[1] He began his career as an inner-city schoolteacher in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but soon moved on to North Park University in Chicago.

Later in 2005, Claerbaut moved to South Haven, Michigan, where he served as assistant director and head boys basketball coach at a private Christian school.

In 2008, Claerbaut moved to Las Vegas where he was brought in as head boys basketball coach at Andre Agassi College Preparatory School.

A devotee of Bill James’ baseball sabermetrics,[2] Claerbaut first developed basketball metrics described in his book, The NBA Analyst, and then moved on to devise a statistical system usable at the high school level.

Focusing on sports psychology and performance, he worked with a number of major league baseball players during this time.

Academically, Claerbaut developed a particular interest in Christian scholarship, following many of the ideas of Nicholas Wolterstorff[4] and George Marsden.