Strickland rewarded for efforts in rebuilding Genoa CC programs

Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

When Genoa girls cross country coach Brett Strickland took over the program in 2015, he had five girls on his team.
It goes without saying that the Comets have come a long way in eight years.
In his second year, Strickland’s crew advanced to regionals for the first time in school history, and three years later, the team won the Northern Buckeye Conference, its first-ever league title.
He talked about taking over the program, which was fortunate to have an elite runner in Carly Gose, who was a senior.
“It seemed to me that they always had one or two good runners, and they just struggled to build a team around them,” Strickland said. “Carly was going into her senior year, and there were a few good girls, but they didn’t have those other girls (to provide depth). They always had the talent, just not the depth.
“That was one of my first goals, to never not have a full team. We’re going to have five no matter what I have to do. (But) it’s not really an issue anymore. It’s a process of kids seeing what other kids have done for them.”
Once Strickland got some good athletes, things started to snowball.
“At first, I did what every cross-country coach does, which is try to sell the program to our eighth-graders,” said Strickland. “Honestly, what started to happen is we got good (athletes) in the program, fast, but they’re also kids that you would want to be around. Those kids attract other kids.
“I feel like it was about numbers at first, but numbers aren’t impressive. You want your kids to perform well, and we have a culture that’s been built. At first, kids didn’t love the sport, they didn’t appreciate the high mileage. Now my kids want to work hard and the new people on the team get that. When someone joins, they know there are certain expectations. We’ve had kids that have high expectations. That’s the cool thing, it’s more than numbers. Now it’s expected (that we’ll be successful).”
He also had to rebuild the boys program, which had six runners when he took over.
“A hallmark of our boys program is that our seniors are leaders,” Strickland said. “We had eight freshman boys this year. A mother of one of the freshmen told me that she hopes he’s like those seniors (someday).”
All the boys team has done under Strickland’s tenure is win the NBC twice (‘18, ‘20) and qualify for regionals six times (‘16, ‘17, ‘18, ‘19, ‘20, ‘22).
The ‘18 team included Bobby Bench, Tyson Lesher, Derek Rightnowar, Dennis Diebert, Connor LaGrange, Ross Schlatter and London Stuller. The ‘20 team also included Rightnowar, Lesher, Schlatter, Stuller, LaGrange, Nathan Cooper and Logan Evans.
Lesher is running at Bluffton University; Sean Hoeft is on the team at Hillsdale College in Michigan; Rightnowar is at Lake Erie College and Schlatter is on the team at Ohio Northern University.
This year’s team had a second-place showing at the NBC Meet. Cooper was third in 18:14.39, followed by Kaden McWatters (eighth), Alex Shinaver (11th), Toby Karl (12th), James Huston (16th), Ben Sommers (31st) and Ben Loomis (33rd).
“We’ve had some tremendous boys as well,” said Strickland. “They’ve won two league championships the last few years.
“I know we have a lot of numbers, but it’s more important that we’re competitive, show leadership and work hard.”
The ‘16 girls team that finished second at a Division III district tournament was led by Brittany Matthews, who was 10th in 21:31.50. Marainna Heninger (13th) and Jocelynn Dunbar (14th) also qualified individually for regionals that year. The other four runners were Jordan Iffland, Adison Leichty, Anda Sutter and Abby Lawson. (Iffland now runs for Tiffin University.)
Three years later, the Comets won the conference meet by two points over Woodmore, 37-39, with five runners finishing in the top 13.
Heninger, who now coaches cross country at the middle school, was fifth, followed by Sophie Richards (sixth), Sara Partin (eighth), Jordyn Bronowski (10th) and Keerstin Pelow (13th), Sami Richards (21st) and Katelyn Bachmayer (22nd). (Sophie Richards now runs for Tiffin University.)
There are other former Comets that are running in college. Jordyn Bronowski is a freshman at Siena Heights University.
This year, the Comets finished third at the NBC Meet with Molly Coleman (10th in 21:44.79) and Josie Lesniewicz (14th in 22:40.02) earning second-team honors in the conference. Katelyn Bachmayer was 18th in 23:20.45, followed by Olivia Martin (22nd), Raegan Schlatter (26th), Lisa Heninger (30th) and Ellie Huss (32nd).
Coleman qualified for regionals by running a 21:22.17 at districts, good enough to finish 13th.
Strickland has received some guidance from other Genoa teachers who have coached at the school, both in the past and present, including Chris Rawski, Bobby Bergman and Tom Kontak.
“They’ve worked with us on team building and have given me tons of ideas on how to handle things and do things the right way. All three of them have come and talked to our kids and tried to inspire them,” Strickland said. “They are such good guys, and they care about doing things the right way. They build kids into leaders.”