Gary grew up playing hockey on Long Island, New York. His development as a hockey player allowed him the opportunity to be recruited by several Division I colleges before he ended up in Chicago, where he received a scholarship to the University of Illinois at Chicago, then a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, a NCAA Division I college. His experience in hockey gave him much more than athletic opportunity; it gave him a real world education, which he tries to share with the youth he has coached since his graduation. Gary is currently coaching at Robert Morris College in Chicago.