Born and raised in Wheeling, WV, I grew up playing lots of sports including baseball, basketball, and football. I am the youngest of three children including a sister two years older and a brother five years older. It was especially nice having an older brother to teach me about sports. He did quite well for himself by earning a football scholarship to Joe Paterno's Penn State University. My parents both succumbed to cancer at tender young ages. My mother went home to be with the Lord when she was 41 and I was 9, while my father met his Maker at 57 when I was 13. Being orphaned in the middle of my 8th grade year created a logical road map of being raised by an aunt and uncle on a farm