De Pere hires former Wisconsin defensive back Ben Strickland as football coach

De Pere has found its new football coach, and he will be a familiar face to college football fans in the state.

Former Wisconsin Badgers defensive back Ben Strickland will replace Chad Michalkiewicz as the new leader of the Redbirds.

He served as offensive coordinator at Madison Edgewood the past two seasons and the defensive coordinator the previous two and will be a special education teacher at De Pere.

“He’s an absolutely phenomenal human being,” said Edgewood coach Jesse Norris, who made Strickland his first hire when he got the job in 2018. “I’ve leaned on him these past four years. I would say that a lot of our success has a lot to do with his involvement.

“He has a tremendous rapport with our athletes. He is phenomenal at building relationships with students, with parents, with faculty, with staff.”

It’s Strickland’s first head coaching job, but he arrives with plenty of experience.

He started his coaching career as the defensive backs coach under Hall of Famer Dave Nelson at Minnetonka High School in Minnesota in 2008 before moving back to Wisconsin and joining the Badgers as a quality control coordinator.

Strickland was a graduate assistant in 2010 and 2011 before being promoted to defensive backs coach in 2012.

He spent three seasons in the position and was Wisconsin’s recruiting coordinator before being hired as the secondary coach at Florida Atlantic University in 2015.

“For myself, I had the opportunity to learn from some really great coaches and men,” Strickland said. “Have a lot of mentors to lean on, especially at the high school level. I got a chance to coach under Dave Nelson, and the thing I took away from him was his ability to bring the community feel to a football program. The energy that brought and the sense of belonging.

“Coach Nelson was always a guy that was generous with his time. Kind with his heart. As a football coach you don’t always see that.”

He only spent one year with Nelson, but one of the biggest impressions he left on him happened when Strickland returned to attend Nelson’s retirement party after he stepped down in 2019.

“Just to see the impact he made by the number of people that were there, by the stories that were told,” Strickland said. “It gave me a feeling of where I felt I belonged as well and wanted to do the same things as the stories I was hearing.”

Strickland entered the mix relatively late at De Pere and after the first round of virtual interviews were conducted. It was a job he had kept his eye on, and when a few things didn’t work out in the Madison area, he felt compelled to keep looking for an opening as a head coach.

He submitted his application and portfolio to De Pere, and one conversation with the administration led to another.

Strickland was a walk-on cornerback at Wisconsin — he was a teammate of former Badgers great Joe Thomas at Brookfield Central — and played 51 games for the team from 2004 to 2007. He was elected a captain as a senior.

Perhaps he’s best known for his work on special teams, most notably in October 2005 when he recovered a blocked punt in the end zone in the final minute to help lead Wisconsin to a thrilling comeback win at Minnesota.

Just don’t expect him to tell his new team about it.

Norris said Strickland never mentioned it once to the players, although they eventually figured out that No. 3 on the Badgers who scored the touchdown against the Gophers was one of their assistant coaches.

If De Pere players should happen to find out the same way?

“They will be surprised to see how far I’ve fallen,” Strickland said, laughing.

Strickland pointed out that his playing days and those glory days are over. It’s about his players now.

He takes over a Redbirds team that has gone 16-2 the last two seasons and is the reigning Fox River Classic Conference-North champion.

De Pere will lose some notable talent to graduation this spring, including linebackers Caleb Rinard and Luke Brosig, defensive back Matthew Ahrenholtz, offensive lineman Miles Salinas and wide receiver Jack May.

But there is plenty to work with.

The Redbirds will have starting quarterback Gabe Herman for a third season, as well as all-conference offensive linemen Ross Rowland and Milo Upton, tight end Noah Gehin, running back Devin Koskey, defensive end Brennan Kincade and linebacker Michael Alexander.

It’s a bit late in the year to take over a football program, but Strickland isn’t worried. He wants the student-athletes to enjoy their entire high school experience, including playing other sports and concentrating on academics.

“With the mix of all those things, I know how important football was to me, but I also want kids to be excited about football and not get burned out by it,” Strickland said. “I think it’s a tighter timeline than most people are used to seeing, but I don’t think there is any pause in my mind to have a gauge of measuring and identifying what kids are good at, what coaches are good at and being able to have dialogue and conversation about roles and how they feel valued.

“Kind of put that puzzle all together.”

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: De Pere hires former Wisconsin player Ben Strickland as football coach