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Jim O'Neill - Jim O'Neill

I've been a full-time writer and editor for more than three decades and have won numerous awards for my work, including be named Journalist of the Year and Communicator of the Year while I operated an alternative weekly newspaper in western Michigan. I've written for big and small newspapers, covering everything from cops and courts to business and the world of sports. I've interviewed heads of state, corporate leaders and some of the sports world's biggest stars ... and I've had my share of chats with folks in the entertainment world as well. I've helped launch one of the web's most successful news sites and currently edit a series of technology newsletters and websites.

In my other life--my labor of love--I'm a certified strength coach. I work with more than 600 athletes from middle school age to masters each year. I coach collegiate and national-level track and field athletes as well as collegiate football players, volleyball players, basketball players and water polo players (to name a few). Over the past four years, I've trained more than three dozen athletes who've earned scholarships at Division I and Division II schools or gone on to compete at some level in college, both male and female. In college, I played football and was on the track team; I have continued to compete in the hammer throw and discus throw.

In my spare time, I'm a committed (committable?) home improvement wonk and am currently in the middle of a redo on a sprawling 1970s ranch that sits atop a sand dune with a view of Lake Michigan. Projects so far have included putting down 1,600 sq. ft, of hardwood flooring, 800 sq. ft. of natural slate, 1,300 sq. ft. of tile, I've moved a few doors, added onto an existing deck, taken down a small forest of trees and added a foot of insulation to the attic. And there's oh, so much more to do.

And, like all writers, I have a novel almost finished and a play that just needs one more write through.