ON ANOKA-HENNEPIN SCHOOLS SPRING 2026
Graduate spotlight: CRHS grad makes most of opportunities, pursuing career in sports engineering at Purdue University
Cole Burnett
think outside of the box and think visually. As an engineering student, Burnett learned that in engineering, there are infinite solutions as long as you can solve the problem.
At CRHS, Burnett had the opportunity to work with Aggressive Hydraulics where students were asked to find solutions to problems in their manufacturing process.
“ We had six teams each make a different solution to their problem, and all of our solutions were wildly different and had almost nothing in common, but they all worked,” Burnett said.
Burnett, a 2025 National Merit Scholar, was very involved during his time at CRHS. He was a member of the cross country team as an eighth grader and spent all four high school years running cross country and distance on the track and field team. He was also the Senior Vice President of National
Honor Society and captain of the cross country team as a senior.
He also organized a 5k race at Faith Lutheran Church in Coon Rapids, where over four years, he helped raise around $ 30,000 for the Harbor Food Shelf, once again combining his passion for sports and community.
His favorite time of the day was spending the afternoons with his teammates running, but what he didn’ t know at the time was that he was also fueling his passion for engineering while participating in a sport.
“ I was always a gear nerd when it came to running,” Burnett said.“ I had four or five pairs of running shoes that I would switch out based on the workout. I was just fascinated with the tech side of sports.”
As a senior, Burnett teamed up with classmates for their senior capstone project with the hopes of creating a new training shoe for cross country athletes. During this project, Burnett was able to connect with sports engineers, including people at Nike and others in the industry, opening his eyes to a potential career.
“ I didn’ t know that sports engineering was a career pathway until my senior year,” Burnett said.“ A lot of people currently do this line of work with mechanical engineering degrees, but every major sportswear company has an engineer. It’ s kind of a hidden industry, but 10-20 years from now, I believe it is going to become more prominent as we get deeper into sports technology.”
“ My experiences at Coon Rapids High School set me up for success in the future, Burnett said.“ It was such a unique opportunity that I am really grateful for.” n
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Cole Burnett, a 2025 graduate of Coon Rapids High School- Center for Biomedical Sciences and Engineering( CRHS), is a freshman at Purdue University majoring in Mechanical Engineering while planning to pursue a Master’ s Degree in Sports Engineering where he will blend his love for sport and science.
He didn’ t intend to be an engineer when he enrolled in the pathway as a freshman at CRHS, admittedly joining because a lot of his friends were in the program.
“ My first class, Intro to Engineering and Design, was by far the most fun class I had ever taken,” Burnett said.“ It was mentally stimulating and we got to choose our own way with our projects and my love for engineering only grew throughout my time in the program.”
Burnett said that his experience in the engineering program at CRHS was transformative for his education and eventually led to him choosing to pursue a career in the field. Throughout his experiences, Burnett learned that engineering isn’ t just a nerdy math and science pathway, but a hands-on field where anything is possible and a field where a problem can have many fascinating solutions.
He credits Mr. Scott Storrick and Mr. Trevor Klein for helping ignite his passion for engineering.
“ We could not have had better teachers in the engineering program at Coon Rapids High School,” Burnett said.“ Mr. Storrick was my greatest mentor throughout high school and Mr. Klein was a wealth of knowledge that I am extremely grateful for.”
Aside from the love and passion for engineering, Burnett was able to pick up a number of skills in the classroom, most notably for him, the ability to