THE DALLES — Years ago, Staci Coburn’s neighbors rushed over to tell her that her youngest boy, not yet 5, was perched atop the Coburn’s two-story roof.
In disbelief, she told them young Sterling was safely in their locked backyard, but they insisted, so she went outside and looked up to see him happily waving down to her, chirping, “Hi, Mom!”
He’d gotten there from the enclosed backyard by climbing some stacked chairs, onto winter tires, onto a shed roof, and finally the house roof.
That fearless ingenuity was a sign, Staci can see now, of what would lie ahead for him.
Sterling, a senior at The Dalles High School, is one of just 250 people heading to West Point Prep School this summer. It’s a program for promising candidates who are virtually guaranteed to be appointed the following year to West Point, the country’s oldest and most prestigious military service academy.
Sterling is the youngest of three boys for Mark and Staci Coburn of The Dalles. Their oldest, Spencer, just graduated college and plans to be a teacher. Middle son Skyler is swimming for Stevenson University in Maryland and studying biology.
Given the rooftop hijinks, Staci is not surprised that Sterling is considering joining a skydiving club at the prep school.
She’s just grateful that he’ll be learning to skydive from the U.S. Army and “not some random airport somewhere.”
The prep school is almost a “cheat code” for excelling at West Point, Sterling said. It has numerous advantages, including that he’ll “know 200 people going into basic training the next summer.”
The prep school also accounts for a disproportionate number of leaders at West Point. Since 1951, prep school graduates have made up 11% of the cadet corps but produced 25% of senior leadership positions, according to West Point Prep School.
He said he’s looking forward to the prep school, where he’ll be “surrounded by people who think like me, are interested in the same things and are just as motivated.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the boot camp he’ll start in mid-July won’t be his first.
While his peers spent last summer working or relaxing, Sterling headed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for basic combat training after he joined the Army National Guard in spring of junior year.
It was so hot and humid that his 1 a.m. arrival felt like entering a sauna. “I would say the regret doesn’t hit you until you see the drill sergeant board your bus and you’re like, ‘This is surreal,’” Sterling recounted.
There, he earned his platoon’s second highest marksmanship score and experienced getting exposed to tear gas. “For me it wasn’t that bad, but for other people it was really bad,” he said.
Since completing boot camp, Sterling has been attached to a recruitment unit, which takes new recruits and other interested youth — mostly aged 16-18 — on try-out weekends once a month just to see if they like it.
He was quickly tapped for a leadership role.
“I’ve always been a leader, whether or not it was by voice or by example,” Sterling said.
He’s a platoon leader of a constantly changing group of 30-60 people. He leads them in everything from marching to cleaning. “If they fail, I fail.”
They get to drive Humvees, learn how to search vehicles, and do medical training. But the best part is “night ops,” where they try to ambush enlisted Guard members in late night operations.
“You get rifles, you get fake grenades, you get machine guns, all with blanks, and you ambush them,” he said. Then the roles reverse. “It’s basically hide and seek, it’s war games.”
Staci said, “It’s like every boy’s dream.”
A 3.98 GPA student, Sterling always knew he’d go to college — he plans to earn a Ph.D. in physical therapy — but he’d also always had an interest in the military.
When he first learned the National Guard only required one weekend a month and two weeks in summer, he was sold.
“I had no idea there was an army part time,” he said. “So when I knew I could do the military and I could do school, it was a no brainer.”
Local National Guard Recruiter Sgt. 1st Class Rosa Cortez said she knew Sterling was special from the get-go. When he first heard about the National Guard he didn’t text her — he emailed.
“Sterling communicated with the kind of professionalism and respect you rarely see in someone his age. From that very first email, I knew he was different,” Cortez said.
She said he has “a rare blend of maturity, foresight, and humility. He didn’t just check the boxes — he truly embodied the qualities that make someone exceptional.”
He also had a vital asset: family support. “It was clear that his family believed in him just as much as I did. That belief, paired with his drive, created a foundation few can match.”
Just the fact that Sterling was setting up his future as a junior — getting into the National Guard, taking college-level classes — also set him apart. “Most juniors aren’t thinking about optimizing their future with that level of strategy and discipline,” Cortez said. “Sterling was.”
“His community involvement was another reflection of his character,” she said. “He poured countless hours into service — quietly building a résumé that speaks volumes about his willingness to give back.”
She said Sterling “has always carried himself like someone preparing for a greater calling. West Point, with its relentless commitment to building principled leaders of character, seemed like the natural next step for him. He is not just academically and physically capable — he is morally grounded, community-minded, and purpose-driven.”
Always a strong student, Sterling said being able to take harder college level classes helped hold his interest in school.
He actually had enough credits to graduate at the end of his junior year, but wanted to finish his senior year. Meanwhile, he’s earned 30 college credits.
His best subject is math — “I’ve just always been good with numbers and something about when you complete something that’s hard, it’s just so fulfilling.”
He also likes writing and English.
And he’s always been on top of his schoolwork.
“I’ve never seen him bring homework home,” said Mark. “Like math, he just sees it, it just makes sense to him.”
Mark — who’d had to clamber on the roof all those years ago to rescue Sterling — had another moment some years later when he witnessed another insight into his son.
They were elk hunting and Sterling gave chase when he saw some elk.
“He went straight up the hill and by the time I got myself up the hill, the elk were all gone, and Sterling was gone,” Mark recounted.
His takeaway from the moment was that his son “is Rambo,” Mark joked. But in seriousness, he said, “He was quick and determined. He’s good at thinking things through. He can see stuff. He can see where they were going to go. Now that he’s older, I can see that, military-wise, he can see the outcome of something.”
As a member of the military, Sterling needed the approval of four members of National Guard leadership to be nominated for West Point Prep School.
The Guard also had to agree to release him from his service.
On what it’s been like seeing their son reach for — and attain — such ambitious goals, Staci said, “We just encouraged him to do what he felt was best for him … We just wanted him to succeed and be happy.”
At his graduation from National Guard boot camp, she said, “You could tell that he fit in, and he was happy, and it was a place for him that he fit in.”
Mark had the same impression seeing him at graduation. “It’s where he belonged. He just looked the part. I call him Captain America.”
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