Joe Nettles graduated from Pine Hill High School and Livingston. He was a letterman on the 1971 Livingston football team and received his degree from Livingston in 1972.

Nettles landed his first head coaching job that very same fall when he accepted the position at Catherine Academy. He stayed at Catherine for two seasons before embarking upon his next adventure in the coaching world.

In 1975, Coach Nettles took over the football program at Patrician Academy where his teams won two AISA State Championship (1976, 1980) in the seven years he led the program. Over the next twenty years, Coach Nettles was the head football coach at Morgan Academy (1982-84), Marengo Academy (1985-88), Boaz (1989-91), Cordova (1992) Chilton County (1993-96) Patrician Academy (1997-2000) and Winfield (2001).

In 2002 Joe Nettles resurrected the proud football program at Alma Bryant High, taking a 1-9 team and leading it back to the playoffs with a 7-4 record. He stayed at the school for one more season before moving on to Monroe Academy in 2004.

Nettles led Lamar County to a 1-9 record in his only year at the school in 2006. In 2007, Washington County High School came calling and Coach Nettle accepted the position as head football coach for three years. It became the eleventh prep stop for the veteran football coach. He replaced David Wofford, who left Washington County to become the head coach at Baldwin County High School.

He landed in Billingsley for the 2010 football season and at Winfield in 2011 before finally hanging up his cleats for good.

Coach Nettles had led a nomadic life as a high school football coach in Alabama, working at fourteen schools in his 42 year career. Nettles had a career record of 252-200-4 with 19 playoff appearances and two state titles.