I would best describe myself as a jack of all trades because I began my life in the arts. I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama. I attended the Academy for Academics and Arts from age four until age thirteen. Over these formative years, my only extracurricular activities were orchestra, concert choir, and show choir with the occasional musical on the side. I did manage to manipulate my parents into letting me play hockey when I was eight, but other than that I had no idea how play any sport or lift weights. After the eighth grade my family moved me to Tullahoma, Tennessee: population 18,000. Being such a small town, there was no hockey, but there was football. In my freshman year, I picked up both football and soccer. I immediately fell in love with soccer, but football was another story. Since I was a mere 5’6 and 145 pounds, I wasn’t exactly football material. With my lack of physical maturity and coordination, I probably looked like a baby zebra on the field. I wanted to be a good football player, so I started lifting weights and I soon found out that I was small, not weak. My years of playing hockey helped me develop and strengthen my lower body and core. By my Senior year, I was one of the strongest and the fastest athletes at my 4-A high school and I was a varsity athlete in track, football, and soccer.

I was recruited by a couple of schools for football and decided to go to Tuskegee University and play there. At Tuskegee, I began my quest for true strength. In high school, I was able to get away with natural ability. In college, everyone has natural ability. It was tough for me at first because our coaches were ruthless in the weight room. It was get stronger or be left behind. I soon took conditioning very seriously. My body has never been large or excessively strong so I began to build my body core strength and condition it to the point that no one could outlast me. I wanted to be the last man standing.

I took this new mentality to Middle Tennessee State University, where I ran indoor track and played football. I was at MTSU for three years as an athlete. The first two years, I gained no weight and barely increased the weight of my lifts. In my third year, we got a new strength coach named Russell Patterson. In the first 6 months with Coach Patterson, I gained 10 poundss of muscle and no body fat. To put this in perspective, I went from a 245 pound maximum bench press to 300 pounds. My running speed also improved as I went from a 40-yard dash in 4:50 to a 4:42. This showed what good programming can do to the body.

After college I moved to Austin. I thought at this point that I wanted to work in politics, since I got my degree in history and a minor political science. After six months of working at the state capitol, I realized I was dead wrong. I had a strong urge to get back on the field and coach. I landed an internship in the 2009 with the University of Texas. It was an incredible learning experience and great way to see how a big time division one program runs their weight room. In 2010, I began working with Hyde Park Baptist Middle School and High School coach football, middle school basketball, and track. I also help coordinate the strength program for our student athletes. I love working with kids, and watching their athletic development. This pass year I was blessed to meet Jon, and become a part of the Human Machine Athletic Club staff.