The Start

This is the start of something I hope everyone will enjoy in some way, shape, or form. I have wrestled with the idea of whether to even do this for a very long time. Even after deciding to go for it, I still wasn’t completely sure what I wanted this to actually look like or be about.

The first idea that came to mind is obviously my current job. I knew I would have to run it by my bosses. They can be tough sometimes. Anytime I would get ready to ask them about me doing this, they would make demands for me to get them things and start crying if I didn’t do it right away. It is crazy to me how much they would ask you to do, like get them food or drinks, buy them toys, play with them, plus so much more…more than I may want to get into right now.

If you haven’t guessed it, my bosses are my two totally awesome boys. They both have their own, unique challenges that they must work through with me and my wife, Kristin, at their sides. To most people, they are disabilities, but these boys don’t see them as anything more than just another task they have to get through. It’s because of this, and the stigmas that can make things harder for them, that I feel that this story needs to be told.

This is not an attempt to make money off their lives.

This is not being made to make you feel bad for them.

This is not about me and my wife being superheroes and making names for ourselves.

This is to educate.

This is to help people understand, not only what the kids have to deal with, but what the parents have to do to navigate life.

This is to hopefully help answer questions that people are sometimes afraid to ask.

So there’s a lot going on there, but I feel like I wanted this to be something more. There’s another part of my life that I think helped me prepare for being in this Dad role. My passion in life has always been soccer, since I first got onto a soccer field when I was five years old. It was that passion that led me to spend 12 years of my life at the Richmond Kickers, where I met some remarkable people and had some experiences I don’t even think Hollywood could have written.

Many of these stories have not been heard outside of those that were there. From the smallest of youth players all the way to the top of professional players, I helped try to put a light on every part of the organization and helped to really establish the historic club in the digital space.

My first season was in 2009, the year the Kickers won their last championship (USL-2 Championship). I was there when things were in a tough spot for the league, with multiple teams leaving and barely getting a season in for 2010, the historic Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup run in 2011, topping the league table in 2013, hosting four English Premier League and one La Liga clubs, and when I left in 2021 while the league seemed to be at the strongest it had ever been. You don’t understand how crazy of a roller coaster ride this was for lower division soccer in the United States.

I even got some time in helping out D.C. United on their match days in 2012. It was interesting to see how different things were as compared to what our match day prep looked like. The fact that they had an office of six or seven people was one of the most glaring differences, compared to…well…me. The look on people’s faces when I first said that was very entertaining, and I wish I had a photo of it.

Looking back, I think those years helped prepare me for being a dad in ways I didn’t fully understand at the time.

This will be fun. It might get deep here and there, but I will try to steer clear of the dark stuff. There is no telling what I will write about or what I might share. I think to start, I may just go with whatever I am feeling. As things settle down, and I get into a good routine, maybe then I can look at planning out things more. I am very excited to get this going, especially with how long I have thought about doing this.