Batten was recently hired as the football coach at Savannah Country Day. 

Growing up in an inner city section of Detroit, Batten was a standout quarterback and defensive back at Bishop Gallagher High School and also played basketball, baseball and participated in track and field. His mother, Michelle Batten, was a local legend as a track and field coach and a member of the Detroit Catholic League Hall of Fame, while his father, Ronald Batten Sr., was a respected longtime youth league football coach, who also coached cross country and track.

His sister Makiba Batten was an All-American in discus at Florida State University and is now the head track and field coach at Western Michigan University.

An injury in the spring game before his senior season ended his playing career. But Batten stayed in the game on the sidelines — first as a student coach, then a graduate assistant and then as a full-time coach at Vanderbilt in charge of outside linebackers and recruiting.

He then moved into the high school coaching ranks and had an impressive run in Tennessee at Montgomery Bell Academy, Battle Ground Academy and Ensworth School.

Married for 22 years to his wife Rae, the couple have three children. Their oldest daughter, Aliyah, attends the University of South Florida. Their son Isaiah is a rising junior and a quarterback, while daughter Makaylah is a rising sophomore who plays soccer, basketball, volleyball and track. They will attend SCD.

Batten will replace John Mohring, the former Georgia Southern All-American linebacker who went 16-16 in three seasons with a pair of playoff appearances before taking the head coaching job at Wayne County High.

Batten will be the third coach at SCD since Dennis Coyle left after a 10-season run that ended in 2018, but Batten said he is in for the long haul.

"I think the timing of everything is great," said Batten, who said he will work as an administrator at SCD. "We've hired a new athletic director with James Franklin and we've already been collaborating about the future over the phone. I think we can bring a new energy and build on all the things that they have done at Savannah Country Day in the past."