams, because it is that high a level of football. And we're going to make our day to day as close to a D-I level of operation and football as humanly possible. That's all I know, I spent 12 years at the D-1 level."