My 10-Year Training Anniversary was officially on February 7, 2024. I’m posting this as I’m about to complete my 11th year coaching. It’s not because I miscounted the years.
My original plan was to come out with a post where I was going to write about my 10 years in training on February 7. The problem is that as I was starting to write it, all these different ideas and memories kept popping into my mind. I didn’t want to gloss over anything, so I decided to space it out and make multiple posts. Multiple posts turned into four, then seven before finally giving you the eight posts below. I wanted to take my time with this, hence the late arrival.
For those who don’t know me that well, this will give you a pretty good idea of what I’ve done training wise the past 10 years. This takes you from when I first made the decision to decide to get into coaching all the way up to where I am now.
The idea was to give you my story, but I also wanted to make sure to shoutout all of the coaches that helped me and all of my clients who got me to this point. I had a lot of doubt early on about how long I’d be able to do this, but the coaches and clients I met along the way kept me in the game and got me to the point I’m at now.
I don’t advertise and there’s no contracts when you sign up with me. It’s pay as you go. If you don’t enjoy the service, you’re not contractually obligated to come again. It’s a referral-based business. I prefer it that way because it means the people are only coming back because they want to and I can vet the new prospects a lot better to make sure I’m getting solid people. It leads to no bad days.
As you saw in the last post, it wasn’t littered with hundreds of athletes that signed up to train. It’s just not possible for me to train that many people, even though every online coach claims they’ve trained thousands of pro athletes. I look for solid people and families that would be a good fit. It’s the quality over quantity saying. I’ve been blessed with that and wanted these posts to show my appreciation for it.
Me with Tyler Goldstein and Jason Gallo in August of 2024.
The Morton’s came through with another great family that’s been so supportive of me when they introduced me to the Gallo’s. Ali and John are always traveling to all these baseball tournaments and are always mentioning my name when someone shows interest in training. John is into training and fitness and it’s always fun talking shop with him after sessions. Ali is one of my biggest cheerleaders and she’s always on the same page as me since she works at a school too. I first met the Gallo’s in the fall of 2022 when I started training Jordyn, but put them in this section since their youngest son, Jason, started training with me in 2024. Jordyn came to me with no athletic background, which actually was good because it gave me a clean slate to work with. Without any bad habits ingrained, she picked up on my cues quickly and became a really smooth runner. We’re aiming for her to run spring track at Tottenville High School.
I always joke that if we combined Jordyn’s form with the intensity of Jason, we’d have a high-level runner. What I love about Jason is he talks about baseball the way Mike Deats talks about hockey. Though undersized, Jason has made so much progress because of the work he puts into each exercise and all of the “extra credit” he does at home with his dad. He’s the youngest kid I’ve ever had perform multiple chin-ups. He’s got that love for baseball and is willing to put in the work to become a better player.
Me with Fatima after her track meet at St. Joseph by the Sea in 2024.
Another awesome brother-sister pair that I got to work with is Ali and Fatima. Their father, also Ali, worked out at Intoxx Fitness and reminds me of Konstantin Konstantinovs. He asked John Errichello about training and he referred them to me. Both were very disciplined kids who succeed in the classroom and work hard in their extracurricular activities. They don’t take anything for granted. Ali is an outstanding soccer player and Fatima is a soccer and track athlete. Two of the easiest kids I’ve ever worked with and the hour flew by with them. They gave every repetition their best effort and listened intently to every word that came out of my mouth, so I had to make sure I was on my game. These kids are a coach’s dream.
Me with Josh Diaz after a tournament during Memorial Day Weekend in 2024.
Back when I started training Alex Diaz, him and his dad, Carlos, would tell me all about this younger cousin they had who they said was going to be a stud. I forgot about it when Alex’s uncle, John, texted me asking about getting training for his son, who was a pitcher and infielder. I was pretty booked, so I wasn’t looking to take on anyone else, but then I said in my head “how can you pass up a Diaz?” Thank God I didn’t. Josh Diaz is everything Alex and Carlos told me, and then some. When Josh and John come over for training, I get flashbacks to when Alex and Carlos were here. Josh is all business working out and John is filling me in on the travel circuit and the MLB. John and Carlos are people that you could talk baseball with for hours. What I try to explain to people when they come to me about training and what their goals are is that there’s levels to this. Josh flies all over the country and is nationally ranked, yet he never comes in and fools around or thinks he’s too good to do anything. I can tell you a lot of things about Josh, but, to put it simply: he’s what a high performer looks and acts like. Follow his demeanor if you want to make it to that next level.
When Jason Gallo started working with me in 2024, he didn’t come alone. He brought along Tyler Goldstein. Tyler and Jason were a solid youth group and made some good progress relatively quickly. Tyler bought into the monotony of training and focusing on perfecting each step before moving up. Tyler has the patience for it which has paid off for him this past year as he continues to grow. He also takes what he’s learned in the session and is working on it at home with dad, Eric. Eric and Leesa have been so great to work with and have made my life so much easier. I only said that he used to train with Jason because now he has a new session partner, his dad.
ANOTHER GROUP TRAINING OPPORTUNITY
With the Red Storm 14U squad after they played a triple-header in a South Jersey tournament in 2024.
I enjoy one-on-one and small-group training and do believe it is what I’m best at. But, after making a bunch of trips down to Virginia to see Justin Kavanaugh and what they were doing at SSI, I was interested in large-group training. It can be hectic, but it’s also a thrill because you have to make sure you organize everything and you’re always doing something. You have to keep your eyes on so many athletes that’s there’s never a minute where you can take your foot off the gas. I always left those large-group sessions wide awake because you’re always on the go.
With the Red Storm 12U team after our last team workout at Intoxx Fitness in March of 2024.
I didn’t know if I’d ever get another large group opportunity after working with Anthony Hillery at Petrides in 2021, but something finally came up in January of 2024. John Errichello gave me the chance to work with the 12U and 14U Red Storm softball teams at Intoxx Fitness. This would be the first time I ever got to train a whole team and I wanted this to go as well as it could. We met once per week for sessions at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. and it couldn’t have been a more fun experience. I got the chance to watch both of these teams play throughout the year and saw the 12’s play with the Great Kills squad in the all-star tournament. It really gave me a chance to get to know all the girls and see what great people they were and how committed they are. I’ve watched them practice and got to know the coaches throughout the year and it’s just such a well-run organization. Alyson Chiaramonte, Brielle Kerscher and Christina D’Arpa are just great softball people that understand the game and have been so supportive of me. They always made me feel welcome whenever I went to a game. Watching these girls play throughout the year and seeing the success they had was just as fun as the training. I’m thrilled that the training will continue in 2025 with the 10U, 12U, 14U and 16U squads.
BEYOND THE 10-YEAR MARK
The 10-year mark was officially on February 7, 2024. But, I realized I couldn’t fit everything I wanted to into a single post, so I needed the year to really think things through so I didn’t leave anything out. Of course, as that happened I picked up some more great people along the way.
Me with Jenna after her game in December of 2024.
I didn’t meet her until April of 2024, but I couldn’t write a series of posts talking about my athletes without mentioning Jenna Vollor. Jenna is a senior basketball player who will be continuing her career in college at Bryn Mawr in Philadelphia. I met Jenna through my old principal at P.S. 44, Joseph Miller. Mr. Miller was always great to me during my time at P.S. 44 and always told me he’d have sent his kids to train with me if it wasn’t for distance. He did the next best thing by sending me Jenna. Jenna is always striving to do her best in the classroom and is a student of the game. She understands the value of training and is willing to put in the work to do whatever it takes to get better, whether it’s with school or basketball. I love when athletes follow the pro game and Jenna’s knowledge of WNBA and NBA is unmatched. She’s got her traveling partner in her mom, Vanda, who will be with her at all her games, as well as traveling the east coast to watch all the top college teams play.
Two late additions to the training roster were Dennis and K.J. I used to work with Dennis’ mom, Melissa Roskowinski, at P.S. 44 and I remember helping her move a couch years ago and first meeting Dennis. He was almost bigger than me then. I’ve followed his exploits on the baseball field and basketball court throughout the years and look forward to turning him into the ball player he wants to be. In-between all of the conversations where he has to bring me up to date on everything, of course. K.J. plays baseball with Jason Gallo and told me in August of 2024 that it was my job to “turn this into something” as he pointed to his body. If he can help me get a sports collectible collection halfway as impressive as his dad, Keith’s, I’ll do whatever I can to help him reach his goal.
