Boys track: Bowman’s Strickland headed to Indiana

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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:38AM

GARY — Bowman’s Cornelius Strickland became the fifth athlete from his school to sign a letter of intent to go to a major college this year. But there, the similiarities end.

Unlike his four schoolmates, Strickland’s jump shot isn’t quite as accurate, although he did give basketball a try years ago.

“I was a pretty decent player,” Strickland said. “I played JV at one time.”

So Dejuan Marrero he’s not. But it would behoove the face of Bowman basketball not to challenge Strickland to a foot race.

Strickland, who placed second in two sprint events in last year’s state track championships, will continue his track career at Indiana University, according to Bowman athletic director/basketball coach Marvin Rea. Strickland is the first non-basketball staandout to go next level after this year, a feat made even more impressive when you consider that Bowman does not have a track.

“He’s a great kid, a great student athlete and a very humble young man,” Rea said about Stickland. “He’s worked hard and it’s about to pay off.”

Rea says that to compensate for not having a track at Bowman, Strickland would run the halls at the school during the winter and outdoors during the spring and summer, a habit that also helped him become a pretty good football player, picking up 1,003 yards receiving which led to a spot in the North-South All-Star game.

“When people think of Bowman, they think of basketball, but it goes to show that you can get it done without a football field or track,” Rea said. “We’re really excited about our track program and we’re going to continue to put the work in to get better. This says something about Cornelius, our track and football coaches and our program.”

Cornelius joins a fab-five list of division one Bowman athletes including Marrero (Depaul), Elijah Ray (IUPUI), Stephen Fisher (Robert Morris) and girls point guard Princess German (Wisconsin-Milwaukee).