John Lennon once penned that “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”

Former John Carroll University baseball player Brian Love can relate.

When last seen around these parts back in the mid 1990's, Love was charting out a journey that would take him through the world of sports marketing. Catching up with him today, you would see him as a member of the cast of The Lion King on Broadway.

Yes, that Broadway.

So how does one go from playing outfield for the Blue Streaks to playing Simba at the Minskoff Theatre in New York City?

It all started with taking a flyer on a production at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights.

“My route out of school was going to be something along the lines of sports marketing and advertising,” said Love, a 1996 graduate of John Carroll. “I had interned with the Cleveland Indians and was playing some semi-professional baseball when I had caught wind of some auditions for a production of Big River at Cain Park.”

The intention was to land something small, perhaps in the ensemble. But Brian turned out to be good enough to land a major role, that of Huckleberry Finn's travel companion Jim in the play based on the Mark Twain novel.

The role lead to casting calls throughout the Midwest, and by the summer of 1998, Brian would be all in as far as a career in the theater was concerned. He decided to leave his job in advertising for a chance to chase a dream.

While performing in the Kiss of the Spider Woman at the beck Center in Lakewood, Brian would answer open calls for a production of Rent that was coming to Cleveland. He auditioned four times over a two-day period, and ultimately landed the role of Benjamin Coffin the third … or Benny for short.

“I was part of the first and second national tours for Rent, and it was just amazing,” recalled Love. “It was really the first time I was part of something like that, and I was hooked. When we opened in Los Angeles, I got a chance to meet some of the original cast members like Taye Diggs, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Jesse L. Martin. I really got the sense of community within the theater during that experience.”

So much so, that Brian decided to take the big plunge, and moved to Los Angeles in 2001.

All the while pursuing the acting career, Brian found other interesting hobbies. Always fond of taekwondo, Brian would take to it with gusto in the early part of the decade. He would eventually become a second degree black belt in 2009.

He also found time to pursue a side career as a club professional in the sport of golf.

“I was very fortunate to find a job where I could be a club pro, leave to do my theater thing and still have the golf gig waiting when I came back,” said Love. “To be clear, it was not a job that I just walked in and signed up for. It required a level of commitment that many on the outside would not be aware of.”

It was toward the end of summer that the next call that would change his life came down the wire. An announcement came that the Lion King would be putting together its first national tour of the award winning musical.

The dates were set in Los Angeles for September 10, 11 and 12.

Just one day after the audition team had arrived in Los Angeles, tragedy struck back in New York.

“There was some question as to whether they would continue with the auditions,” said Love. “There was a general sense that this would be something that would prove to be uplifting in those troubled times, so the show did go on.”

Brian would be selected for the touring company and would spend two years travelling across North America. He would be a vocal swing and also served as an understudy for both Simba and Bonzai.

In 2004, Brian would return to Los Angeles and soon after landed a part in The Ten Commandments production that was staged at the renowned Kodak Theater and featured Val Kilmer as the headliner in the cast.

Soon after, yet another life-altering event would come about -- the birth of his daughter Cyan would take place in April of 2005.

While the birth in itself was one event that had nothing to do with the stage, golf or taekwondo, everything in his life would be affected as a result. That point did not hit home any harder than it did on August 10, 2005.

“My wife Shawn and I had decided to move to Miami in June and had just become settled there when I received a call about joining the Broadway cast of The Lion King,” recalled Love. “It was a very hard decision to make, but it was one we made together.”

The opportunity proved too hard to pass up, and Love gave it a shot. But in February of 2006, while performing the role of Simba, Love suffered an injury to his Achilles tendon. He would leave the show shortly after.

For the next two-and-a-half years, Brian would pass his time falling back on his other loves (no pun intended). He would take up as a club professional at the Miami Beach Golf Club, and then became a teacher at GOLFTEC, giving over a thousand lessons during his time there. He also found time to get back into taekwondo, but found yet another passion along the way.

“I became a stay-at-home dad,” said Love. “That was probably my favorite pastime. I had missed some time early in my daughter's life, but I found out how wonderful being a father could be during those years.”

He had decided to leave GOLFTEC to start his own golf school when in the spring of 2009, New York beckoned once again.

“I thought originally that a role would be offered in Finnean's Rainbow, but then I got the call from The Lion King offering me a chance to fill in for someone on medical leave for about 14 weeks,” said Love. “While I was already here, the same role that I originated opened up, so here it was, back full circle.”

Of course, the decision for Brian to uproot from Miami once again was a difficult one, but ironically, having a family made it easier. With Cyan starting school, Brian and Shawn felt like it would be more disruptive to move her away from all she knew.

So, the Loves simply make arrangements to commute on the holidays, and figure out visiting schedules as they go. They plan to be together on Thanksgiving Day 2009.

As a result, Brian has found a new appreciation for the quantity vs. quality argument.

“I don't know how soldiers are able to spend that kind of time away, so I really respect what they do and how they go about doing it,” said Love. “I'm here for a few weeks and I find I start my family something terrible. I really cherish the time we do get to spend together, and always look forward to the next time.”

It is not lost on Brian as to how his theater career has unfolded. Now as he ventures through his late 30's with a wife and daughter, he is afforded a perspective on what it is he does and why he continues to do it amidst the sacrifices he makes.

“I consider it an honor to perform each night,” said Love. “I essentially get to do a job that less than one percent of the world has ever done, and it is still a thrill to get that feedback from a live audience. This is an art form that allows me to express myself, and this art is forever evolving. To put it as simply as I can, what I get to do is better than cool!”

His travels have taken him to places like Honolulu and Tokyo, and his current residences have him mostly in New York City and Miami. But the former Admiral King High School product and John Carroll graduate still has much of his hometown in him.

Brian still tries to keep tabs on his former haunts. He still checks in from time to time with current JCU baseball head coach Marc Thibeault (“he was just getting to JCU when I was leaving”) as well as former teammates and classmates (“facebook has definitely helped”), and always tries to look up former Carroll classmates when he visits towns throughout the United States.

As for his future, Brian can see himself on the teaching side of the theater.

“I have already been involved in some workshops, and if I ever get the chance, I jump at the opportunity to speak at places like high schools,' said Love. “My passion about theater is something I have no trouble relating to others.”

When addressing his past, Brian admits that lessons were learned at John Carroll even though performing on Broadway was beyond a distant notion.

“The opportunity to work on the Carroll News, at the radio station … all these things in one way or another prepared me for the path my life would lead,” said Love. “I am a big believer in that everything you do is preparing you for something else. It was the variety of experiences, and the different people that I came in contact with that have helped me get to this point. That definitely includes my days as a baseball player. The mental and physical preparation to play is essentially of the same philosophy as being mental and physical ready to perform.”

So while Brian Love is a living testament to how life happened while he was busy making other plans, he is also aware enough to know he had complete control of every decision he made, right from the beginning when he made that first leap of faith and auditioned for Big River.

“I really love what I am doing,” said Love. “This might be miles away from where I thought I would be, but I would not trade it for anything.”