FROM KEITH GROLLER
Emmaus athletic director Dennis Ramella confirmed on early Saturday that Joe Bottiglieri has resigned after 11 seasons as head football coach at Emmaus, and the spectulation is that he will become the inside linebackers coach at Lehigh University where he will be reunited with Mountain Hawks head coach Andy Coen.
"Joe has resigned," Ramella said. "I am not surprised because when you hire somebody with his credentials, there are always going to be people after him. He's always going to get job offers. Joe and I had a good relationship and he always kept me in the loop. He would always tell me when he was offered a job or was considering something.
"At the same time, I am kind of disappointed because it is kind of late in the year and I feel kind of bad for our kids, but I do understand and we're losing a really great football coach and that's what I am most disappointed about."
Ramella said Bottiglieri, who was 70-51 at Emmaus and 76-56 in the Lehigh Valley Conference overall counting his one season at Central Catholic before coming over to the Green Hornets, took the program to a higher level and left it in good shape.
"Whoever our next coach is will have a really good program to work with and for that, I have to thank Joe," Ramella said. "We have a great foundation in place and a lot to offer the next coach."
Ramella said the search for a new coach will begin immediately, but said: "We're going to move quickly, but not foolishly."
Ramella said the word about Bottiglieri's departure moved through the school on Friday, and it was reported by a few media outlets on Friday night.
Ramella was told by Bottiglieri that he will be taking the inside linebackers job on the Lehigh staff.
After the Brown and White Game was completed this morning at Goodman Stadium, Coen was asked about reports that Bottiglieri will accept the vacant position.
Coen said he heard that something was said on TV, but quickly added that "nothing is official.
Any new hire has to go through our human resources people."
"As soon as something is official, we'll let everyone know," Coen said. "I anticipate something could be happen this week. But again, this news is not coming from me."
Bottiglieri has been an assistant at Lehigh before on Kevin Higgins' staff. In fact, he was the defensive coordinator in 1998 and 1999.
In those seasons, Lehigh was a combined 22-3 and won one Patriot League title outright and shared one other. Those teams advanced to the playoffs, beating Richmond in 1998.
Bottiglieri, a 1966 Easton High grad, began his coaching career at Lafayette under Neil Putnam in 1973 and spent five years on the Leopards staff.
He then spent five years as the head coach at Mansfield, seven seasons at Shippensburg (four as a head coach) and six years at William and Mary where he coached current Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin). He also had two years at Rhode Island before coming back to the Lehigh Valley where he has coached at Lehigh, CCHS and Emmaus.
When he was hired as Lehigh's head coach in early 2006, Coen wanted Bottiglieri as his defensive coordinator but things couldn't be worked out at that point.
Having talked to both men over the years about each other, there is a tremendous amount of respect there and this should be a good fit for Lehigh where Bottiglieri will get to coach some of the guys he has coached against in recent years, including Parkland product Matt Laub and Central Catholic's Noah Robb, who will both be sophomores in the fall.
Any new hire has to go through our human resources people."
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