Mike was born and raised in Chariton, IA where he graduated in 1971 from Chariton High School.  He attended Iowa State University and graduated in 1975 with a major in math and minor in science and physical education.  While there, Mike received a coaching endorsement.

After graduation from Iowa State, Mike returned to Chariton where he taught junior high math and social studies for two years.  Mike coached high school women's cross country, tennis, and 7th and 8th grade girl's basketball.

In 1977, Mike got a job at Ballard where he taught middle school math for 32 years and coached multiple sports.  After Mike retired from teaching, he continued coaching and later returned to teach high school advanced algebra II for a year.  In 2014-15, Mike served as interim high school activities director at Ballard.

While at Ballard, Mike has coached at least two sports a year.  Mike currently is in his 39th year of coaching at Ballard and his 41st year coaching overall.  Mike has coached 7th and 8th grade football, middle school boy's track, 7th and 8th grade girl's softball, 7th, 8th, and freshman baseball, middle school cross country, high school softball, high school men's track, high school cross country, and high school women and men's tennis.

Mike started the cross country program and started the high school men's tennis program in 1991 and women's tennis in 1992.

The cross country programs, which Mike took over in 1983 and continues to coach, has been very successful.  Both the women and men's programs have had 12 state qualifying teams and 44 individual state qualifiers.  The program has had 16 conference championships and 12 conference champs.  Under Mike, Ballard has had a state champion in the men's program who broke the state meet record.  Mike was one of the individuals responsible for the Ballard Invitational Cross Country meet which is one of the biggest and best meets in Iowa.

In tennis, the women's program has a winning percentage of 85% and since 2000, a winning percentage of 91%.  The women's team has qualified for the state tournament 4 of the last 5 years.  Throughout those years, there have been ten singles state qualifiers and 9 doubles team state qualifiers.

Mike believes coaching has been rewarding because of the kids.  When the athlete begins a sport, whether they have prior knowledge or experience, seeing the progress made in the season is always exciting as they push to reach their full potential.  The skills and work ethic developed in their sport(s) also help establish lifelong skills.