Where did you work prior to working here at Newman?

The last 15 years I was at a place called San Domenico. It’s a pre-K through 12 school… I was the all school athletic director as well as a teacher and coach. Prior to that, for 10 years I was at Marin Academy in San Rafael. I was a teacher and coach and helped out with athletics as well.

How did you learn about the opening here and get the job here?

I heard about it through my brother-in-law, Mr. Vukicevich. He just called me up and said there was an opening at Cardinal Newman… I interviewed and the next thing I know I’m working here.

Did you work the first semester at San Domenico?

No. I was in transition and so I was looking for a new challenge. I was actually going to be waiting to see what opened up in the spring but fortuitously this came up and I’ve always been interested in a school like Cardinal Newman that has a great reputation in the community. When I found out about the opening, I just jumped at the chance of working here.

Before you saw the campus, were there any initial preconceived ideas about what it would be like?

Well, I knew that they were undergoing a transition with Ursuline closing and I knew that perhaps there were going to have some difficulties in that way, space issues, but I knew it was a Catholic school and a very good school academically and also athletically… athletics is something I have been involved with all my teaching career so to be at a place that had the type of athletic reputation that Cardinal Newman has was really a dream come true.

How did some of these first impressions or ideas change, if at all, when you first came here and through your first week and a half or so?

I guess as far as the size of the campus, I expected it to be larger. I came from such a large campus. San Domenico, the school itself, is situated on 500 acres and the foot-print is about 25-30 acres. This [Cardinal Newman] is about 50 acres with a foot print of about 10-15 acres. It also has about 150 more students. I know from the size that everyone feels cramped because of the closing of Ursuline. I guess the issues surrounding the space and just the fact that it was going to be a bigger campus, no problem, but that struck me as different from where I came from. Obviously 500 acres down to only a couple is a change.

You mentioned sports before. You were the athletic director. Are you involved in any sports here?

Not at the moment. I hope to be in the future but I have coached volleyball, basketball, cross-country, and also I came from a school that had a badminton program. We had students who dormed on campus and so a lot of the girls were from Asian countries: Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan. They all had background in badminton and we needed a badminton coach so, 10 years ago, as the athletic director, I wanted to give those girls a chance to be involved in the athletic program, otherwise they wouldn’t have been. I named myself the badminton coach and I learned just as much as hopefully they learned from me. The last several years we had a very successful program and actually won the league one year… I am hoping that maybe something like that could start up at Cardinal Newman and that might be of interest to students here.

What do you do in your spare time?

I like to mountain bike and I like to read and hike. I live in Petaluma and my wife is a garden enthusiast so I help her with that interest of hers. We built a chicken coop and put in fruit trees recently. We live on an acre in Petaluma so there is a lot of opportunity to do that type of thing. We enjoy it. I like being outdoors and just working in the dirt… I would rather be outside rather than inside.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

It is a great opportunity to be here and I am happy to be here. I am really enjoying my classes and hopefully I will be around here for a while.