Justin Utupo is a new addition to the Azusa Pacific coaching staff who brings Division I playing experience to grooming the Cougars’ linebacking corps starting in 2019.
Utupo is a southern California native who played his high school ball as a defensive end at Lakewood High School. His senior year with the Lancers in 2009 saw them not only win the Moore League title, but end Long Beach Poly’s 80-game in-league winning streak. Justin was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year as well as the Los Angeles Times Lineman of the Year. He also played on the basketball team his senior year.
Justin moved onto college at Notre Dame, redshirting his freshman season before playing four years under head coach Brian Kelly. His sophomore season saw the Fighting Irish have an undefeated regular season and play in the BCS title game in Miami against Alabama. During his final year with the program in 2014, he played in eight games as a defensive lineman, recording his first career sack against Michigan and an interception against Navy before completing his playing career with a season-high six tackles in front of a hometown crowd at the LA Coliseum against USC.
Graduating in 2014 with a degree in Anthropology, Justin returned to where it all began, spending the 2015 season as the co-Defensive Coordinator at Lakewood HS. During his one year on the coaching staff, the Lancers allowed the fewest points in the league.
Utupo next took a Defensive Coordinator job at Milliken High School for the 2016 season and was promoted to Head Coach in 2017. Over the last two seasons, Utupo took a team that had finished 1-9 the season before his arrival and led it to a record of 17-6, including two playoff victories, one of the most successful stretches for the Rams in decades. Coach Utupo now joins a staff at Azusa Pacific that has prided itself on defensive prowess, and will be asked to sustain the success of the Cougars’ linebackers, a position group that produced the team’s top three tacklers last season.
Justin has one brother and three sisters. He and his wife, Leilani, live in Long Beach with their daughter, Lily (2), and are expecting their second child in December.
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