John was born and raised in Dallas, Texas but has lived in the Phoenix area for over 20 years now. He is a Desert Vista graduate and in May 2010 completed his bachelor’s degree in Applied Science at Arizona State University. John currently works for Empower Retirement and has over 10 years of experience in the financial services industry. John also obtained his MBA from Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional.

John’s marching percussion experience includes five years of Drum Corps International competition. He played the snare drum for the Troopers in 2003 and 2004, Esperanza in 2005 and The Concord Blue Devils in 2006 and 2007. In 2007 John completed his age-out year with The Blue Devils where he was fortunate enough to help them capture their 12th World Championship and 10th High Percussion Award in 35 years. His experience also includes 3 years of indoor percussion. He competed in Winter Guard Arizona as well as Winter Guard International. He performed on the snare drum for Momentum in 2004 and 2005 and for ASU in 2007. Additionally, John has performed with the Phoenix Suns drumline and the Arizona Cardinals drumline “Big Red Thunder”. John has been instructed by some of the top percussion instructors in the nation including: Scott Johnson, Sean Vega, Ben Maughmer, Rich Hinshaw, Pete Sapadin and John Mapes.

John has been teaching around the Valley for the last 18 years. He has instructed the drumlines at Desert Vista High School(2003-2004), Maryvale High School(2005-2006) and Basha High School(2007-2011). John also instructed the Sun Devil Marching Band for 4 seasons from 2012 to 2015. He is currently a practicing judge for the WGAZ circuit.