I was born on October 12, 1988 in my favorite city – Dallas, Texas. I am proud to be Texan and proud to be an American. The third born of seven children, I enjoy being the only boy. I am in the tenth grade and have been home educated throughout. In addition, live feed internet courses have further enriched my education during the past three years.

At age eleven I discovered ice skating through a friend’s ice skating birthday party. For the next six months, I had several group lessons followed by six months of weekly freestyle lessons. Then my freestyle coach recommended that I consider ice dancing. At the time, I did not even know ice dancing existed. After one month of bi-weekly ice dance lessons with Olivia Maxwell, I knew I wanted to pursue ice dancing. Knowing that I could only pursue one sport with excellence, I chose ice dancing over baseball. When asked why, my reply was, “In baseball, as a first baseman, I am always waiting for something to happen: In ice dancing I get to make it happen!”

Olivia and Warren Maxwell have been my ice dancing coaches for four years and I look forward to many more. Their attention to detail and never allowing “good” to be enough pushes me out of my personal comfort zone to reach for my best. The past year and a half I have had the privilege of skating with Stephanie Klimczak. I enjoy training with her because she is bright, cheerful, and loves competition as much as I do.

Skating has not only developed me athletically, but has also forced me to be resourceful to finance the costly training. What started as a few lawns on weekends grew into a small business venture that now occupies most of my free time. This venture has taught me how to run a business. I have learned important lessons in business development, invoicing, tracking expenses, scheduling jobs, and putting the customer first. Without the faithful commitment of my father to drive me to jobs and to work alongside me these past four years, my desire to skate would not be a reality. I am grateful to Real Estate Services and S&S Properties for their business.

Skating is a priority in my life; however, it is within the bounds of my life’s priorities: my family, my country, and my God. I acknowledge that any abilities I have, the finances, and my wonderful coaches and partner are all gifts from God. Therefore, I want everything I do in skating to bring praise and glory to God.

I enjoy the travel and the diversity of individuals that I encounter in the skating world. When not skating I enjoy spending time with my sisters, fishing, hunting, mechanics (I’m lucky - how many of you have a mom who allows you to dismantle and work on a lawn mower engine in your den?), and reading history or the classics.

I want to pursue my skating career to the highest level possible. Realizing that ice dancing is a long term sport, I am committed to the training discipline necessary to achieve excellence and compete in the Grand Prix events and, hopefully, even the Olympics.