Bald Eagle Area football’s star players make commitment to Lock Haven official on signing day

From one Bald Eagle to another, Carson Nagle and Wyatt Spackman have committed to Lock Haven University to play collegiate football.

The Bald Eagle Area quarterback and linebacker have always been friends: They grew up together, played baseball and football together, and now get to live out their childhood dreams together.

“Football has just kind of been life and in my blood,” Spackman said. “I just always knew that I wanted to picture myself being out there someday.”

On Wednesday, the two put pen to paper during Bald Eagle Area High School’s signing day. Red and white balloons decorated the room, with Bald Eagle’s gold helmet to the left and Lock Haven’s gray on the right.

“How did they both end up at LHU? I’ll be honest, I have no clue,” Jesse Nagle, who is Bald Eagle’s head coach and Carson’s dad, said during the ceremony that welcomed the pair’s friends and family to witness the moment.

Carson Nagle didn’t start playing football until he was in seventh grade, but the football dream started feeling real when he became Bald Eagle’s starting quarterback from the get-go as a freshman. Spackman burst onto the scene as well and immediately developed into a leader — and an exceptional one at that, Jesse Nagle said.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had anybody better that has led our program,” he said.

As a defensive minded head coach, Jesse Nagle could always rely on Spackman and he called him a coach on the field because of his leadership. While he set an example for those around him, Spackman took pride in how his teammates looked up to him.

“I’ve had role models who I wanted to kind of follow in their footsteps because I saw how much impact they can have on others,” Spackman said.

As a quarterback, Carson Nagle didn’t get much coaching from his defensive-minded father, but they share a competitive edge.

“I think everybody that played with me knows that I expected a lot,” Carson Nagle said. “If guys weren’t doing the right thing, I’d get on them, but they all knew that it was just all because I wanted to win and everybody wants to win.”

They might’ve played on opposite sides of the ball, but they both broke records and brought Bald Eagle home a district championship their junior year.

“Winning a district championship was always one of my high school goals, no matter what sport it was, whether it was football, basketball or baseball,” Spackman said.

Spackman was named 2024 second-team All-State Linebacker and finished his career with 261 tackles, 27 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks and three interceptions. Carson Nagle ranks top-5 in PA history with 10,608 career passing yards.

While the recruiting process was stressful at times, the decision always felt right. Lock Haven is a Division II program that competes in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) and it’s only 30 minutes away from Bald Eagle Area.

“They both wanted to stay local and be the hometown heroes,” Jesse Nagle said. “Both of them want to be part of something, and I think that just shows the characters of both boys and that they want to be part of the local hype, so to speak.”

Carson Nagle and Spackman said Lock Haven’s coaches and staff made the university appealing. However, Dan Mulrooney, who recruited them both, announced his resignation in early January after accepting a defensive coordinator position at Brown University.

“I’m gonna be honest, after coach Mulrooney left, I opened up my recruitment again,” Carson Nagle said. “But just talking to [Lock Haven] and them guiding me through this whole thing, I just kind of fell back, realized that’s where I’m going to be, that I’m going to believe that the athletic staff is going to make the right decision.”

Lock Haven announced that Joe Battaglia, the team’s offensive coordinator, was hired as the Bald Eagles’ interim head coach and that reinstated their comfort with their commitments.

Carson Nagle’s biggest collegiate football goal is to establish a winning culture and take Lock Haven to the College Football Division II Playoff.

“I want to win a national championship because they’ve never done that before — that’s what I want to do,” he said.

But off the gridiron, there’s a lot to accomplish academically. Spackman has maintained a 4.6 GPA ranking him in the top three in the class and Nagle’s 3.9 puts him in the top 10%.

Spackman intends on majoring in accounting and because Lock Haven offers a five-year masters program, which sets him up to achieve his eventual goal of becoming a certified public accountant. The academics were extremely important when making their collegiate decision, and Nagle will major in early childhood education.

Jesse Nagle knows they’ll continue to make an impact as they enter the college football and academic atmosphere.

“They’re going to be leaders, they’ve never been ones to follow,” he said. “They work as hard, if not harder, than anybody, so they both have the mindset of ‘you either follow me and work hard or we’re gonna leave you behind.’”