My passion for volleyball began at age 11 in 1971 when, as a 5th grader, I started attending the newly opened middle school of the Central Columbia School District near Bloomsburg, PA. As it happened, the new P. E. teacher of this middle school, Dan Gasdick, had been a founding member and the first president of the men's volleyball club at Penn State University. He had a passion for the sport of "Power Volleyball" (not to be confused at the time with the back yard picnic variety) that influenced not only the activities in our P.E. class, but sparked my love of playing and teaching the game. In this middle school, our schedule allowed for us to take "Mini-courses" that were really electives created by teachers in areas of their own interest. Mr. Gasdick offered Power Volleyball 1 & 2, both of which I took as a 6th grader. Since I had tapped out the volleyball curriculum in 6th grade, what was left for 7th and 8th grades? Well, I talked Mr. Gasdick into letting me be his teaching assistant for Power Volleyball and thus began my volleyball coaching career at the ripe old age of 12. Now, forty some years later I find myself still coaching volleyball with a still burning passion for teaching the game and competing. After graduation from Central Columbia High School, I went to Luther College where I help found the Men's Volleyball Club, lettered in tennis, and earned a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science. After graduating from Luther and realizing the cubicle life was not for me, I enrolled in the Math Education program at the University of Minnesota. While going to the U of M I played on their Men's Club Volleyball team, which was being coached at the time by friends of one Glen Lietzke. I also played as a setter and outside hitter on a men's USVBA team, with a bunch of other math graduate students, that won the Men's A North Star Regional Championship. Somewhere during this period, I was asked by a friend to play on a co-rec volleyball team. Also invited to be on that team was Kathy Bolstorff (who played on a high school team in Minnesota coached by another close friend of Glen Lietzke that competed against another high school team coached by, you guessed it, Glen Lietzke ... yes, it's a small world) who I ended up marrying. We ultimately followed a path similar to Glen's here to Austin, where we have lived since 1990. We now have two children, Jonah and Allison; both of them also play for Austin Juniors. Ever since moving to Austin I have worked for the Austin Independent School District first at Johnston High School (where I was the Freshman Volleyball Coach for 5 years and the Varsity Coach for 2 years) followed by Garza High School. I was the assistant coach for TAPPS State Volleyball Champion St. Michael's Academy in 1991. I also love to perform and have been on stage in many musicals here in Austin at the Paramount Theater, the old Palmer Auditorium and Zilker Park. Despite all the information available to him through our Minnesota connections, Glen hired me to coach for Austin Junior Volleyball in that 1990-91 season, making this my 33rd season with the club.