MINI-SOTA POP
#-828°
October seems to be a special month for me, especially after receiving this amazing honor. All my life I wanted to accomplish something great but with the semi-lackadaisical mentality I grew up having I never really put 100% into anything. I moved to California from Minnesota in October of 2000. I received a party invite from the wife of one of my acting friends; you all know her as our amazing teammate, FishBlockHer. She invited me to her birthday party at Skateland. I couldn’t skate very well but it was all about the experience and it was awesome. January 2012 – Dave (Mr. Pop) went to our dentist and brought home the SFVRD flyer he found at the front desk. I contacted Fish and told her that the team was actively recruiting. I probably wouldn’t have stuck with it if it weren’t for her encouragement (still to this day). The first few practices I went through my usual, Do I want to commit to this? What do I want out of this? Why am I doing this? At my second practice, during a drill while not paying attention, Killo literally shoved me into the jammer. We both went flying out of bounds. She skated over to me as I was getting up and said, “How did that feel?” I told her, “Not too bad”. She said, “Good and you hit the jammer out, good job!” That changed my perspective on any of my future practices.
Now that I was at each and every practice I needed a name. Have you seen the movie Fargo? My name is derived from how Northern Minnesotans say our state, Mini-sota. Pop is my ultimate goal as a blocker. I want to become a solid hard hitting blocker that will essentially “Pop” the opposing blockers or jammer out of bounds when they least expect it! My number is Mr. Pop’s birthday as he has been my biggest fan and my ultimate inspiration.