The Good Counsel CyberPatriot Coach is Mr. Steven Strazza, a GC Computer Studies teacher. He came to Good Counsel as an IT professional. The school then offered him a position to teach computer science classes, and with that came moderating the computer club. As a coach, he regards student passion and attendance as vital to success. He allows students to grow through self-enhancement but steps in occasionally to ensure team members are on the right track. While his knowledge and experience are vast it does reach limits in certain areas. His knowledge and experience expand to Windows and Servers, but it does not cross into the Unix side. Fortunately, Mr. Beekey and Mr. Godman aid the team as Technical Mentors and Team Assistants providing constant encouragement and training the team. 

The competitors are Andrew Niebur, Dean Rensberger. Cade Suko, Rakan Hassan, Kwatembom Kuma, Chukwudalu Dumebi-Kachikwu, John Godman, Sam Spordis, Carter Hoatson, Connor Cavanaugh, Evan Nicholas, Chloe Shin, Matthew Stripling, Xiaoyi Gao, Nellie Squirlock, and Nathaniel D’Costa.

The whole CyberPatriot team divides itself into two groups. During competitions, both operate in different rooms. Each team has team seats due to only six people being allowed to participate.In practice and exhibition rounds non seated members are equally essential. They swap roles with seated members as well as do research when their partner has faced an obstacle.

To prepare for rounds, the team meets weekly on Wednesdays. Sometimes they divide the whole squad into divisions based on specializations (Windows 10, Windows Servers, e.t.c.). On other days the teams will have joint teach-ins to advance their knowledge in areas such as Networking, Webapp exploitation, Open Source Intel, Cryptography, etc. 

Individual participants’ experience in the tournament varies in certain ways, but all share many similarities. For instance, team leaders such as Andrew Niebur deal with keeping members motivated and in the right  direction. Whereas regular team participants deal with keeping their pace as well as keeping team spirit. Non seat members help through doing research to aid in solving hurdles in rounds.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the series: The Inner Workings

Sources:

https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/PublishingImages/Pages/Competition/Tiers-and-Advancement/Advancement%20CP-XI.jpg

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