Strickland Overcomes Obstacles En Route To Kentucky
August 20, 2019
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Strickland Overcomes Obstacles En Route To Kentucky
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Austin Strickland RHP / OF / Moeller, OH / 2020 CINCINNATI - Austin Strickland was not about to let an obstacle stand in the way of his dream to play college baseball. Even more than one obstacle.
First Strickland was cut from the Moeller team as a freshman. “I always wanted to be a baseball player, even at the age of two or three,” said the senior at Moeller. “But when I first got into high school I was cut from the freshman team. That was eye opening. It wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought it was going to be. “But through hard work it obviously became a reality,” continued Strickland, who recently committed to play baseball at the University of Kentucky. “But there were times I had doubts about if playing high-level college baseball was going to be done.” The doubts soon vanished. “That was one of the hardest things that I ever had to deal with,” Strickland said about being cut. “I was always super confident, maybe over confident. When I walked into the room and told I was cut, that was a real slap in the face to my personal work ethic. So I went online and looked up youth training facilities. I talked to them and said if you tell me to run through a brick wall I will.” Improvement followed, helped out by Connor Graham. “He worked with me on strength, agility, speed and was my pitching coach,” Strickland said of Graham, a Toledo St. John’s graduate who went on to pitch for Miami Ohio and later in the minors. “Without him, I would not be where I am.” Strickland also gave credit to Moeller junior varsity head coach Mike Cameron. |