“I grew up in a medium-sized town outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As a kid, I played baseball, basketball, and soccer, but gravitated to (i.e. was better at) soccer as a teenager. I represented the US U17 and U18 National Teams, then attended Stanford University and garnered NSCAA 1st Team All-America honors my junior year and wore the captain’s armband my senior season. From Stanford, I was drafted in the 1st Round, #17 overall, of the MLS SuperDraft to FC Dallas. After three season in Dallas, I went to Sweden for a year, followed by Norway for a year and a half; capping my career back as captain of my hometown team, the Harrisburg City Islanders.
During my career as a player, I started writing and contributing columns to various American soccer websites, such as Deadspin, MLSsoccer.com, FoxSports, and Howler Magazine. The people at Howler Magazine were even crazy enough to give me my own podcast.
After six years of playing professional soccer, I retired and wrote a book. I’d read a lot of athletes’ memoirs over the years and felt there was another layer of emotional depth they could achieve. I took a stab at it. It explains pretty much everything about me – even the stuff my mom probably doesn’t want you to know – so if you’d like to learn more about my life (or, really, the life of most professional athletes, I think), I’d say give the book a try. “