Von Seys '25 Recruiting Profile

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"You will miss 100% of the shots you don't take."  This quote from Wayne Gretzky has stuck with me since elementary school. It never  resonated so much with me until the start of the 2022-2023  16 U Season.  After being with coach John Griffin at the  Florida Jr. Panthers for 8 seasons, a new young coach was hired and picked his U16 A team from 100 kids.  Surprisingly, I was not one of them. He picked mostly 2006 players who had more size on me, not skill.  I felt defeated and considered just playing high school hockey that season.  I got a call from Coach Jason Shoats who was building a competing team in Lighthouse Point called the Florida Fury.  I've played for Jason many times.  I mostly play on his Redline Tournament team in the spring and summers, while sticking with the Jr. Panthers for the fall season.  I decided to give it a shot and fully committed to the Florida Fury.  Little did I know that many of my new teammates were some really good hockey players from Miami.  In 2016, their Miami Torro team beat my Jr. Panther team in the State Championships by one goal.  I was nervous and excited to join the Florida Fury. I picked up my private lessons with former coach John Griffin and worked hard on the ice in every lesson, practice and game.   When it came time to play the Jr. Panthers in league games, we beat them 4 out of 5 times.  Our season ended by winning the division with a record for 15-1-2.  We were headed to the state finals.  We played the Jr. Panthers in our 3rd game.  I went head to head with some of my former teammates, and we pulled off our 3rd straight win that weekend and headed into the semi finals.  In another close game, and with one of my goals, we beat the 4th seed team and headed into the championship game against the Clearwater Ice Storm.  They were one of the teams we tied with in league games so it was truly anyone's game.  It was 1-1 going into the third period and we were in the locker room while the ice was being cut.  One of my teammates looked at me and said "I'm getting kind of nervous. I think we might lose".   I looked at Chase and said to him, "No we are not.  I'm going to score when I get on the ice".   With 9 minutes left in the game, my teammate sent me a beautiful pass across the ice. I was only a foot ahead of the opposing skater trying to chase me down.  I skated hard, kept calm, leaned to the left to fake the goalie, quickly leaned right and gave it all I had.  It went in.  I just made the gaming winning goal to win the championships.  It was the greatest moment of my hockey career.  As we drove back to South Florida from Orlando, I sent a quick text to my former 8-year Jr. Panther Coach John Griffin and thanked him for the extra lessons.  We had been working on a few moves and tweaking my shot recently and his coaching helped me a lot through the whole weekend.  In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't get picked to be a Jr. Panther this year. I'm glad I had to feel defeat in order to truly feel victory.  Like Wayne Gretzky said, " You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."  I'm glad I took my shot with the Florida Fury, and I'm sure has hell glad I took that shot that helped our team win the SAHOF U16 A Championship Game.