AMA #22 Hokie Fireman

Background:
Born and raised in City of Richmond went to Benedictine High School. Played football for 2 state title teams there. Worked at Ukrops going from bagger to cashier to trained butcher with probably my favorite company ever in term of how they treated employees. Was admitted to Randolph Macon in Ashland in Fall 2002 and was going to play football but between lingering injuries, not "feeling it anymore" and too many parties I left the team after summer and early fall camp. Made it one year at RMC and decided college wasn't for me. During fall at RMC I had taken a job at Kings Dominion in security as short term seasonal. I was asked to keep working during the off season at night and into the next summer.

Also during this time was the infamous DC sniper shootings in VA the one that was closet was at the Ashland Ponderous steakhouse. I was working KD that night and it was weird standing outside the park directing traffic while knowing a sniper had just shot someone a few blocks from my dorm. Once I left RMC I started taking classes at VCU and working a lot more for KD. Was working the day we had the shooting in the parking lot during college days also. Had the chance to work with Hanover Sheriff deputies during my days at KD and applied when I was old enough and was hired at 20. This probably was biggest error I made in my public safety career. I had little life experience compared to most others on the job, who came after working for other busier agencies or time in the military. I was assigned to midnight shift and didn't make many close friends because of the age gap and my propensity to want to find calls to get into. Left Hanover after some heated meetings and am glad it came to a head early in my time. Went to the fire side with Chesterfield while working at MCV. Met my wife while working at VCU while she was doing an away rotation during her residency in Columbus Ohio. So after long distance for a year I moved to Ohio got a job with a fire department up there and we got married. I followed my wife around for residency, fellowship and first post training employment so never with one agency for more than 4 years but learned a lot, saw a lot got a lot of exposure and training.

We settled down outside Myrtle Beach SC for 4 years, at this point we had 4 daughters who were keeping me busy most days. We decided with tuition being really cheap for county residents at the state community college I would get working on some degrees to match my training and experience. When her hospital job became a ceiling with no growth potential we looked around and settled on Jacksonville FL area and moved down here 5 years ago. Since then I've earned a bachelors degree and my first of two masters degrees.

I spend my days taking kids to their activities, school and appointments, doing coursework and trying to take some plates away from my wife to support her and her crazy schedule. Our family enjoys Disney trips, Disney cruises and travel in general. This year we have gone to 5 states, and 5 countries, we always are telling the kids experiences over items.

I've been a fan of Hokies football since my cousin took me to my first game in Lane in 1995 or 96. Sat right behind the band in the East stands. Been a Hokie Club member for 12 years and a season ticket holder for 6. We recently got Jaguars season tickets to catch a few games, Duval! I have also taken up coaching girls flag football for 3 of my girls, all 4 play. Girls flag football with the support of the NFL has really taken off here. We expect between 300 and 400 girls for our fall season.