• football
• Meagher

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

McHugh is right fit for Abbott football

posted by jmeagher at 17h14

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Justin McHugh leaves North Shore midget Mustangs for JAC. (Gazette file photo)

Hiring Justin McHugh as head coach of the John Abbott football team was a no-brainer.

Who else to revive the struggling Islander football program than someone with McHugh’s credentials at the local grass-roots level?

As McHugh knows, recruiting from the midget football ranks is the key to success at the CEGEP level, and his recent stint as head coach of the first-place North Shore Mustangs should help him attract new talent to a John Abbott program that has slipped off the radar in recent years.

Abbott’s Double-A program is not an easy sell because many of the top midget or junior-aged football players often opt for a Triple-A team like the Vanier Cheetahs or one of the French CEGEPs in the Montreal area with a strong football program.

The hope is that McHugh’s coaching credentials will hold some sway with the next wave of recruits deciding where to pursue their young football careers.

The respected McHugh name has brand power on the West Island, thank to Justin’s late father, Glenn McHugh, who was a legendary coach to a generation of North Shore football players.

Glenn McHugh’s teams won a pile of provincial championships in the 1980s by stressing discipline and a commitment to excellence. He shunned the win-at-all-cost attitudes that too often taint the pursuit of glory in youth sports.

Glenn’s three sons - Justin, Robbie and Corey - all seem to have inherited their father’s love of football and are heavily involved with minor football on the West Island.

Steve Shaw, head of JAC sports, received nearly a dozen applications for the football job, But McHugh shone above the other candidates because of his passion for the job of rebuilding the football program, Shaw said.

McHugh is going to need that passion - and some newly-recruited talent - if he is to bring a winner back to Abbott.