Assistant becomes new Stritch football coach

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
When former Cardinal Stritch head football coach Allen Thompson stepped away recently, athletic director Denny Shoemaker had a good idea that he might hire assistant coach Justin Barrett to take over the program.
“The first thing was, that he was very interested in becoming a head coach at some point in his career. The other assistants had no desire to (be a head coach). He was the only one who wanted to do that. He loves Stritch –– he sees himself being here for a long time,” said Shoemaker.
“Another thing is discipline. His policy that he provided for me, his organization, his willingness to put the time in that is required, especially at this point in time where he’s in the weight room with the kids three days a week,” he said. “He wanted to meet with the kids right away. The kids like him and he likes the kids. Another thing that I like was the fact that he was on staff last year, and it would be a very smooth transition. Kids didn’t have to get to know another coach. All those things kind of came into play once I found out more about Justin. I didn’t know much about him — I talked to him for about an hour. All this stuff came out in that interview. He’s a very strong individual and I think that he will keep the program going in the right direction with more culture building, and more discipline.”
“I’m excited; it’s a dream come true. I’m just looking forward to the season and to keep going what we started from last season. I’ve seen different strategies for how to prepare for this,” Barrett said.
Barrett, who was the offensive coordinator last season, also had experience coaching at Waite and with the East Toledo Junior Football League.
“Justin has a lot of connections to the junior highs and elementary school programs, and that’s another reason we hired him,” said Shoemaker. “He’s got a good network of people that he can refer to to get kids to come to Stritch.” Barrett said he wants to use the spread, air-raid offense this season.
“We were a real senior-heavy team this season. A lot of our young guys that did play –– some did really well. They have that experience, I think we have some exciting freshman and sophomores that will be sophomores and juniors next year. They’ll really stand out,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of kids that are signing up, some kids that didn’t play. It should be interesting.”
Some of his assistants will be Antonio Spears, who coached running backs and will be the offensive coordinator, Lloyd Donaldson will be the defensive coordinator, and Elijah Brown will coach the wide receivers.
The program took a year away in 2022, but the Cardinals had a full schedule last season, going 2-8. This year, Stritch will compete in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference.
“I’m really excited for next year to come along; we just want to try and improve our product,” said Shoemaker. “Our goal was to get a team for 10 games, and not to cancel any games, which we didn’t. The wins and losses weren’t good, but we were able to start building a culture –– that was the main thing.”
It will be a gradual process in getting the program to where it could be in the near future.
“When you drop a program, it’s not going to take off overnight (when it returns). I had to bring back football, and I knew it would probably take three to five years to get it back to where we want it to be. It’s important to have a good football program that represents Stritch and draws people into your school,” said Shoemaker. “Football and (boys) basketball are the two sports that drive the program. It’s very important.”