![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bob-Stranahan-199x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Bob Stranahan grew up with a passion for sports and video games.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019d go play soccer with my friends and then go home and play FIFA ,\u201d said Stranahan, a Colonie native who graduated from Catholic Central.<\/p>\n
Stranahan, 29, is combining the two interests as the first Esports head coach at Hudson Valley Community College, which announced his hiring on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Stranahan comes from Mohonasen High, where he started that school\u2019s Esports program after also being head coach of the boys\u2019 soccer team and an assistant track and field coach.<\/p>\n
He returns to one of his alma maters. He earned his associate degree in physical education at HVCC before transferring to Russell Sage. The HVCC athletic department announced in June it was adding Esports \u2013 competitive gaming – beginning this fall.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a part-time job and Stranahan will remain at Mohonasen as a health teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always loved Hudson Valley, just the environment and the teachers and everything about it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a part-time position, not something I have to quit my job for, a job I love, but it\u2019s an opportunity for me to get back to a college I love and start a program.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said 20 students have already expressed interest in joining the Esports team, which will play video games like Overwatch, Madden NFL and SuperSmash Brothers against other schools in the National Junior College Athletic Association Esports, founded last year. The team plays a fall season that begins in late September and ends in November, followed by a spring season from February to May.<\/p>\n
Esports isn\u2019t affected by the NJCAA\u2019s decision to move most fall sports to the spring because of the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m welcoming any kids who want to play,\u201d he said. \u201cNo (specific) gender or race, nothing that would discourage anybody from coming. Everybody plays games and I think that\u2019s the biggest thing for me, whether you\u2019re a girl or a guy or anything, come play and see what your talent is. See if you can do it well. It\u2019s a competitive environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The HVCC gamers will compete online from home this academic year, although there are plans to create a space for the team on campus.<\/p>\n
HVCC\u00a0 Athletic Director Justin Hoyt said Stranahan\u2019s knowledge of building a program from scratch made him appealing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, he\u2019s a local guy that started the program over at Mohonasen,\u201d Hoyt said. \u201cThe fact that he has experience starting the program, having connections with not only high schools, but also the four-year (colleges) that was very appealing. To be the face of our program, and our first head coach, that made a lot of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
HVCC athletics doesn\u2019t give out scholarships, but Vikings players could go on to four-year schools that do.<\/p>\n
Hoyt also valued Stranahan\u2019s background in athletics and physical fitness. He has strength and conditioning certifications in functional range conditioning and USA weightlifting, among other areas.<\/p>\n
Stranahan said he wants to remove the \u201cstigma\u201d from Esports.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can send workouts to my team and I think that\u2019s important to make sure they\u2019re working out, to make sure they\u2019re keeping their mental health going, especially in a stressful environment with COVID,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cThe fact that Justin and Hudson Valley is prioritizing mental health and physical health of Esports, because it\u2019s not just, let\u2019s sit around and play video games. It\u2019s what are we doing for Esports that\u2019s going to help you succeed for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Thu, 20 Aug 2020 11:55:54 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WTEN News 10 ABC’s Ben Ryan and Kiss 102.3 FM reported Aug. 19 on the appointment of Bob Stranahan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}