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By Eric Thomas, Assistant Sports Editor, April 20, 2008

Last updated: Sunday, April 20, 2008 11:15 PM EDT

Bob Strickler remembers a chit chat he had with Jack McClosky just before Strickler’s Mechanicsburg Wildcats participated in McClosky’s annual team basketball camp at Alvernia College in Berks County.

If you’ve never been a spectator at the summer ritual, keep in mind it’s usually a who’s who among eastern basketball powers in-state.

The list of quality teams such as Chester, Lower Merion and Cheltenham are just a few of the teams that compete.

So when Strickler and his team arrived last summer, McClosky asked him if he was sure he wanted to run 90 feet with the state’s premiere teams.

“I said to the kids, ‘We’re not pulling any punches,” Strickler said. “We were putting them up against the best. The Chesters’, the Cheltenhams, the Lower Merions, those are some of the perennial powers in District 1.

“We went to win, to see how good we were. I knew we might get handled there, but it would make us better.”

In past years Strickler would take his team to smaller camps to compete against Class AA- and AAA-sized schools.

But something was different about this Wildcats team.

And Strickler could sense it.

Thirty-two games and 21 wins later, Strickler can now reflect on the season that was. A historical one at that. One in which the Wildcats won their first ever PIAA Class AAAA game under Strickler.

But Strickler’s selection as The Sentinel’s Boys’ Basketball Coach of the Year isn’t all about wins and losses. It’s about his ability to be a big brother to a group of players who believe in him, and how he returns the favor.

It’s about preaching to a team of undersized players who aren’t necessarily the most talented and still getting them to prove they can win at all costs.

It’s about Strickler bleeding ‘maroon and steel’, as former teammate, assistant coach and close friend Kevin Rutherford put it.

Strickler is Mechanicsburg basketball and because of that, the program will never be out of a game. This past season only further proves that.

Mechanicsburg had a thrilling ride this past season, one that shouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon, and Strickler was at the helm to run it, and enjoy it all.

“I don’t think anybody looked at us as a threat,” Strickler said. “I still don’t think we’re mentioned with the (Susquehanna) Township’s and Trinity’s and that’s our goal (to be mentioned with them). We took a step in the right direction.”

Strickler has become Mechanicsburg basketball, rising up through the ranks from freshman coach to his current tenure as the varsity coach.

He desires to see the Wildcats make it as far as possible. He never quits on them and the players never quit on Strickler.

“It’s funny, when we were 10 years old, you knew Bob was going to be a coach, he’s always been that type of person,” said Rutherford, who coaches at nearby Camp Hill.

Rutherford played with Strickler at Mechanicsburg. The two grew up playing football together, then basketball, and ultimately when Strickler took the reigns of the ninth grade team, Rutherford was right beside him on the bench.

After Chris Sload left the head coaching position at Mechanicsburg to head up to Wyoming Valley West, Strickler took over, and again, Rutherford was right there with him.

“He cares about the program,” said Rutherford. “After the season I sent him e-mail. It means a lot to me to see the program where it’s above where we were as seniors. He had a vision and he lives and dies with Mechanicsburg. I’m joking with him all the time because I’m tell him that ‘I’ll never get my dream job because you’ll have to be dead before I get it.’”

In that email Rutherford refered to, he told Strickler how proud he is to watch the class the players display day in and day out. He spoke of how Strickler never gives himself enough credit and how proud Rutherford is that he once shared a floor with Strickler.

Under Strickler this season the Wildcats kicked the Keystone Division doors down, racing out to a 10-2 start with victories over Red Land and Susquehanna Twp.

The season also carried its fair share of drama along the way.

Last-second buzzer beaters against Waynesboro and York, a dramatic double-overtime thriller against Trinity and an even more dramatic victory over State College in the first round of the PIAA tournament all made the season what it was.

After all was said and done, Strickler said he was able to sit back, relax and enjoy some of the moments that encompassed the 2007-08 season.

“I got home from our team banquet at 10 p.m., and at 2:30 a.m., I’m sitting in my chair watching it,” Strickler said of the Trinity game. “I never sat down to watch a game as a fan, so I’m sitting there watching that one as a fan and my neighbors probably heard me and thought I was nuts.”

Strickler also maintains a close relationship with former players such as Seth Pehanich and Jeremy Boone, who watched the Wildcats defeat the Little Lions in the PIAA tournament.

It’s that respect and type of relationship that makes Strickler the person he is.

“It means we’re doing the right things, it means the kids take pride in the uniform they wear,” Strickler said. “They may move on to the next aspect of life, but still reading the newspaper online, still checking in and keeping an eye on what’s going on with Mechanicsburg basketball.

“It means more to me than anything. I still keep in contact with those guys. They were a neat group. (Graduating point guard) Chris (White) and I have a good relationship. I’m close to their age so its easy for me to relate to them.”

“I wouldn’t be a head coach if it wasn’t for him,” Rutherford added. “He’s a mentor and more than that he’s a friend. If I have a question, I call him. There’s time where we’ve lost to a team we should not have lost to and he’s calling me up and giving me advice. He listens, he doesn’t necessarily tell me what to do. He knows sometimes that he needs to be there for his friends and he does a great job with that.”

Every up and down the Wildcats players experienced this past season, Strickler was equally on edge.

“This season, I won’t lie, it was heart attack central for us all season long,” Strickler said. “The Waynesboro (district play-in) game, we’re down five with 30 seconds to go and I’m standing on sidelines thinking about what I would say to my seniors. We were all but dead. My kids even up against toughest circumstances found way to get job done.

“We may not have been the best basketball team, but the comment was made to me, we don’t out-play teams, we out-heart teams. I think our effort makes it worth the price of admission.”

No one on or around South Broad Street in Mechanicsburg will argue that.