Chris Battaglia told Aquinas football players Thursday night that this was his final season as the team’s coach.
According to James Johnson of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Battaglia told the Aquinas administrators of his decision to in effect resign this week, before the team’s Section V Connors & Ferris consolation game against Churchville-Chili. Aquinas defeated the Saints, 28-7, ending the season with a 5-4 record.
The second stretch as the Aquinas football coach for Battaglia began in 2006, which was one of the most successful in the history of Section V high school football. Aquinas won four state championships and nine Section V titles in 11 years.
The state champion teams in 2007, 2010, 2013 and maybe one of the best in the history of the section in 2015, helped put the Aquinas record in the last 11 years at 108 wins and 18 losses. Battaglia seems like a slam-dunk candidate for the Section V Football Hall of Fame, maybe more certainly for the Aquinas Hall of Fame. He graduated from Aquinas, where he played defensive back, in 1978.
Battaglia’s 36-year career as a football coach included roles as defensive coordinator at University of Rochester and Webster Schroeder, head of the Aquinas program from 1983-86 and at Penfield 2001-05. The 2003 and 2004 Penfield teams advanced to Section V finals, after teams at the school lost 20 consecutive games before Battaglia was hired as coach.