Inspiration:

I was homeschooled from K-12th grade, didn’t start playing basketball until age 12, and I was 5’3" tall in 7th grade – shorter than my 14 -year-old sister (which really bothered me). When I started playing basketball, it was with a group of 12-18-year-old homeschool players, some as tall as 6’6". I was short, unskilled, and panicky under pressure which resulted in the hot-potato approach – getting rid of the ball as soon as possible to someone more capable.

I grew 11 inches between the ages of 13 and 15 and was now a 6’4" center in our league. Starting late and growing so quickly, I was both unskilled and constantly re-calibrating to my ever-increasing height.
As you can imagine, homeschool coaches were all volunteer parents doing the best they could to coach a competitive team. I improved throughout my high school years, but remained a mostly unskilled “garbage man” – cleaning up missed shots and putting them back in the basket was my primary contribution.

Those who can’t do, teach… So I became a head coach right away!

From player to coach:

5 months after graduating high school, I was a head coach for a 7/8th grade team of players only 5 years younger than myself. By the end of the first season, I was bitten with the coaching bug.

Seeing all of my peers run off to college, usually with no idea what they wanted to study or why I decided that the normal college route was not for me. My self-directed learning experience through homeschooling served me well. I sought out online coaching courses, certifications, and hands-on learning through player development work with former college coaches. 6 years later after coaching every day, and earning co-coach of the year as a 24-year-old high school varsity coach, I decided to pursue an online degree for a Bachelor of Sport Science, majoring in…you guessed it, coaching!

After several years of coaching internationally and then at the high school level in Indiana and Maine, I found myself always returning to 1on1 coaching with 6, 7 & 8th-grade players. I began to realize that THAT was what I loved to do most, and was most rewarding.

​While working on my degree and looking at the standard career track of college assistant coaches, I began evaluating the lifestyle necessary to make it at the college level. When calculating the number of players and the leverage of impact I could have there compared to working with my favorite age group, I concluded that I wanted to serve those kids that reminded me of my 12-year-old-self. Combined with the decision to start a family in NH, I decided to fully embrace player development with youth players and started Play Practice as my full-time focus in 2018.