Oct. 9, 2008

LOGAN, Utah - By Ashley Schiller, USU Athletic Media Relations

You hear a lot of good stories when you spend an evening with siblings and current Utah State student-athletes Steve and Bridgette Strickland, like the time when Bridgette let Steve have it at the pool.

"She punched me in the face!" Steve said.

"He deserved it," Bridgette interrupts. "He was making fun of my swimsuit."

"I was calling her 'asteroid,'" Steve explains.

"My swimming suit was silver and I loved it," Bridgette said. "I had paid for it on my own, and I told him if he kept making fun of it, I was going to punch him in the face."

Sure enough, Steve continued to taunt. Bridgette jumped into the pool and socked him square in the nose, giving him a whopper of a nose bleed.

That was back when Steve was 10 and Bridgette was 8. Now the two are respectively 23 and 21, and things have changed. Both are at Utah State on athletic scholarships, Steve for cross country and track, Bridgette for tennis. Being here together has strengthened their relationship.

"We're a lot closer now," Steve said. "We've always been good friends, but we're closer now because you depend on each other a lot more when you're not at home."

The two are very involved in each other's lives. They live less than a block apart, share a car, and even pick up items for one another at the grocery store.

"It's nice because you have someone you can call and ask to do favors for you. I'm never afraid to call Steve and ask him to help me," Bridgette said.

Steve enjoys having Bridgette as a familiar, listening ear. "Sometimes you need a break," he said. "You need someone you've lived with your entire life, someone you can say whatever to, someone you fought with when you were little. They know who you are and how you feel."

Both Steve and Bridgette are team captains. They encourage each other to perform well both in athletics and in school.

"Last year, I got a 3.9 and a 4.0 in the same semester. I got Bird (Bridgette) a 4.0 and myself a 3.9," Steve said. "If Bird would have turned in the paper that she was thinking about turning in, which took me about five hours to edit, she would have gotten a 'D.'"

Bridgette grinned and shook her head in disagreement. "Steve reviewed my paper and told me I pretty much had to rewrite the whole thing, but I did the work on that project. I earned the grade," she said.

Steve and Bridgette aren't the first Strickland's to storm Logan. In fact, five of the 10 children in their family have come here. During his freshman year, Steve's older sister, Tiffany, was also running on the cross country and track and field teams.

Although Steve and Bridgette are not competitive with each other in sports, Steve and Tiffany have a rivalry. The two run the exact same races, making it easy to compare. Tiffany qualified for nationals both her junior and senior year. This is Steve's junior year, and the pressure is on.

"Basically I'm just trying to outdo Tiff," he said.

The two are competitive but also good friends. They often talk about race tactics and Tiffany pumps up Steve before competitions. In fact, Tiffany was actually the one who got Steve into running in the first place.

"I just kind of fell into the sport," he said. "I would tag along with Tiff. I would actually run with her when she was running for the high school and I was running for the junior high."

Bridgette also tried out running, while she was in junior high.

"But I hated it," she said while smiling. Steve nodded in agreement.

However, she's always loved tennis. Her admiration began in elementary school. At the time, the family lived in Las Vegas, and Andre Agassi trained near their home.

"We would go watch Agassi train and play all the time. We would pick up the balls outside and he would sign them for us. I think that's when I fell in love with tennis," Bridgette said.

Although Steve and Bridgette continue to love their sports, playing at the university level is challenging, they said.

"College sports are hard on you mentally. You expect a lot out of yourself. Your teammates and coaches expect a lot of you," Bridgette said.

Steve said he and his sister help each other stay positive by quoting advice from the book "Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence." Both agree it's nice to have a sibling who will always be supportive whether the one performs well or not.

Steve was the 2008 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Steeplechase Champion and was part of the team that won the 2007 WAC Outdoor Track and Field Championship. He is majoring in Spanish and plans to pursue a master's degree in foreign commerce and diplomacy after he graduates in the spring of 2010.

Bridgette plays No. 3 singles on the tennis team. She will graduate this spring with a bachelor's in parks and recreation. She would like to work with a tennis club or other recreation department.