Cronin determined to rebuild Cascade Bruins

Judging from Joe Cronin's excitement, you wouldn't know that he is taking over a football team that hasn't won in its past 24 games.

But that is the challenge that Cronin faces with the Cascade Bruins. After eight seasons as an assistant coach at Lake Stevens, the last five as the defensive coordinator, Cronin takes over the reins at Cascade trying to rebuild the program.

In order to be successful with the Bruins, Cronin is trying to keep the approach simple.

"Our philosophy on everything is, simplify -- and perfect," he said.

Simplifying things on the field has been the first approach. Off the field he is trying to instill the right attitude in his players.

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"I'm huge into all the details and huge into if you treat people right…attitude effort and accountability, I preach it all the time," Cronin said. "If you have a great attitude and you are supportive of each other, if you go full speed in everything you do and you are accountable to yourself and your teammates, everything else will take care of itself. So building that culture of work outs in the weight room, you get t-shirts if you make you workouts, if you don't, we will condition you post practice and then holding them accountable and actually doing it."

Cronin brings a history of winning from Lake Stevens, having helped the Vikings to 4A state semifinals appearance a year ago. His former boss at Lake Stevens, Vikings head football coach Tom Tri thinks it won't be long until Cronin gets things turned around at Cascade.

"I have no doubt they will be well coached and successful," Tri said. "I'm sure they will turn that program around and have a lot of fun and a lot of success there."

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