Q: How does it feel to be coming back to the school that you went to?

A: Man, it feels great, you know? Definitely get to come back to a place where I pretty much started out. I was here; started in seventh [grade], graduated [in] my senior year and we didn’t really have a strength and conditioning specialist at the time. So it’s definitely a great opportunity to help build a program with Coach [Nick] Rathmann and his visions and what he’s trying to do with the Athletic Department. It just gives us an opportunity to build towards with our strength and conditioning program, so just coming back to The Blake School, where we pride ourselves on academic excellence, I know, we want to incorporate our strength and conditioning and being healthy as well, and [the program] will give us the most advanced training techniques and exercises that are out there that go along with our academics.

Q: What was your college major, and how has that affected your ability to lead weight training?

A: My college major was Organizational Leadership. I’m definitely good at organizing things for large groups of people. I also played college football [at Wisconsin], so that’s where I get a lot of my experience and exposure to a lot of the training techniques. So [I went] from actually living it to playing Division I football and professional football and learning all the different training techniques and coaching words and keywords, and just being able to know what a successful athletic program looks like, and how to run it and successfully implement a program where people can get the best performance from it.

Q: How different is the training now from when you were in high school?

A: Oh man, if you can imagine, I tell this to people all the time. Rathman’s old office used to be the weight room, if you could imagine that, so the weight room was where the athletic department is now, and we had one bench, maybe one squat rack and some of them old rusty dumbbells are still in there from that time, but… around my senior year was when they built Gordy Aamoth Stadium, and that was the first year they kind of implemented the under-the-stadium weight room, so it’s been a nice transition. You know, the hockey guys have always had the top of the line lifting equipment and stuff, so for me it’s just evolutional with time, man. When people just start to get healthy, that’s the main thing, man; it’s having the opportunity to have a personal trainer within your school, so you can graduate from college, come back and have a place to work out. So it’s just trying to create that environment [where] we’re here to get you faster, [to] perform better and have more confidence in your ability.