Vince D’Adamo: What did you enjoy most about competing in athletics throughout your life?
Andy Neal: I have played sports, competed and/or coached basically my entire life. For me, it is about the camaraderie with friends, teammates and players, the common goal, the lessons we learn in losing, and the joy, sense of accomplishment and celebration we experience in winning. To this day, my best most important friends in my life are those that I played or coached with.
D’Adamo: What have you been doing since graduating from high school?
Neal: After graduating from Napa High School in 1988, I earned a BS degree from Sacramento State and went into law enforcement and got married and started a family. After my marriage separation/divorce in 2009, I did a career 180 and moved into technology with the Napa School District. Currently, I am the Technology Coordinator for Adult Education in Napa. I started coaching when my kids started playing sports in approximately 2001 -- mostly baseball and basketball -- and most recently coached my daughter in Optimist basketball this last Winter. I still play team sports whenever I can, and I jog and workout to stay fit and keep my lifelong competitive spirit healthy.
D’Adamo: What was your favorite class at Napa High?
Neal: I loved math back in the high school days and as a high school freshman I took algebra from Coach/Teacher Les Franco. I remember he made our test scores a contest of sorts -- with a leaderboard posted in the classroom (clearly a concept drawn from his coaching experiences). I also remember having varsity football players in that class and thinking that was pretty damn cool.
D’Adamo: What was your favorite athletic moment at Napa High?
Neal: Two memories immediately come to mind. I was a slot-back in football and I will never forget catching my first touchdown pass in memorial stadium, and the packed Messner Gym playing in my first Napa-Vintage basketball big-game.
D’Adamo: How much do you feel you have grown personally since graduating from high school and how much of that do you trace to athletics?
Neal: Being an life-long athlete has completely defined who I am. Everything to the friends I have, and the lessons I learned on a field or court to help navigate through life.
D’Adamo: Within your family, who have been the most influential people?
Neal: My parents. My Dad is a life-long athlete and my physical role-model, and my Mom is the soul of our family and my emotional role-model.
D’Adamo: Name a historical figure, dead or alive, in or out of sports you would most like to meet.
Neal: Without putting too much thought into this question, I would enjoy sitting down with Paul McCartney and an acoustical guitar and just listen to him tell the stories behind the songs
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