Biography: Mike grew up in a working-class family in a small college town in southern Maine. He teaches primarily 6th-grade PE, is a 6th-grade advisor, was the PE Department Chair from 2003 to 2022, and coached several middle and upper school sports from 1999 to 2022. Mike has an undergraduate degree in Health Education from Syracuse University (‘89) and a master's in Health Science Education from the University of Florida (‘91). He also has certificates in experiential education, coaching, and canine studies. He has been an educator since 1989 and a youth sports coach since 1992. After grad school, he worked as a health educator at the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin, creating and supervising programs in relationship violence prevention, bicycle safety, and peer education. After moving to Seattle in 1998 - for the unique combination of amazing outdoor beauty and boundless creative energy here - he created the PFROGS Youth Sports Development program, helped expand and refine L’il Kickers at Arena Sports, and began coaching at Seattle Academy in 1999. He started teaching PE at SAAS in 2000. Mike has broad interests in art, making things, reading, outdoor adventure, and play - all of which he gets to bring to his work with kids at Seattle Academy!