Blocking a host

So, Tomcat responds to the health monitor right away but you don't want it to process any traffic for 60 seconds or so?

If you were using 10.x, I'd say to use the "Time Until Up" option in monitors which accomplishes exactly what you need.

An option in 9.x might be to use the "Slow Ramp" option on the pool members screen.

Slow Ramp Time

    Specifies the duration during which the system sends less traffic to a newly-enabled pool member. The amount of traffic is based on the ratio of how long the pool member has been available compared to the slow ramp time, in seconds. Once the pool member has been online for a time greater than the slow ramp time, the pool member receives a full proportion of the incoming traffic. Slow ramp time is particularly useful for the least connections load balancing mode.

As this doesn't completely eliminate traffic from getting to the pool member, it wouldn't be a perfect solution.

As far as your monitor goes...why not make one that requires tomcat to be completely up before it responds properly?