The picture above is for illustrative purposes only. I look a little weird. I usually don't have hair like that (as in, not receding, I suppose). This was my senior year in college, when I had a 19+ inch neck. I like big neck sports.

I am not into sports that require a lot of hand-eye coordination. I mostly like sports where I can grab and mangle people. Wrestling suited me just fine in that respect. I started wrestling in my sophomore year at Somerset High School when the program began. I continued through college at WPI, but was a moderate wrestler on a team that went first in New England twice while I was there.

Also while at WPI, I got into rugby. It took a lot of soul searching to try it, since a friend of mine broke his neck playing my sophomore year. I tried it out my junior year and was starting as the hooker in pretty short time. For those of you uninitiated in rugby, the hooker has less to do about waiting on a corner and more to do about being the hockey stick in a face off. Big necks and intestinal fortitude are helpful. I also became song leader at the drink-ups we had afterwards, which is more fun than I could possibly explain.

After winning 3rd place at ESB 2000

I have mostly kept up with weight lifting, as far as any consistent sports go. I like the idea of being strong for my size. I am not a monster at 5' 10" and 165 pounds, but I can hold my own when I need to. My best maximium bench press was 290 pounds, a far cry from 2x my own body weight (don't know if I can still do that much now). But I have entered a bench press contest at a college homecoming event my fraternity hosts called Epsilon's Strongest Brother (ESB) and won third place in 2000 and second place in 2001.