Joe Battista had two families on his mind when he made the decision to stop coaching and accept the position of executive director of the Nittany Lion Club.
There was the one that surrounded him outside the Penn State Icers locker room about 30 minutes after a disappointing loss in this year's ACHA national championship game. Battista held his youngest son, Ryan, in his left arm. His middle child, John, was strapped to his right leg, near crying, feeling the pain of the loss as much his father. Brianna, the oldest child, stood next to her mother, Heidi, both ready to console the coach if needed.
Inside the locker room and in the lobby of West Chester's ice facility was Battista's second family, what he calls the "Icers family." In the cramped locker room sat about 25 college students who spent four days in a suburb 30 minutes west of Philadelphia, with hopes of winning the ACHA title game, which they had just lost by a score of 3-1 to Rhode Island. During Battista's 19 years as head coach, Penn State won six of these games and was runner-up six more times.
This year the location was West Chester University's home complex, Ice Line, a four-rink facility located within an industrial park that is used for junior hockey games, men's leagues and birthday parties.
In the lobby of this facility were parents, friends, former players and genuine fans of the program. People who Battista says the whole hockey thing is all about. They are the extended family. Some of them even knew Battista as a player, when he sported an afro and a thick mustache as an Icers defenseman in the late 70s and early 80s before graduating in 1983.
As Battista greeted the throng of supporters they responded with the familiar "JoeBa" nickname and had a short chat. Battista's immediate family stood off to the side. They would see and talk to him later. For years, the Icers family took a high priority, sometimes at the expense of spending time with the immediate one.
But the decision Battista announced Monday afternoon to step down as coach is one that puts the families in the priority he feels they deserve at this point in his life. He traded one family for another.
"As I told the guys [on the team], part of the thing here was I've spent that last 25 years helping to raise other people's kids. I needed to be able to get into a job that would allow me to continue to be passionate about what I do but also be able to live a life," Battista said. "I just had to make sure I was doing what was right for the family."
The family he leaves behind was surprised to hear the announcement during what they thought would be a normal team meeting.
