Coach Pop is an experienced educator and coach with over two decades of work across both high school and collegiate athletics, combining a strong academic foundation with hands-on player development at the international level.

He completed his undergraduate studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, earning a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. This foundation in human movement, performance, and athletic development became the base for his coaching philosophy centered on long-term athlete growth and performance optimization.

He later continued his academic journey at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he earned a Master of Education in Positive Coaching. This graduate work further shaped his approach to leadership, emphasizing motivation, athlete mindset, and building high-performance environments rooted in trust and development.

Coach Pop’s career includes a significant international chapter in Hanoi, Vietnam, where he spent four years teaching physical education at St. Paul American School Hanoi. During his time there, he also served as Athletic Director for two years, overseeing athletic programming and student-athlete development across multiple sports.

While in Hanoi, he created E.A.T. (Elite Athletic Training), an advanced performance system designed to elevate athletic output through triphasic training principles, with a strong emphasis on sprint-based development. The program quickly became a cornerstone of his athlete development model, blending science-based training with practical, on-field application.

Through his work with international student-athletes, Coach Pop recognized a consistent gap in global exposure and access to U.S. collegiate opportunities. That insight led him to develop an international pathway program designed to bring talented athletes to the United States for university identification camps and recruitment exposure.

That vision ultimately became the foundation of IGNITE Football Academy LLC, a selective, outcome-driven program focused on guiding international student-athletes from elite training environments to confirmed university soccer commitments in the United States.