Son of former Maine Maritime Academy coach now runs football program

A familiar name is directing the Maine Maritime Academy football program.

Bill Mottola, son of the former MMA football coach and athletic director of the same name, has replaced Calvin Powell as the interim head coach for the rest of the season.

Powell resigned earlier this month.

Mottola’s late father was the charter inductee of the William J. Mottola Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004 after his 37-year stint at the school.

Mottola will have the opportunity to coach his nephew, graduate student linebacker and Albany transfer Jack Mottola.

Bill Mottola, who had served as the athletic director at Lely High School in Naples, Florida, from 2014 to 2023, has an extensive coaching background beginning at MMA in 1990 when he worked with the quarterbacks and wide receivers.

“I’m super excited. I’m anxious to get to our first game here with this group,” said the 58-year-old Mottola, whose Mariners will take on the Newport News Apprentice School in Virginia at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“It’s high-energy and a lot of positivity and we are coaching on the run,” said Mottola.

Mottola, who moved back to Maine a year ago after his mother (Sally) suffered a stroke and is a company officer at the school, said it has been a “whirlwind” and pointed out that his first day on the job last Friday was his late father’s birthday.

“When this opportunity came up, it was karma,” he added. “It has come full circle. I started my career here. This was the first job I had in 1990 and this will be the last job I’ll have.”

Mottola inherits a program that played its first game since 2019 last month after it was put on indefinite suspension in August, 2020 by then-President William J. Brennan as a cost-saving measure during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A year later, new president Jerry Paul entrusted current athletic director Steve Peed with the task of devising a plan to restore football and Peed did just that.

MMA alums and local businesses raised more than $566,000 to restore the program and the Harold Alfond Foundation provided a grant of $250,000.

Sub-varsity games against Husson University of Bangor and the University of New England were scheduled for last fall.

On Sept. 7, MMA hosted Hartwick (New York) for its first game since Nov. 16, 2019 and the Mariners lost 62-6.

A week later, the Mariners traveled to Dudley, Mass. and were beaten by Nichols College 63-12.

That was the school’s 24th consecutive loss.

A sub-varsity game against UNE scheduled last weekend was postponed and the Mariners will travel to Newport News, Virginia, on Saturday to take on the Newport News Apprentice School at 1 p.m.

Their final games are sub-varsity games against Husson and UNE.

The team will play a full schedule as a member of the Conference of New England next fall with Husson and UNE being among its conference foes.

Mottola said working at eight different universities showed him “what works and what struggles to work.”

He has told his players not to worry about the scoreboard right now.

“We’re just playing the next play and going to live in the present. Play your best, keep moving on and have a short memory,” Mottola said. “You have to buy in to the way we have to prepare because that is how we get to some of the expectations we might have.

“I’ve never talked about this game is a win and this game is going to be a struggle. It’s more about us right now and preparing to put the best product we can out on the field and keep attracting recruits to Maine Maritime Academy.”

He is convinced he can attract quality recruits.

“This is one of the best places I coached at that has the reputation and results of being able to prepare the students here for immediate employment. There aren’t a whole lot of schools that can say that, along with the fact it’s an extremely competitive salary and, obviously, we have all different types of majors the students can get in to,” said Mottola. “We can use the MMA alumni network that is very strong and can definitely be tapped into as a resource.”

Peed said he is elated to have Mottola on board.

“Obviously, Bill’s tie to this program runs deep. Being so personally invested in the outcome of this program is a tremendous asset to have,” said Peed. “He is going to provide the leadership that this program needs to move forward through the rest of this year and get us onto a good footing in the reality that is going to come our way next August.

“We’re not preparing for a smattering of games. We’re preparing for a full season, 10-game tilt with some pretty competitive programs in New England that are out there doing some big things and we want to count ourselves among them,” Peed added.

Mottola, a 1989 Springfield College graduate, was a graduate assistant at Vanderbilt University (Tennessee) from 1991-93 before becoming the quarterbacks coach at the University of the South (Tennessee) in 1994. He earned a master’s degree from Vanderbilt.

He then became the offensive line coach at Army from 1995-99 and the offensive coordinator, offensive line and tight ends coach at Western Kentucky in 2000.

He was the offensive line coach at two Mid-American Conference schools.

He was at Kent State from 2001-05 and Miami University of Ohio from 2010-11.

He also spent the 2008 and 2009 seasons as the offensive coordinator at NCAA Division II Findlay University (Ohio).

The 2001 Kent State team had its first winning season in 15 years and, when he was at Miami, the RedHawks became the first team in NCAA history to go from double-digit losses (1-11) to double-digit wins (10-4) in successive years and the 2011 team won the GoDaddy.com Bowl.

In 1996, Army posted its first 10-win season in school history (10-2) and earned a berth in the Independence Bowl.