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Category: High school sports
Posted by Tom Markowski (The Detroit News) on
Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 8:47 AM
Wise hires
Congratulations to the athletic departments at Clinton Township Chippewa Valley and U-D Jesuit.
Mike Carr resigned as football coach at Chippewa Valley and, although he wasn't directly responsible, Carr endorsed Scott Merchant as his replacement and, wisely, administrators and the school board agreed that Merchant was the right person for the job. Mickey Barrett, the athletic director at U-D, should be given much of the credit for hiring Jeff Putnam as that school's new football coach. Barrett held interview after interview and his hard work paid off when Putnam was hired. The work that it take Merchant and Putnam to be successful is plentiful. For Merchant it is to maintain the standards in place and keep with what is taking place at Macomb Dakota, Chippewa Valley's sister school. But Merchant was successful at U-D a few years back and was successful at Birmingham Brother Rice as an assistant coach the past two seasons. Merchant will get the job done. For Putnam, to compete with Brother Rice, Detroit Catholic Central, Warren DeLaSalle and Orchard Lake St. Mary's will be a challenge day after day, year after year. Putnam won a state title at Lapeer West and brought Davison to prominence the past eight years or so. Again, Putnam will get the job done, but it might take him a couple of seasons so Cubs fans must be patient
