>> I went all four years to Penn State Behrend and it really worked for me.
I'm actually born and raised in the Erie area.
I actually had an opportunity to begin working
for a Marlin baseball team in town in Erie at the time.
So my first couple of years of school I went to school pretty much during the fall and spring
and then I worked for the baseball team in the summer.
Going into my junior year I actually was offered a full time position with the baseball team
so for two years I went to school full time and worked full time.
Right after graduation I had had sort of one position that I had done there
and I immediately had an opportunity to be promoted within the organization right
after graduation and then from there, I was in, worked in Marlin baseball for actually
about nine seasons, seven years full time, nine years total.
And I got to the point though, quite honestly with baseball,
where the schedule did overwhelm me.
Life circumstances, having children, I got to the point
where I decided to get out of sports completely.
So I actually left sports.
I went to work in the corporate world and worked for Erie Insurance.
Did that for a couple of years and then I got to the kind of point
where I professionally desired more.
I heard about the opportunity
for a NBA development league team to potentially land in Erie.
Again as luck would have it I knew some that was involved with trying to bring the team there,
made contact very early on and within two weeks of the team being announced, I got hired there.
So that first year was really exciting because when I came
on board the team didn't have a name, a logo, colors, mascot,
all those sorts of things weren't determined yet so that experience is something
that I'll always treasure having been a part of sort of the start of the franchise.
And then soon after I was actually able to step into the president's role.
And having done that for the past three years and been with the team
since the very beginning, it's been a special experience.
I'm very fortunate.