By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Few people in his hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania understood why Joe Joe Headen chose to enroll at Bishop McDevitt Catholic High School.
His father, Joe Headen, was a successful head football coach at rival Susquehanna Township High, a public school with outstanding academics. Joe Joe Headen was a budding football superstar who had learned the game from his dad.
"Why don't you want to play for your father?" some of his friends asked.
They were asking the wrong question. He loves his father, of course. Close doesn't begin to describe their relationship.
But there were stronger reasons for enrolling at Bishop McDevitt.
His lifelong friends and teammates from community leagues were enrolled at Bishop McDevitt and as a group they had vowed to win a state championship together.
Then there was also his family legacy. His father was a former football star at Bishop McDevitt. His mother, Susi, also graduated from Bishop McDevitt, and it's where his parents met and began to date.
His grandmother also went there. His great uncle, Marlin Hicks, was the first African-American to play football at Bishop McDevitt.
And then there was his deep Catholic faith. His entire family attended Catholic schools and attends mass weekly.
"His faith played a major role in his decision," Joe Headen said. "I supported his decision 100 percent."
It led to four years of very public drama. Father and son squared off five teams in Joe Joe's four seasons at Bishop McDevitt, with every game a media sensation and his senior year was the most dramatic.
Susquehanna Township won the first game, during the regular season, but then Bishop McDevitt won the rematch in the district championship game.
The week of that final game, his mother kept a diary that was published in the Harrisburg Patriot News. She made a jersey with Bishop McDevitt on the front and Susquehanna Township on the back and ended up making dozens more for family members who wanted to support both father and son.
"Joe Joe never lets me forget that he won that last game," Joe Headen said.
"But I have no regrets. We wanted Joe Joe to be in Catholic school, to be with his friends and to strengthen his faith."
Joe Joe Headen has needed every lesson he learned at Bishop McDevitt and every ounce faith and strength to endure all the heartache he has suffered since he began playing football for Old Dominion University.
The on-the-field adversity he and his teammates have endured is public knowledge. Headen enrolled at ODU in 2016, and redshirted when the Monarchs finished 10-3 and won their first bowl game, defeating Eastern Michigan in the Bahamas Bowl.
He looked forward to going to more bowl games as his career moved on. But life on the field has been trying. ODU finished 5-7, 4-8 and 1-11 the next three seasons, and coach Bobby Wilder and his staff resigned following the 2019 season.
Then in 2020, the Monarchs did not play because of the pandemic.
He has suffered two shoulder injuries – twice needing surgery for torn labrums, and each, he feared, might end his career.
But his biggest challenges came not at ODU, but with his extended family back in Pennsylvania. By age 21, no one close to him had ever died.
Then came two years when death seemed a constant companion.
His first loss occurred four days before ODU opened the 2019 season against Norfolk State, when one of his grandmothers, Ann Headen, passed away. He was able to come home briefly for the funeral, but spent little time with family.
"He was devasted," Joe Headen said.
Two days after the game, his mother, Susi, had a heart attack. She survived and had a stint implant that helped her heal. But she was unable to attend any ODU games, or watch any on TV, for a year because doctors feared what the excitement might do to her.
Shortly after that 1-11 season, his other grandmother, Viola DeVita, had a second stroke that left her incapacitated.
The Headen family is multicultural and extremely close. Viola lived with the Headens throughout Joe Joe's life and the family speaks Italian and Spanish at home, in addition to English.
An Italian immigrant – she spoke no English – Viola was sick throughout his ODU career.
"She didn't understand a lick of football and didn't understand English, but when ODU was on TV, she was in front of the TV with her jersey on," Joe Headen said.
About a year ago, Joe's sister and Joe Joe's aunt, Paula Headen, contracted COVID. She died in January at the age of 54.
"Joe Joe comes home for Christmas and gets to see her and then she passes away," Joe Headen said. "That was a real tough blow."
Joe Joe came home for the funeral in February, and shortly after returning to ODU, had has his second shoulder injury, which required surgery and extensive rehab.
Five days after Paula Headen's funeral, Joe Joe lost another aunt, Johnanna Headen Kirkland, another of Joe Headen's sisters.
Six months later, while Joe Joe was in the midst of preseason practice, Viola DeVita died.
"Talk about a kid who had to endure a lot. The most influential women in his life, besides his mother, and he loses them all," Joe Headen said.
Jeff Comissiong, ODU's associate head coach under Wilder, "did a great job helping Joe Joe keep it together," Joe Headen said.
Since taking over at ODU in late 2019, head coach Ricky Rahne and safeties coach Remington Rebstock "have been awesome with Joe Joe," Joe Headen said.
"They've made sure he's kept on track."
When you talk to Joe Joe Headen, you would never know he's faced so much heartache. He is an upbeat, positive person who always wears a smile.
In interviews after heartbreaking losses, Headen managed to remain positive. Even if he wasn't smiling, reporters would hear nothing but encouraging words.
"We still believe in each other and in our coaches."
"We know we're on the right track, that all we have to do is eliminate some of our mistakes."
"We know we've got a good team. We're getting closer to winning. We will get there."
He was correct, of course. Since losing six of its first seven games, ODU has won four in a row, including a 24-17 victory at Middle Tennessee Saturday night, in which Headen had his first interception since 2017.
He's never let his personal trials get in the way of being his best in the locker room, practice field and in games.
"Joe Joe is consistent, very intelligent and gives his best every day," said Rebstock said. "Some guys give their very best for a week and then they flame out.
"Not Joe Joe. Every hour of every practice, he's always the same. He works hard. You have his attention in meetings. Every day.
"He's provided some veteran leadership for us that we really needed. He's taught a lot of our younger players how much work and dedication it takes to play Division I football."
ODU's coaches especially needed his leadership when the team did not play in 2020 because of COVID. It was depressing for everyone involved. Several of ODU's better players left and entered the transfer portal.
That's something Headen never considered.
"I would have done this program a disservice if I had left," he said. "After everything we've been through, from our freshman year to our senior year, I couldn't leave.
"As much as I like the coaches, it was more about me supporting the school. Old Dominion just means so much to me. I wasn't going to leave."
He is especially close with linebacker Jordan Young and running back Blake Watson, who are his roommates and were there for him when he endured his many personal losses.
So were ODU's coaches and staff. Joe Headen said the day that both his son and Young suffered injuries, Rahne walked from the L.R. Hill Sports Complex to the house where they lived to check on them.
"All of the coaches dropped by to see them," Joe Headen said. "Some brought groceries.
"When coach Rahne walked to his house, when all the coaches came by to check on him, that's when you know your son is in the right place."
Watson has rushed for more than 100 yards in five of the last six games and when asked what motivates him, he said it was simple.
"I want Joe Joe and Jordan to both go to bowl games their senior year," he said.
A victory over Charlotte in Saturday's annual Oyster Bowl would leave ODU at 6-6, the first non-losing record since 2016. More importantly, it would likely send ODU to a bowl game.
"That would be pretty special," Headen said. "It would be such a morale boost."
There will be 38 or more family members in the stands on Saturday. They all wear No. 24 Hudson Blue jerseys. And they cheer loudly for ODU and for their son, cousin, nephew or brother.
"I swear that I have the best support system around," Joe Joe Headen said. "I appreciate all that they do. They bring the energy to the parents' section.
"It's always been like that. Even when I was little, they would come to all of my pee wee and Pony games. That's something that really pushes me during the week, knowing that I have that support system back at home."
The only time the family has been split was when father and dad faced off in high school.
"It was hardest on my mom," Joe Joe Headen said. "Honestly, me and my dad, we were fine. It was just another game for us.
"She's the one who had to go to the games and people would ask her what side she's going to sit on. People would come up to me at school and say, 'Joe Joe, I heard your dad got kicked out of the house this week.'
"That never happened."
Joe Headen said it was a little more difficult for him than for his son.
"It was a gift and a curse at the same time," he said. "His freshman year, we played them at McDevitt. All week long we were talking back and forth. I told my wife, 'we're going to go after him.'"
And he did. At first, Susquehanna Township's quarterback was able to complete passes to receivers covered by Joe Joe Headen, a cornerback, including an early touchdown pass. Joe Headen said it did not feel good to watch his receivers beating his son.
But then his son picked off a pass and he said that felt worse.
Once, when he made a tackle near the Susquehanna Township bench, Joe Joe and his father exchanged the competitive look that a player and opposing coach might share during a game.
"I briefly told myself that he's not coming home to my house," Joe Headen said.
But of course, he did, along with 80 of his closest friends. Players from both teams would gather with the Headen family post game.
"I always felt like I had 40 sons on our team and 40 sons at McDevitt," Joe Headen said.
"I always told Joe Joe, 'I'm going to be your coach no matter where you play.'"
Headen has been as busy in the classroom as he has been on the athletic field. He already has a bachelor's degree in finance. In December, he will receive his master's degree in public administration.
He said he wants to go into athletics, perhaps as an athletic director or a director of football operations. He also said he hopes to write a book about his struggles at ODU.
When the book is published, I'd love to read it. It would a tale of extraordinary perseverance under difficult circumstances.
Joe Joe Headen tries to make mass as often as he can at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Norfolk. And he often prays when not at mass.
"Just staying close to the Lord is something that's dear to my heart," he said. "And my parents really preach that too.
"It's crazy how the coaches preach this 1-0 mentality and how much that goes with life and doing the right thing. Taking one day at a time, that's what allowed me to get through this."
Joe Joe Headen's nephew asked him to be his sponsor for confirmation. Because he's playing football, he couldn't come up for the ceremony.
So Joe Joe Headen was on Facetime while his cousin was confirmed.
He said as close as he was to his family six years ago, he's closer now.
"Growing up, (death) was something I never had to deal with," he said. "These past couple of years showed me how much you have to lean on your family for support."
As a father, Joe Joe Headen's heart ached as his son suffered so much adversity.
"I'm so thankful that the coaches and staff have looked out for Joe Joe like they did," he said.
"I think God put him at ODU for a reason," he added. "Joe Joe is such a positive person and has such a positive influence on people around him.
"I think God put him there to help all of those players, all of his teammates, as they went through so many difficult trials."
Minium worked 39 years at The Virginian-Pilot before coming to ODU to cover athletics for odusports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Harry_MiniumODU, Instagram @hbminium1 or email hminium@odu.edu
Minium: ODU's Joe Joe Headen's Perseverance Allowed him to Weather so Much Adversity
