Doug grew up in Los Angeles as the youngest of five brothers. That lineage and his genuine love of sports helped pave a unique path that would ultimately lead to a career. In the third grade, he started competing in fantasy leagues and made his bet - against his brother – $5 on the Super Bowl. That was unsuccessful…but he was undeterred.
Many children are haunted by sports fandom of excruciating losses and failed management decisions. However, Doug was spoiled. His hometown allegiances enabled him to experience championship joy with the ‘Showtime’ Lakers, Kirk Gibson’s dramatic World Series home run, and Marcus Allen’s Super Bowl cutback - all before reaching middle school. Arrivals by the Raiders’ Bo Jackson and Kings’ Wayne Gretzky offered unique hysteria and heartbreak.
His relationship with sports also involved participation. From little league to youth soccer, Doug played nearly every sport imaginable and often applied lessons gleaned by his older brothers’ backyard beatdowns to competition with his peers. In high school, Doug initially played three sports but ultimately focused on water polo. That’s when he benefited from the coaching of Rich Corso, who was concurrently the Team USA Olympic head coach. Doug somehow survived year-round training and 6am swim practices - even in his high school summers. His next stop was New England for a gap year at Phillips Exeter Academy, earning team and regional MVP awards, and helping the Griffins win the Interscholastic Championship.
Doug’s affinity for journalism began at Harvard-Westlake High School, where he honed his reporting chops and as a senior became the sports editor and columnist for the award-winning student newspaper. Additionally, he supplemented this vocation as a paid stringer for The L.A. Daily News nearly every weekend, which entailed covering high school sports, logging stats and phoning in his articles to meet deadline. Holding a newspaper with his own printed byline only intensified his long-term aspirations.
Doug finished his schooling with an economics degree at Brown University, where he was also a four-year letterman and co-captain of its nationally-ranked water polo team. He also led the Bears in scoring in both his junior and senior seasons. While in Providence, Doug advanced his journalism desires by hosting sports segments for WBRU-FM and writing for The Brown Daily Herald sports section.
Doug resides in Las Vegas and remains close with his family and friends, who are scattered throughout the country. Any athletic prowess has been relegated to hacking up golf courses, occasional Peloton rides and chasing his beloved French Bulldog, Arthur - although he did somehow run the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon. Yes, the entire 26.2 miles. When he does manage to find extended free time, Doug hopes to add to his list of 15+ countries visited across four continents.