Ricardo was born in Jamaica in 1984. His family transitioned to Florida when he was 12 years old to begin the process of becoming US citizens. Academics were a foundational expectation in his family and even though he struggled at times, his parents transitioned him from a public-school setting to a private Hollywood Christian High school. This transition pushed him to engage in school more and ultimately perform better. Ricardo also participated in varsity track, football, and basketball. During his senior season, his 4x1 track team qualified for state where they placed sixth. In addition, his high school basketball and football team had a successful program that he excelled at despite being eliminated from first-round battles with a rival school.

During Ricardo’s senior year of high school, he was recruited to play football by Concordia University in Wisconsin to which he was the first in his immediate family to graduate college. Over the period of his five years playing college football, his team achieved four conference titles, captured the Division 3 Cheese Bowl, and had an amazing undefeated season. His team, including himself, was inducted into Concordia University Hall of Fame. After college, Ricardo began playing professional arena football for various teams including the Wisconsin Wolf-Pack and Green Bay Blizzard. He also earned a training contract with Milwaukee Iron.

Ricardo graduated college with his BA in Mass Communication and a Minor in Marketing. For the past ten years or so, he has worked in the social services field with Wraparound, Project Ujima, and Aurora Psychiatric Hospital. In 2020, Ricardo started the journey of obtaining his Master’s Degree as a Licensed Professional Counselor. Currently, he is completing his internship hours to obtain his trainer’s license. Throughout his self-studies and training individual football athletes, he realized he can combine therapeutic modalities with sports-specific movement. Since then, Ricardo has started investing his time in researching mental health performance and has even published his own article called “Strategies for Mental Health Counselors Serving Clients Who are Elite Athletes with a History of Childhood Trauma.”