Spinnin’ it: East football coach, Justin Hoover’s love for the quarterback position lead to him starting the Spin it Quarterback Academy.

In 2014, East’s current head football coach Justin Hoover started what is now known as Spin It Quarterback Academy. The concept came around during his time coaching at Bishop Miege as the offensive coordinator. There he noticed that the quarterbacks on opposing teams that didn’t have quarterback-specific coaches at their high school were missing the correct footwork. In his opinion, they couldn’t release the ball right and didn’t seem to know how to read a defense. 

Hoover decided he would teach them the quarterback basics needed to win under the Friday night lights.

Hoover has been fascinated with the quarterback position ever since playing as the backup quarterback on his seventh grade football team. He slowly moved his way up the roster, starting with eighth graders, then to freshmen, climbing the ladder to become the starting quarterback.

For him it wasn’t the players’ athletic abilities — it was their understanding of the game. He could read the field better, and he wanted the stress of those final plays late in the game.

“It’s more about some of the intangible things that I felt like I had as a person and as an athlete and a competitor that helped me play the position,” Hoover said. “Then the skill set came on after.” 

After he attended high school, he went on to play as the back up at Pittsburg State. But Hoover said he knew that he wanted to be a coach all along.

 During practices, he would pick up on things that should get addressed and run circles in his mind about how he could help his fellow players. 

“Skill set wise and vision and my ability to process information allowed me to go into the quarterback world as far as coaching goes.” Hoover said.

Growing up, Hoover pictured his coaches in the off season doing various side jobs — like painting houses and staining decks — to keep them busy and make some extra money. But he didn’t want to spend his off seasons that way. 

Hoover prioritizes spending time with his players and making them family over time. 

“He is always there as a sounding board or as moral support becomes sometimes it’s lonely out there if you aren’t playing well, and it’s always good to have someone to run plays by or be yourself around but it is definitely more than just the hours on the field.” Coach Hoover’s wife Cara Hoover said.

Hoover cares strongly for the life behind the players and in the game. After finding his favorite position as quarterback, he decided to continue pursuing that passion in the off season. He wanted his program to be a low commitment job, allowing him to give back to the game that has given him so much.

Eventually he was invited to be part of a volunteer coaching program at the Elite 11 camp at Ohio State — a competition for high school quarterbacks across the U.S. He didn’t expect for the job interview to lead to his permanent member of the Elite 11 staff — kick-starting his success in training high-level quarterbacks.

Hoover now has a full-time staff, training quarterbacks all the way from elementary school and taking some of them to the NFL. He has players who will drive hours for a one-hour session, but for Hoover the popularity has never gotten to him.

“I never have thought about it as how many quarterbacks do I have, how many D1 quarterbacks do I have, how many NFL quarterbacks do I train,” Hoover said. “It was really about the overall vision. I want to help guys play better on friday nights and then the icing on the cake for me becomes making guys dreams come true with scholarships and NFL and all the fans.” 

Varsity quarterback George Kopp has been playing since freshman year, with Hoover being a coach since 2018. Hoover has used his tools and lessons outside of his academy on Kopp also.

“He has taught me how to read defenses super well and how to throw the perfect spiral,” George Kopp said.

Now knowing how well Hoover has done with quarterbacks a large question is: how does he do it, what is his process?

Every quarterback starts out with an evaluation and that allows the coaches on the staff to give the kid an assessment figuring out what they think their strengths and weaknesses are and what they can do to help the player the most varying from Sunday large group sessions to individual coaching.

“That evaluation process looks the same for a 12 year old as it does a D1 level quarterback.” Hoover said.

Hoover trained NFL quarterbacks such as Drew Lock and Skylar Thompson, sending players to play in college, gaining scholarships and followers from around the country.