After graduating from the University of Illinois, I returned to Orland Park and managed The Ol' Ball Park, a sports memorabilia store in the old Orland Park Place mall, for a couple of years. I left The Ol' Ball Park and managed Kirkland's, which is now Kirkland's Home (by Barnes & Noble in Orland) from 1995 through 1997. My wife, Amy, was a teacher for 2 years at Joliet West High School. She was offered a position at Jerseyville High School in southern Illinois (people down here insist that it's central Illinois, but those of us from the Chicago suburbs know better) near her hometown of Carlinville (near Springfield), so I opted to give up my retail career and move to the Springfield area. We lived in Carlinville for 9 years, and moved to Springfield in December of 2005. I started working for the Illinois Department of Revenue in 1998. Our son, Preston, was born in July of 2000. I still have all of the baseball cards that I collected throughout high school, and occasionally think about sorting through them. Back issues forced me to quit playing basketball in 2016.

My dad was a teacher and coach at Sandburg while I was a student. If anyone reading this remembers him and is curious as to his whereabouts, he and my mom live in Marco Island, Florida for 9 months of the year, and spend the remaining 3 months in Monticello, Indiana. He stays active by playing tennis 5-6 days each week.

My wife, son, and I went to China in December of 2010 and returned with the newest member of our family, Shaling. Shaling was born in 2001 and had lived in a Chinese orphanage her entire life.

I look back fondly on my years at CSHS. I look forward to seeing everyone at our next reunion.