Biographical Information
I was born and raised in New York and spent most of my childhood living on a dairy farm in Upstate New York. In high school, I played soccer and ran track while participating in the various clubs and extra-curricular clubs and activities offered by Marion Central High School.
After high school, I moved to Michigan so I could attend Hope College to get the equivalent of a triple major (Education, Physical Education, and English) while making sure I still worked college jobs and participated in the clubs and activities offered at Hope.
For 7 weeks following college, I lived in the 1984 Dodge Omni that I inherited from my grandfather while I traveled around the country visiting my friends and family before settling down for a year to help my father establish his painting business. After that, I moved back to Michigan and spent some time working as a substitute teacher before being offered the chance to work at Mill Creek part-time teaching one class of 6th Grade Physical Education in 1995.
By the end of the 95-96 school year, my teaching schedule was split between Mill Creek and the High School on a full-time basis. I did this for four years before switching to teach lower elementary physical education at Greenridge and Stoney Creek schools. This assignment remained unchanged until 2010 when I was given the opportunity to teach Language Arts for one hour during the day. In 2012-2013, I taught my first year of Language Arts exclusively.
I've been married since 1998 to a woman whom I met on a blind date because one of my fellow teachers at Mill Creek (Sandy Oato) asked her husband who worked at Lowell Area Schools if he knew of any nice teachers in his school. Of course he did and the rest was history.
Currently, I coach youth soccer with PASS-FC and I also enjoy reading, writing, watching movies, eating out at restaurants, and playing Football Manager on the computer. I do enjoy the outdoors and prefer solitude to the hustle and bustle of city life, even though I live in Grand Rapids and think it's a great city.
After high school, I moved to Michigan so I could attend Hope College to get the equivalent of a triple major (Education, Physical Education, and English) while making sure I still worked college jobs and participated in the clubs and activities offered at Hope.
For 7 weeks following college, I lived in the 1984 Dodge Omni that I inherited from my grandfather while I traveled around the country visiting my friends and family before settling down for a year to help my father establish his painting business. After that, I moved back to Michigan and spent some time working as a substitute teacher before being offered the chance to work at Mill Creek part-time teaching one class of 6th Grade Physical Education in 1995.
By the end of the 95-96 school year, my teaching schedule was split between Mill Creek and the High School on a full-time basis. I did this for four years before switching to teach lower elementary physical education at Greenridge and Stoney Creek schools. This assignment remained unchanged until 2010 when I was given the opportunity to teach Language Arts for one hour during the day. In 2012-2013, I taught my first year of Language Arts exclusively.
I've been married since 1998 to a woman whom I met on a blind date because one of my fellow teachers at Mill Creek (Sandy Oato) asked her husband who worked at Lowell Area Schools if he knew of any nice teachers in his school. Of course he did and the rest was history.
Currently, I coach youth soccer with PASS-FC and I also enjoy reading, writing, watching movies, eating out at restaurants, and playing Football Manager on the computer. I do enjoy the outdoors and prefer solitude to the hustle and bustle of city life, even though I live in Grand Rapids and think it's a great city.