My journey started growing up in Hagerstown, MD playing multiple sports through my childhood. While playing multiple sports I always had a special connection with baseball; I grew up with a dream that every baseball kid has, to play in the big leagues. It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I finally understood and figured out what I needed to do to try to make my dream become a reality. I had to WORK!
I graduated from South Hagerstown High School in 2009, after I graduated I signed to play baseball at Frederick Community College, one of the Nation’s Top 25 Junior College baseball Programs. After red-shirting my freshman year, playing a minimal amount and needing surgery halfway through my red-shirt sophomore year, I signed a national letter of intent to play at Concord University for my final two collegiate seasons. One of the coolest baseball accomplishments that I had was after my senior season in 2014 I was voted one of the Nation’s Top 6 Players, I was a Tino Martinez Award Finalist which is given to the top baseball player in all of Division II Baseball.
After college, my dream of becoming a professional baseball player came true. But it was not a walk in the park by any means. I played professionally for 4 seasons. I had a lot of success in those 4 years, but I also had a lot of failures. Being released twice, and traded another time. The biggest take away that I had was, there was always another team that would believe in me, so I had to keep pushing. With an unbelievable support group of coaches and my beautiful wife Lauren, I was able to amass 45 homeruns in those 4 seasons, the teams including the Roswell Invaders, Trois-Riveries Aigles, Salina Stockade.
After the 2017 season, I finally made the decision to retire. Playing professionally in the minor leagues is tough, minimal pay, time away from family and a constant push and strain on your body and mental health. I finally knew that my time had come. During my professional playing years is actually when I got into coaching, I started in 2014 with Extra Innings as an instructor. For the last 8 years working for various businesses I have been able to impact hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of players and families. Impacting the life of young players and families now brings more joy than hitting a home run professionally. Finally, in 2020 we created our brand Barrel Nation to bring elite player development to the tri-state area.
Thank you for reading my story, see you soon at Barrel Nation!
