A GoFundMe page has been established to help the Battie family.
Tommie Battie IV was shot and killed, and his brother Brian Battie, an Auburn University football player, was shot and remains in critical condition during an incident early Saturday morning in Sarasota.
Brian Battie, who played at USF for three years before transferring to Auburn, was one of four who were injured in the shooting at 17th Street between Tallywood Drive and Beneva Road. His brother Tommie L. Battie IV, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene. The brothers played high school football at Sarasota and Braden River.
Their father, Tommie Battie, recently joined the football coaching staff at Lakewood Ranch High under Coach Scott Paravicini.
“He’s done a phenomenal job with our kids buying in and trying to help change the culture,” said Paravicini of the senior Battie. “He’s dependable, hard-working. I don’t have one bad thing to say about him.”
According to an Instagram post from Sept. 2021, Tommie Battie has been working with high school athletes the past seven years in both 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 football. Among his other coaching stops was Out-of-Door Academy where he was the running back coach.
“He’s always been an advocate for all the kids in the area, and he’s a good example for parents,” said former Out-of-Door coach Jon Haskins, who hired Tommie Battie as his running backs coach. “He would do anything and everything. A team guy. You could ask any of the parents of our players, they loved Tommie.
“He treated everybody like he wanted his kids to be treated by everybody else. He brought a lot of positivity and energy.”
Tommie Battie went above and beyond coaching with the Thunder.
“He would come early and warm the kids up before I got there. I appreciated that greatly,” said Haskins, now an assistant at Cardinal Mooney Catholic High. “When we needed an interim strength coach at ODA, he jumped right in.
“Everyone loved their interaction with Tommie.”
But Tommie Battie’s No. 1 priority was his children.
“He was super engaged with his kids,” Haskins said. “He would go to every game at South Florida (for Brian), every game at Auburn. I really appreciate how he is with his family. He’s really involved with his family.”
Haskins said he spoke with Tommie Battie on Saturday and the two have texted since.
Tommie Battie also coached at Sarasota High under former Sailors coach Brody Wiseman. Battie served a number of different roles with the Sailors: strength coach, freshman head coach, and running backs coach. Wiseman, now the offensive coordinator at Riverview High, said Battie has coached at Sarasota, off and on, for 10 to 15 years.
But Battie’s work went beyond the high school level.
“He’s always involved in the community, training kids,” Wiseman said. “He’s always helping kids with football. He’s a really good guy to have around. He’s really well respected in the community by parents and families.”
Tommie Battie has a similar position with the Mustangs, serving as the run-game coordinator and running backs coach.
“He’s a guy who has proven himself in the coaching world with his time at Sarasota and what he was able to do with the guys he was in charge of,” Paravicini said. “Just talking with him during our interview, he just said all the right things. For somebody who’s looking for coaches, you just want to hire a guy like him.
“He’s committed, competitive and knows the game of football.”
Tommie Battie was on the sidelines for the Lakewood Ranch spring game Friday evening against George Jenkins High in Lakeland. That was the last time Paravicini spoke with him.
“I’ve texted with him,” Paravicini said. “It’s hard to know what to say to people during a time like this.”
“If you played football in this area, odds are you’ve interacted with Coach Tommie or been coached by Tommie or been trained by him in some capacity,” Wiseman said.
Battie coached his sons in high school as Brian played running back and Tommie cornerback at Sarasota and Braden River high schools. Brian went on to play three years at the University of South Florida where he rushed for 1,842 yards and 10 touchdowns before transferring to Auburn for the 2023 season. He rushed 51 times for 227 yards and a score and returned 29 kicks for 645 yards.
GoFundMe Set up for Battie family
There were 170 donations which had raised $23,717 toward the $100,000 goal Sunday evening. The post reads: "Please help the Battie family. It will take a village to help this family as tragedy hit them early Saturday morning with the passing of one son and fighting for the life of the other. It’s unimaginable they have to try and mourn for one while trying to stay strong and fight for the other. The last thing we want is the stress of medical bills and funeral costs. Let’s help relieve some burden from this amazing family who didn’t deserve this tragedy. Please keep praying for Brian as he is still fighting for his life. #21strong."
Donations can be made here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-battie-family
