I was born and raised in San Diego. I played sports all the way to high school and then gave up all sports after freshman year. I surfed and played soccer, roller hockey and football (a short-lived career at 90 pounds). I only picked up ultimate in college at the University of California-Berkeley.

The week before leaving San Diego for Berkeley, I was talked into playing full-field beach ultimate with 30 people on the field at time, under the lights of a hotel. I played twice that week and decided to sign up for the UC-Berkeley ultimate team. After seeing that they had placed second in the nation two years before, I almost dropped out before even starting. However, I had enough fun at the first tryout, made some new friends and stuck with the sport.

I now live in Berkeley with my fiancée, Heather, and our two cats. In my professional life, I’m an operations manager at Everlaw, Inc. My hobbies include traveling, skiing, weightlifting, squash, hiking, being outdoors, being indoors and not doing anything.

Fun Facts about Joel:

• I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
• I play Scrabble the not-fun way with two-letter words.
• I decided recently to become a huge fan of the English Premier League team West Bromwich Albion F.C. (Boing Boing!).