About Eric
First of all, a little about myself….
I was born and raised in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. I graduated from SSHS in 1995 (Go Panthers) and then attended John Brown University on a basketball scholarship from 1996-1998 before transferring to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. I attended the UofA from 1998-2001 where I received my B.S.E. in Kinesiology and also began my coaching career as a student assistant at a nearby junior high (Ramay JH). I received my Master’s degree in Kinesiology in 2003 and started looking for a job. This was also the year that I met Colleen… more on that later!
While growing up, I spent most of my summers on the coast of North Carolina on a small island called Topsail Island. My dad was stationed there during his days in the military and wanted to live there but settled for just summers. I enjoyed many summers surfing, playing basketball, and working odd jobs to earn money. When I graduated from SSHS in 1995, my parents moved to Topsail Island permanently as I went off to John Brown to begin college. After I graduated from the UofA, I started looking for a teaching job (time to start paying off those college loans!). I looked in NW Arkansas but I was also looking in North Carolina. I was offered a job at the first place I interviewed at, New Hope Elementary in Chapel Hill, and accepted.
Spending my summers in North Carolina as a kid, I became a Tarheels fan so when it came time to look for a job, I wanted to be as close to Chapel Hill as I could be. I got a crumby basement apartment in Chapel Hill and was only a couple of miles from campus. I could ride my bike up to campus and enjoyed my time as a beginning teacher.
Now back to Colleen. We met towards the end of my year as a graduate student at the UofA. She was in Fayetteville for an internship and I was only weeks away from traveling to North Carolina to interview for jobs. Knowing that I was about to leave and that she had another year of college ahead of her, we decided to make it work anyways. I went down to Van Buren, Arkansas to meet her parents and then a few weeks later she flew out to North Carolina to meet my parents. She then went back to Arkansas to finish up her senior year at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. We spent every night on the phone talking to each other and would take turns flying to see each other once a month. It was a tough year, but after she graduated from Harding, she packed up her car and drove out to North Carolina to find a job. We were engaged in November of 2004 and were married in Siloam Springs, Arkansas in June of 2005. The rest, they say, is history! 
We now live in Morrisville, North Carolina. I have since accepted a job at a middle school in Raleigh and am the head basketball coach, and Colleen is a graphic designer for the News&Observer in Raleigh. Our first child, Claire, is due June 20th and we’re anxiously awaiting her arrival!