Meet your instructor

My personal experience with mental performance training:
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I set the cliché goal at a very young age of becoming a professional soccer player someday. I was brought up in a culture of hard work, perfectionism, and the belief that competition was meant to be angry, fierce, and all about outdoing others.

As I progressed in my sport and the level around me grew, I began to have a toxic relationship with myself and my performance. Although I was much better than the average athlete, I would come out of games and practices angry because I had made one or two mistakes, a loss on a scoreboard, or because my coach had been critical of something I did.

I started to do my own my own research into mental performance when I was playing college soccer at Friends University and found that my identity and ego were being completely defined by my perception of my own performance on the field. I realized I was hyper-critical of my own play, extremely negative with self-dialogue, and ultimately focused on results I could not control rather than processes that would be more enjoyable and move me closer to my goal of playing professionally.

My journey into mental performance caused a paradigm shift that allowed me to become extremely intrinsic in my athletic growth, have a healthier relationship with myself and competition, be a better teammate, control my performance anxiety, and become more focused in training and games. The result? I was able to have a fantastic nine-year career of semi-professional and professional soccer during which I obtained my M.S. in Applied Sport Psychology. Now I work with professional athletes all over the nation, college athletes and teams, and elite high school athletes looking to level up their game much like I did at their age!

Why I became a coach:

The “why” in my coaching journey is directly related to the journey I had to take to become a professional soccer player. This journey centered around the ideas that creativity yields confidence, leadership is service, and actions speak louder than words. I value the importance of always attempting to do the right thing, trust, strong work ethic, honesty, positivity, creativity, focusing on things that I can control, and building quality relationships with the athletes I serve.

I coach because I have a natural gift of communicating with adults and young adults in an effective and meaningful manner and I want to use this gift to help them be the best version of themselves. An athlete who is coached by me should feel like they are being held to extremely high standards while also feeling supported and motivated to achieve them. They should feel confident, creative, energetic, and free to be themselves. Finally, athletes coached by me are a part of my family, and I aim to be one of their biggest supporters on and off the athletic field.

My mission is simple: I develop champion individuals on and off the field by mixing soccer coaching points with life-lessons, conducting myself in a professional manner on and off the field, developing quality relationships with my athletes, keeping an open mind and positive attitude at all times and being an ambassador of service leadership.

My Hobbies:

I absolutely love playing disc golf, hiking, playing hockey, camping, going to the beach, walking my dogs, playing video games, and hanging out with my beautiful wife!

What is the outcome I love seeing with my athletes?

​I love seeing my athletes develop a better relationship with themselves, competition, and put in work to achieve incredible things. I love watching their confidence grow along with their abilities and learning about their unique journey in sport.