"Teach By Example"

Travels from: Boardman, Ohio
Mike is the 2007 Central Region Great Comebacks Award Winner. The Great Comebacks Award was founded over 20 years ago by former NFL player Rolf Benirschke. The award is given to a person who has overcome Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis) or intestinal cancer for their achievements and being examples to others that life goes on after diagnosis.

Florak was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, which features flu-like symptoms, at the age of 22 in 1989. Florak suffered eight flare ups of the disease in eight years. He lost 40 pounds four times and gained it all back, and sixty pounds four other times and gained it all back. He survived bouts with depression, four blood transfusions, and eight surgeries, including the removal of his entire large intestine in 1996.

He fought back to continue with his college baseball coaching career. He was named head baseball coach at Waynesburg (Pa) University in 1997. His very first team led the entire NCAA with a .382 team batting average and was runner-up in the Presidents' Athletic Conference. His 1998 team won the conference championship. Both teams had team grade point averages above 3.0.

In the fall of 1998, he became one of the youngest Head Baseball Coaches in NCAA Division I when he was hired at Youngstown State University at the age of 31. His team won the Horizon League championship in 2004 and was league runner-up in 2005. The 2002 and 2007 teams had the highest team grade point averages of all the men's sports in the entire Horizon League. In his nine years at Youngstown State, 11 players were drafted/signed professional baseball contracts. In 16 years of coaching organized baseball, 14 of which were at the college level, Florak coached 30 players who were drafted/signed professional baseball contracts.

Florak was born in Pittsburgh, Pa and raised in Steubenville, Oh. He graduated from Steubenville Catholic Central High School in 1985 where he was an all-state football player and drafted by baseball's Seattle Mariners. He went on to earn a baseball scholarship to Ohio University where he lettered for four years and set and still holds career records in the Ohio University baseball program. He earned his B.S. in Journalism in 1991 and M. Ed. Administration in 1992 from Ohio.

Florak resides in Boardman, Ohio. He resigned from the Head Baseball Coach position at Youngstown State in the fall of 2007 to work in business,  to teach college communication courses as he has for 12 years, continue to raise awareness for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and to pursue more public speaking opportunites.

Florak has read and researched over 100 books by leading authorities on self-help and motivation. In 2005, he wrote and self-published his book, "Healthier Than Normal," about his struggle with Crohn's disease and depression, and his life after becoming ill. He advises IBD patients and others with health problems. He has shared his inspirational story as a speaker to numerous hospitals, support groups, churches, schools, and business organizations all over the country. 

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