Josh Strid – Student Athlete of the Week

Niwot High catcher Josh Strid was set to take on varsity catching duties for the Cougars in 2020, but the season was cancelled before it even started.

Strid is one of nine seniors on the Cougar baseball squad this year, and Head Coach Adam Strah is looking for him to provide leadership on and off the field. "He's a hard worker, a mature kid, who knows the game well," Strah said.

"Josh is what you want out of a senior catcher." Strah said Strid is able to call pitches on the field, rather than relying solely on the coaching staff to call pitches from the dugout, which is helpful, because, he explained, "We do a little bit of both."

"I've played baseball since I was five," Strid said. "It was the first sport I got into." He said that his parents had not played baseball, but he took to the sport.

He wasn't always a catcher. "I grew with it," Strid said. "I started as an infielder, but no one else wanted to do it [catch]. So at age 10, Strid began catching, and has loved it ever since.

"I love the leadership aspect of it," he said. "You're at the center of it all. It's helped me outside of baseball with leadership and time management."

Strid plans to continue his baseball career at the next level following graduation. "Today I just committed to Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kansas," Strid said on May 10. Tabor College is an NAIA baseball program, and Strid plans to pursue a major in criminal justice. Ultimately he hopes to become an FBI agent. "I like the investigation part of it," he said.

Baseball runs in the family as Strid's older brother, Ben Strid, graduated from Niwot last spring and is currently playing baseball at Mesabi Range College in Minnesota, where he is a pitcher-outfielder. The brothers were able to play together at NHS briefly last season, but the pandemic curtailed that shared experience. Josh Strid is looking forward to completing a full, though shortened, season with the Cougars this spring.