Dan was born and raised in LeMars, Iowa before moving to Cedar Rapids prior to his junior year of high school where he went on to graduate from Xavier (2002). He graduated from Loras College in 2007 with a degree in Education. He taught and coached in the Marion School District for two years before spending the past 10 years as the P.E. Teacher and Activities Director at Regis Middle School. During each of those 10 years he also coached in the baseball and football programs at Xavier. He recently completed his fourth season as the head baseball coach and is entering his fourth season as the head sophomore football coach. He and his wife, Lauren, have a basset hound named Clark.