BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott Athletic Department has announced the hiring of Defensive Coordinator Shem Johnston-Bloom and Offensive Coordinator Tom Blumenauer to the football program for the 2014 season. Blumenauer and Johnston-Bloom join a Gulls program that has enjoyed tremendous success since their inaugural season in 2003 with a 70-43 overall record (.619) and two NEFC Championships and NCAA Division III Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2013.
"We are extremely excited to welcome Shem and Tom into our Endicott Football family," said 11-year head coach J.B. Wells. "Both come to Endicott from backgrounds and institutions with strong academic success, high athletic standards, and each of them are teachers of the game which will go a long way towards continuing the success of our program."
Johnston-Bloom, a former standout defensive lineman at Wesleyan where he was a two-year captain and two-time All-NESCAC selection, most recently served as the linebackers coach and special teams coordinator for a Middlebury program that over the last two seasons accumulated their best record (14-2) in over 40 years. He coached Panthers linebacker Tim Patricia to NESCAC Rookie of the Year honors and two All-NESCAC postseason awards in 2012 and 2013. Last season's Middlebury squad shared the NESCAC regular season title with Amherst and Wesleyan after a 7-1 season and Johnston-Bloom's defense ranked 26th in the country in points allowed per game (16.3) while the 2012 team went 7-1 and ranked 21st among NCAA Division III schools with just 158.25 yards allowed per game.
Along with his coaching responsibilities at Middlebury, Johnston-Bloom was heavily involved with the program's recruiting process as well as their strength and conditioning. On the recruiting trail, he helped retool the program's regional and national strategy by combining both traditional and social media methods and continuing to foster a strong relationship with the institution's Office of Admission. As the department's Director of Strength and Conditioning, Johnston-Bloom holds numerous certifications and helped design and run training sessions to optimize the potential in Middlebury's student-athletes.
Prior to his time at Middlebury and directly following his graduation from Wesleyan in 2006, Johnston-Bloom spent four season as an assistant coach for his alma mater as he worked with the linebackers, coordinating the team's video editing efforts, designed strength and conditioning programs, and became a lead recruiter.
Johnston-Bloom takes over an Endicott defense that welcomes back NEFC Defensive Rookie of the Year Craig Anderson (Franklin, Mass.) as well as two NEFC First Team All-Conference players on defense.
Most recently the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach at Liberty League member St. Lawrence University, Blumenauer comes to Endicott with several years of experience as both a football coach and an educator. A former outside linebacker and free safety at Ithaca from 2004-06, Blumenauer became a leader of his Bomber teams by being named honorary defensive captain in his senior season while earning Empire 8 All-Star recognition in 2005 and 2006 as well as the All-East Region Team in 2006.
After teaching at the elementary, middle school, and high schools levels from 2007-10, Blumenauer joined the St. Lawrence football program and held numerous responsibilities including installing the team's offense, running positional meetings, opponent scouts, weekly self-scout, monitoring academic progress of student-athletes, and recruiting in several areas along the mid-Atlantic. The Saints are coming off one of their best seasons in program history after going 7-3 (5-2 Liberty League) and finishing behind Hobart in the conference standings.
Blumenauer will lead an Endicott offense that led the NEFC in scoring offense (33.2 points per game) nearly every passing statistical category, while producing nearly 150 yards rushing offense and 18 touchdowns on the year.
"Like we do every summer, we are going to reevaluate and find out what we do well and what we can improve upon," said Wells. "With Coach Bloom and Coach Blumenauer on board, it gives us the opportunity to bring in fresh ideas about every facet of our football operation and find a wrinkle here and there that could help get us to the next level in 2014 and beyond."
Coach Wells looked to the leadership on his team to help make this important decision as he identified key student-athletes who were relied upon to help the search committee find an experienced, high-character candidate at each coordinator position.
"We invited not only our veteran players but several first and second-year players to sit in on the process and we found out, thankfully, is that they agreed with the committee's selections. From that, we knew that we had found the right candidates."
Coach Bloom and Coach Blumenauer will step on to campus in their full-time roles this summer in anticipation of another successful Endicott football season starting this fall.
