Dave is a journalist, coach, public speaker, and educator.  He started GoGrady Media in December 2011 in part to help youth learn the skills necessary for making good decisions and developing personal resilience.  

 

GoGrady’s programs draw on Dave’s years of experience as a collegiate athlete and a best-selling author. Dave has conducted exclusive, personal interviews with some of the world’s top athletes, including soccer’s legendary Pele; swimming sensation Michael Phelps; basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar; and the track and field icon, Carl Lewis.

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In those interviews and others, top athletes shared their personal stories, including life lessons learned along the way and the things that helped them stay focused and effective. 

 

Yet it was the story of Len Bias, who died of a cocaine overdose after being a top NBA draft pick, that Dave chose as the subject of his most recent book: Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias. 

 

That mixed legacy offers powerful lessons about the choices facing all young people, not just athletes.  As a result, GoGrady Media developed the Born Ready Project which teaches life skills, focusing on decision making and resilience.  And GoGrady Media in early 2020 began production on a new documentary about Bias as part of its 34+1 campaign. 

 

News, Broadcasting, and Media

For more than 30 years, Dave was a journalist and editor at elite news and media organizations, including the Washington Post, AOL, the Voice of America, NBC, and Travelchannel.com.  As an independent writer, Dave’s works have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA TODAY, the Wall Street Journal, Sport Magazine, Washingtonian Magazine, and others.

 

As a broadcaster, Dave’s experience has centered on sports reporting.  He has produced segments for CNN and ESPN and was the radio play-by-play voice for Major League Soccer’s DC United. On XM Satellite Radio, Dave hosted and produced soccer talk programs during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He has produced radio stories for Only a Game and hosted live shows about soccer, health and fitness, and general sports on Washington, DC area stations.

 

Author

Dave is the author of four books:

• Tales From the Maryland Terrapins, a Collection of the Greatest Stories Ever Told (bestseller, Neilsen Book Scan)

• Unlucky: A Season of Struggle in Minor League Professional Soccer, chronicling his efforts to play professional soccer for the first time at the age of 40, received international acclaim.

• Legends of Maryland Basketball, honoring the top 25 basketball personalities of the University of Maryland.

• Born Ready:  The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias.

 

School Teacher 

Dave began his teaching career in August 2015. He is a middle school and high school social sciences teacher at North Star School in Leesburg, VA, teaching journalism, decision-making, economics, civics, and history.

 

Athlete and Soccer Coach

A lifelong passion for sports – and commitment to fitness - has fueled Dave’s career and personal life.  He was a New Jersey high school all-state selection in both soccer and track and field (880 yards); he is a two-time inductee into the Notre Dame High School Athletic Hall of Fame, for track and field and for soccer and also played varsity basketball. 

 

In college, Dave continued to compete and lead.  The track team captain for the University of Maryland’s Terps in 1980, he was an all-conference middle-distance runner (800 meters and 1000 meters), and also played on the school’s soccer team. His love of running continues, and in 2008 Dave completed his first marathons, in Boston and New York City. 

 

Dave remains actively committed to youth sports and is a professional soccer travel  coach and developmental coach with  Bethesda Soccer.  He started coaching youth soccer in the late 1990s. Over the years he has served as girl's varsity head coach at St. Stephen's St. Agnes School, travel and development coach for D.C. Stoddert, McLean Soccer, and Loudoun Soccer and , currently, Bethesda Soccer. 

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Dave has been inducted into the following Athletic halls of fame:

• Notre Dame High School - individual (soccer, basketball, track and field) and team (soccer state championsip)

• Mercer County Soccer (team state champions). 

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Family and Community

A native of Trenton, New Jersey, Dave lives with his wife Sharon, son Cayden and dog Murphy  in Clarksburg, MD.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave is a board member of the University of Maryland's M-Club and he serves as a mentor to University of Maryland athletes in the school's  I.M.P.A.C.T. program.