The Elkview community and the Braxton County girls soccer team is mourning the death of a Herbert Hoover High School student who was killed in a car accident last Wednesday night. The crash occurred following the Braxton/Herbert Hoover soccer match which the Huskies won by a score of 8-1.
Girls soccer coach Michael Strickland and his daughter, Leah, a ninth-grade student at the Herbert Hoover, were driving home from a soccer game when the accident occurred. The teenager later died from her injuries at a Charleston Area medical facility.
“Leah, your amazing spirit will continue to shine and live through our girls soccer program and with the friends and lives you have touched within our community,” the athletic department said in a Facebook post Thursday.
The vehicle driven by Michael Strickland struck the rear driver’s side of a flatbed commercial truck while making a turn on Interstate 79 near Amma, according to a news release from West Virginia State Police.
Support staff and counselors were being provided for students and staff at both the high school and Elkview Middle School on Thursday, a spokesperson for Kanawha County Schools said.
