Battaglini at home on Jaguars’ staff

By JEREMY SELLEW

jsellew@yourmvi.com

For as decent of a quarterback Frazier graduate Tony Battaglini was during his time with the Commodores, winning never came easy.

Boy has that changed.

Battaglini is still heavily involved in football in the coaching ranks. While he’s an assistant coach, he’s not one of those moving from job to job in search of a head-coaching gig. Instead, he’s perfectly fine where he’s at.

Battaglini. 32, is the quarterbacks coach at Thomas Jefferson, which just won its second straight WPIAL championship. Battaglini and the Jaguars will be looking for their second straight state championship Saturday at 3:30 p.m. when they face Jersey Shore at Hersheypark Stadium.

“I’ll say this, winning is much more fun than losing,” Battaglini said with a laugh. “It goes back to seeing the kids reach their goal, which here is always a championship. As you win championships, you get to form life-long bonds with all of the people involved.”

After playing at and graduating from Cal U, Battaglini joined Frazier’s coaching staff under Mike Steeber before joining Belle Vernon Area’s staff and head coach Matt Humbert.

“I knew that I wanted to coach at some point when I was in high school. I was able to see the lasting impact guys like my head coach Larry Wilson and Chad Salisbury had on us as players,” Battaglini said. “It didn’t matter if it was making us better as an athlete or a man.”

Battaglini ended up at TJ “as a matter of luck,” he said.

“I ended up getting hired as a teacher late in the summer and had expressed interest in coaching here as well,” he said. “The following year, I was lucky enough that Coach (Bill) Cherpak brought me on board.”

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