User:Slatton

USER: Slatton: I Mike Slatton was born in Orange, California in 1967 and lived in the Costa Mesa area until my mother separated from my father and moved me and my brother to Catoosa, Oklahoma in 1974, when I was 7. After a few years, we moved to Tulsa, where I spent the remainder of my childhood. In 1986, my brother and I loaded up my 1973 Sun Bug, and with an ashtray full of change and a couple of trashbags full of clothes, we drove to Wabasso Florida to surprise our father (and leech off of him for a while). Aside from one year of semi-professional soccer in Mexico 1989/90, I've resided in Florida for my entire adult life, and now reside in the Tampa Bay area. PROFESSIONAL: Since 2001, I have been developing websites and Internet marketing campaigns for small and medium-sized businesses. EDUCATION: I have a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Central Florida, with undergrad and graduate work in Public Administration, Public Policy, Political Science, Computer Science, and American History. My career experiences encompass political activism, campaign management, fundraising, industrial training (human resources), public education, volunteer coordination, and digital marketing. SOCCER: In 1977, at the age of 10 years old, I began playing soccer in the Tulsa Oklahoma suburb of Sand Springs, Oklahoma for the under-12 Warriors. My mother, Anita, was my first soccer coach, as she was the only person to volunteer. She had no experience, but immediately became a student of the game, studying every book she could get her hands on from the public library. That first season, we finished in 2nd place, and the following season won our league. My mother continued coaching under-12 boys, when a coach was needed, for the next 7 years. Later, she became one of the first female Certified Youth Soccer Coaches in the United States. YOUTH SOCCER OFFICIAL: At 13 I began refereeing youth soccer games and continued officiating soccer games until I was 18, when I began calling men's amateur games. That year turned out to be the dagger that killed my love of officiating. To this day though, I am an advocate for ALL youth and amateur sports officials. It's a thankless job done by selfless people, who NEVER get enough credit for their service. When I was 17, I began assistant coaching with my mother, while still playing. Again, my mother was coaching under-12 boys and it was the beginning of my coaching "career". Since that first season nearly 40 years ago, I've coached every age group from u-6 to u-19 - always as a volunteer, and never saying "no" when a coach was needed for a team. KEEPER BALM®: Today I make and sell a soccer goalkeeper glove conditioner called KEEPER BALM®, and sell it in the United States, Europe, Australia and the UAE.