Coach Strickland

Coach Strickland always strives to do his best for his students. He’s grown our program from five teams to fourteen in four years, and he never turns away interested students even though the organization now has well over 100 members. One of the ways Coach is able to grow our program is through all the PLTW and robotics classes he teaches (RA1, POE, CIM, EDD). This allows him to connect with kids from all grade levels and inspire them to join robotics. Coach encourages new members regardless of skill or experience - anyone can join, whenever. He meets all students where they are at, but regardless his goal is to increase their knowledge in STEM. With every new student, Coach Strickland makes a personal effort to introduce them to their team as well as upperclassmen who act as mentors. In his quest to be the best for his students, Coach always tries to learn new things. Even though his expertise is in project management, CAD, and the engineering notebook, Coach makes large efforts to learn more from his students through asking detailed questions and role-reversing. His expanded knowledge of VEX, gained from the help of our program’s most skilled builders and programmers allows Coach to offer better advice to younger teams, strengthening our program overall. The most admirable aspect of Coach’s leadership is his willingness to go the extra mile for his students. While his family of course comes first, all other times he’s there for us even if it means staying at the school all night before Worlds for last minute lab time. He is even in the process of getting his CDL so more students can attend competitions. Coach sets high goals for our organization, but he constantly works to ensure we have the resources and team synergy needed to meet them. Even though we have 14 teams, Coach conducts weekly check-ins with every team and is always available for extra meetings or questions. His commitment to his students is evident in everything that he does for our program.