Michael grew up on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. At the early age of 4, he taught himself how to skate and hasn’t stopped since. He has played hockey all his life and that was the spark for what became a love of sports. At the age of 12, he was hired as a caddy at the local country club. That job turned into a passion and for the next 16 summers, he came to appreciate the importance of the mental side of sport.

After 3.5 years of undergraduate study at Kent State University, 6 months from a degree in education, Michael switched his major to psychology with the end goal of pursuing a career in the field of sport psychology. He was accepted into one of the top sport psychology graduate programs in the world at Miami University, learning from renowned pioneers in the field of sport psychology.