It was back in early February when long-time Detroit Catholic Central head football coach Tom Mach decided to call it a coaching career, after spending four decades directing traffic on the sidelines.
Now a new era begins for the Shamrocks, or at least when it comes to coaching. Catholic Central announced on Thursday that they will be promoting assistant head coach Dan Anderson to lead the way beginning in 2017.
DETROIT CATHOLIC CENTRAL WELCOMES MR. DAN ANDERSON AS OUR NEW HEAD FOOTBALL COACH. #CCpride #ReturnOfSmashMouth pic.twitter.com/uVOGC3l3yJ
— Aaron Babicz '93 (@DETROITCCAD) March 16, 2017
As Catholic Central athletic director Aaron Babicz reiterates above, Anderson has been very much involved with the program since 1999 He’s been the Shamrocks’ defensive coordinator since 2007.
Babicz also mentioned that Anderson was the only in-house personnel to formally interview for the open position and that hiring within the program was not the plan going in. The school reportedly interviewed more than 25 coaches.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” Catholic Central athletic director Aaron Babicz said. “It’s nice because we preach loyalty here, we reward loyalty here at Catholic Central, so to to be able to promote one of our own, I think just says a lot about our mission, what we preach to the young men here.
“We couldn’t be more excited for Dan. He’s a great man, a great mentor and a great coach, and that’s what we needed.
“I always felt like we didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are obviously some things that we’re going to change and just build upon the tradition that coach Mach left behind, that we’ve been building since 1928,” Babicz said. “To be able to bring someone in that knows who we are, that knows what we preach, who doesn’t only talk about it but shows it in his actions, that’s what we needed.”
When Mach was the head coach, Catholic Central captured 10 of their 11 MHSAA Division 1 football titles. He also became the third-winningest coach in Michigan high school football history. The decorated career he leaves behind is unmatched, leaving big shoes for Anderson to fill.
