Newberry coach close to joining exclusive club
Newberry football coach Phil Strickland let out a hearty laugh before the question ended. Long known as a coach who was more worried about the next possession than the next game, he wanted to sidestep the hoopla of him being on the doorstep of becoming the sixth coach in South Carolina public school history to reach 300 career wins.
“I’m not even really thinking about that,” Strickland said as the Bulldogs prepared for the 2016 season opener at Keenan. “I have always taken the old cliché, you take one game at a time.”
Strickland will be joining elite company when he reaches the 300-win plateau. According to the South Carolina High School League Record book Palmetto’s Finest, Strickland will join John McKissick (Summerville), Wille Varner (Woodruff), J. W. Babb (Greenwood), Bill Tate (Timmonsville) and Bob Rankin (Marion) in the 300-win club.
The 29-year coaching veteran has amassed his 299-93 career at five different schools. He has coached at Ridge Spring-Monetta, Brookland-Cayce, Batesburg-Leesville, Gaffney and Newberry. He won state championships with Batesburg-Leesville (1995, 1999) and Gaffney (2003, 2005, and 2006). He has been the Bulldogs coach since 2010 and has reached the past two Class 2A, Division I title games.
“I’ve been in the right place at the right time,” Strickland said. “I’ve had a lot of good help, a lot of good backing from administration that enabled me the chance to do things I wanted to do. I guess we’ve been consistent. We try to get good at a few things and try to have every team hang their hats on to something .”
Newberry offensive lineman Parker Kinard became aware of his coach nearing 300 wins after he reading about it recently. Strickland is not making a big deal out of the milestone.
That goes along with the perception that Strickland is a throwback type of coach.
“I would say he’s old-school,” Kinard said. “He pushes us when he can. He runs a power offense, so he conditions us well. It would be a big honor for us. I mean 300 wins is a great accomplishment. It would be big for us as a team since he’s coached at other really good schools.”
Strickland played at Airport High School and one of the assistants on that staff, Gary Smallen, has been a mentor for most of his coaching career. He has consulted with Smallen on every coaching move he’s made.
He has seen the transformation of teams using mostly spread offenses and multiple looks on defense. When he started, most teams ran a variation of the I-formation, veer or option. And even though his coaching career reaches back to the 1980’s, he hasn’t seen a big difference in kids today.
“A lot of people say kids are a lot different but I don’t think they are,” he said. “Kids want to win and it’s the coaches job to get them motivated to win and do the right things to lead them in that direction.”
The fact Strickland has averaged over 10 wins a season shows consistency.
When finally pressed for an answer to what it would mean to win 300 games, Strickland finally relented.
“Of course I’m proud of it but it’s a culmination of a lot of mighty fine football players and good assistant coaches,” he said. “They’re as much about this as I am.”