With rain blanketing St. Joseph on Wednesday afternoon, Drew Shinn’s first task after school was to check the status of Bishop LeBlond’s practice field.

Conditions weren’t perfect.

But with no puddles forming, he brought his squad of Golden Eagles outside for 2 1/2 hours, enduring intermittent downpours. His players shivering and freezing, Shinn brought them together at the end, went over plans for Thursday’s practice and then asked for them to join in a benediction.

“Let’s thank God for this beautiful day as God rains down on us,” Shinn exclaimed, looking up at rain drops piercing through the gray sky.

Football and religion are never far apart in Shinn’s life. Or perhaps more accurately, football is part of Shinn’s religion.

“I look at football as part of my spirituality, and I do try to bring that to the kids,” Shinn said. “God asks us to do the best we can with what we have. If you’re a good athlete like a Pat Lawhon or Tyler Irizarry, he gets pleasure in seeing those people performing at the best of their abilities.”

Shinn, one game into his second season at LeBlond, has come a long way and met a lot of people since his football-playing days in Kansas City, but football, education and Catholicism have remained constants. Those qualities eventually brought him to St. Joseph.

After graduating from Bishop O’Hara High School in 1979, Shinn thought football would take him to Central Missouri State. But a level-headed coach convinced Shinn his best chances to play would be at Benedictine.

That’s where he met his first coaching influence — Benedictine head coach Larry Wilcox — and turned to religion.

Unable to pass Calculus II, Shinn began to shuffle through majors, unsure of where his life after football would lead him.

“For me personally, football for me in college became a way to help me spirituality,” Shinn said. “I was searching, like a lot of kids in college. I think at a time when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I started to pray, which I really didn’t do much before.”

Eventually, some of Shinn’s teammates helped him realize football could be a part of his greater plan.

“They used to tell me, 'Hey, Shinny, one thing you can do is you can play this game. God gave you the gifts to play this game,’” Shinn said. “I started looking at things. God gives you different gifts in different ways. He gave me some abilities, and that’s what I was supposed to do.”

After playing out his eligibility at Benedictine in 1984, Shinn caught on at Bishop Ward (Kan.) High School before coming back to Benedictine for six years as an assistant to Wilcox and sports information director.

But the subsequent 11 years spent at DeSmet, a large-class private school in St. Louis, are what influenced Shinn the most.

Stories from “North County” are often interspersed in his conversations. Names and events come flowing back with ease, and Shinn even can produce a detailed impersonation of Laurence Maroney, the New England Patriots running back who went to high school at Normandy in St. Louis.

Shinn knows he is not in St. Louis anymore and drew another example from this year’s City Jamboree when Central’s Ghaali Muhammad stole the show with six-touchdown performance.

“Here in St. Joe, you’ve got Ghaali Muhammad,” Shinn said. “And he’s an awesome talent, and I think he’ll be great on Saturdays. But there’s 15 to 20 guys in North County that have that talent.”

When Matt Tabor resigned the head coaching position at LeBlond in the spring of 2007, Wilcox recommended Shinn as a potential candidate. Shinn had left DeSmet and spent two years as an assistant at St. James Academy (Kan.) but still hadn’t served as a head coach in his 24 years in Catholic education.

Shinn might not have known what he was getting into when he came to LeBlond.

Now, he’s stuck in a historical rebirth for the school, which includes a return to its roots in the Midland Empire Conference and historical date tonight with city rival Benton and LeBlond’s former coach, Tabor.

“Any coach coming from outside, outside the state or outside Northwest Missouri, probably didn’t even know what the MEC is,” said LeBlond activities director Greg Kastner, himself a graduate of the final class as Christian Brothers.

“For him, it’s a game; it’s Friday night. He probably doesn’t realize it’s been umpteen years (since LeBlond played Benton). I don’t think that’s probably all in his mind or a consideration. For him, it’s getting his kids ready to play a big game and a conference game.”

And history hasn’t been in Shinn’s mind after a season-opening win at Mid-Buchanan. He’s done enough research to know what the return means, but without the historical pressure exuded in St. Joseph to bother him, Shinn doesn’t buy into the stress.

“I don’t quite understand some of the stuff because a lot of it is so far in the past,” Shinn said. “When LeBlond had 400 kids, they had pretty darn good teams. Now, you have parents that are sending their kids here that played on those teams.

“Some understand, and some look at it like, 'Isn’t this the same LeBlond I went to?’ And it’s really not.”

But historical references are only a minor inconvenience.

Shinn’s 11 years at a large school gave him perhaps unrealistic expectations for his program at Class 2 LeBlond. Instead of just directing coaches and players along with a full slate of classes, Shinn occasionally assumes duties as equipment manager, video coordinator or statistician.

“At times, it’s been a little overwhelming,” he said, “and unfortunately because of all the demands that are in athletics and administrating athletics and being a head coach, in a lot of ways, I feel like my teaching has suffered.”

Shinn previously considered leaving Catholic education, considering the pay increase and retirement benefits of a public school position. He went through some interviews before moving on to St. James Academy and abandoning Catholic education for a chance to teach and coach without religion.

As his presence at LeBlond suggests, Shinn can’t have one without the other.

“They would ask, 'Can you separate yourself from that? Can you teach without bringing God into the classroom because you can’t really do that at a public school necessarily,” Shinn said. “I had to look back and look at them honestly, and say, 'No, I don’t think I can.’

“I think we can pretend that we can, and I think I’m smart enough to know I can’t talk about God if I got a job in the public school. And I knew I couldn’t do that if I promised to. (Religion is) the most important part of who we are.”