Robert Stranahan Named Esports Head Coach

CONTACT: Adam Sopris, a.sopris@hvcc.edu, 58-416-2137 or 518-629-7898
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Tuesday, August 18, 2020

After a national search, Hudson Valley Community College Director of Athletics Justin Hoyt named Robert Stranahan as the first head coach in the history of the College's Esports program.

Stranahan, a Capital Region native and a local health education teacher at the Mohonasen City School District joins the Vikings staff to assist in building the Esports program. He most recently established and built a competitive program at Mohonasen High School. 

Coach Stranahan and the Vikings are currently recruiting interested esports student-athletes as the Fall 2020 NJCAAE regular season is set to begin on Sept. 20 through Nov. 14. All interested Hudson Valley students are asked to complete the Esports Interest Form and contact Coach Stranahan (r.stranahan@hvcc.edu) as soon as possible. 

Interested students may also contact the esports program via Discord (@HVCCEsports) and following the @HVCCEsports twitter page for all of the latest information on the Vikings new program. 

The Monhonasen Esports program was started in the spring of 2018 with a Call of Duty tournament and Coach Stranahan guided its expansion to the PlayVS platform during the 2019-2020 academic year. The epsorts program has grown to over 50 active participants with multiple twitch affliates on the team. In its inaugural season, the League of Legends team finished the year ranked in the top-5 among New York State programs (2019-20). 

Coach Stranahan has also coached varsity indoor and outdoor track and field as well as girls varsity soccer, while building a strength and conditioning program for the high school student-athletes. 

He recently obtained strength and conditioning certifications in functional range conditioning, advanced fascial movement taping, USA weightlifting (Level 1) and functional movement screen (level 2) in June 2020.