I grew up in Arvada, Colorado, roughly 20 minutes north of Denver. I, like many, had to face a difficult decision between two high schools that I would attend. One was a private high school an hour away, and the other a public school about a mile from my house. I ended up choosing the public school just down the street, Pomona High School, which is not something I regret, but it did help shape a lot of my future. At Pomona, I ended up playing a total of four varsity sports, including hockey, golf, basketball and baseball. The irony was that baseball was the last for me to play at the varsity level but ultimately was my primary sport. Pomona was a very premier program that won state at the 5A level my sophomore year and was nationally ranked in the top 20 my junior year. I had success as a junior on varsity and quickly became our No. 2 pitcher. Going in to my senior season, I was awarded as a TPX Pre-Season All-American but received very little interest from college coaches until I threw a seven-inning shutout against the Houston Heat, which comprised Jay Bruce, Koby Clemens and multiple other future top draft picks. This performance, among others, helped me to earn a full-ride scholarship to the University of New Mexico and become a TPX Regular Season (Multi-Position) All-American. However, I was drafted by the Florida Marlins in the fifth round, 156th overall, and I opted to play professional baseball. I played seven seasons with the Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals organizations. In that time, I was ranked as the No. 29 prospect in 2008, the No. 22 prospect in 2006, and the No. 21 prospect in 2007 within the Marlins organization.
The reason I love working at NCSA is because my family had no clue how to help me to get recruited by college coaches, and that ended up creating a lot of stress in my life. Despite being a very premier player, I was completely overlooked by college programs and was only recruited due to being a premier player who happened to be in the right place at the right time, and perform at the highest level I possibly could. I love talking with families about how they can improve the opportunities for their student-athlete playing in college, so they can be the drivers of this process, as opposed to relying on an incredible set of circumstances and good fortune as I did. I was very fortunate to play baseball at the level I did, and my experience has afforded me the opportunities to be a travel coach now and work at NCSA helping families learn from my mistakes, so they can improve their own collegiate potential.