02/17/2007

'I want community to be proud of Trojan football'

New Central coach Passinault meets players

BY JAMES COOK

jcook@record-eagle.com

Record-Eagle/Tyler Sipe
Tom Passinault holds his daughter Gwyneth while walking on to the court with his wife Teresa and son Noah during Friday’s basketball game.

TRAVERSE CITY — Tom Passinault met his future players for the first time on Friday.

And he got their attention right away.

"I was wondering what you guys looked like, and I was right — you're ugly,” Passinault joked as he addressed a group of 50 potential football players at Traverse City Central High School after school.

The new varsity football coach, hired Feb. 2 to guide TC Central after an 0-9 season, will stay in town to attend a workout session at the school this morning.

Passinault, who had a 99-39-1 record in 13 years at Grand Rapids Catholic Central, gave talks at East Junior High and Central High on Friday, drawing 126 at East. The Central session was for football players and staff.

"I'll put a lot of pressure on you guys, on myself and my assistant coaches,” Passinault said to the classroom full of players. "I'm not going to put pressure on a certain number of wins ... but every Friday night, I want the community to be proud of Trojan football.”

Passinault stressed hitting the weight room in the off-season, as well as maintaining grades and staying out of trouble.

He said the goal of the "sweat equity” from off-season weight lifting is, "We can announce to the stadium that we're coming iso (isolation) and there's nothing they can do about it. That's where it pays off.”

The 42-year-old coach also said he hopes to change attitudes in a program that has only had three winning campaigns and no playoff wins since the district split into Central West in 1997.

The Cougars played in 22 playoff games in Passinault's 13 years at GRCC.

"They went into a game expecting to win and wondering how that would happen,” Passinault said to the players. "I don't know if that's ingrained here or not, but I want to find out.”

The coach will take over a counselor job at Central, and has to stay at GRCC through the end of the school year.

"It'll be a hard transition the rest of the year,” Passinault said. "I'll rely a lot on the assistants coaches to keep in touch with e-mails to track weight lifting attendance. But I'll be up here as much as I can. I'll shoot for being up here at least once a month to work with the kids.”

"One thing that has really impressed me is how friendly the community has been,” Passinault said. "My family has received a number of e-mails and letters and calls. We feel very welcome, even though we're outsiders right now.”

Passinault said he has not decided on assistant coaches, but hopes to in the next few weeks.

"I've talked with a number of (the returning) assistant coaches,” Passinault said. "I'm excited with what we have, but I haven't made any decisions on placements.”

Three assistants from last year's team — Eric Schugars, Doug Gle and Aaron Biggar — were at the players' meeting, and assistant coach Todd Tester was at the East Junior High event.

Passinault handed out questionnaires to the players and gave each a business card with his phone number and e-mail address, in case they had any opinions to share with him on the team.

Passinault's teams generally employ a sweep offense out of the shotgun, with a four-man front even defense.

Passinault holds a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from Notre Dame and a master's degree in guidance counseling from Bowling Green.

A running back and safety in high school, he also played basketball and football.

The weight room work came up several times, and appears to be something Passinault will focus on in the off-season and summer.

"To tell you the truth, right now I'm disappointed with the attendance for the weight room,” Passinault said. "For some guys, they just think it's optional. We have to change that attitude, especially if they're not in (another sports) season.”

He said he recently received video of last year's games, but hasn't been able to watch the film yet.

"The number one thing is to get the staff figured out, and then to begin to teach,” Passinault said. "Spring will be really important for getting coaches on the same page.”