Sean Valdez '20 Recruiting Profile

    Every day I strive to be a leader for not only my team on and off the ice, but for my family and my peers around me. I listen to a lot of motivational speeches and watch a lot of self-help talk videos. Through these videos I find a lot of inspirational speakers that have a lot of great stories to tell.  One of the speeches that struck closest to home for me was called “Why leaders eat last.” This speech basically said that leaders are highly regarded as alphas and given small gifts and luxuries that normally you would not be given. The speaker said you get all of these things and its incredible but the only cost is self-interest. This means that when danger comes you must be the one willing to run to the danger head first in order to protect those you lead. That is when I realized how naturally born of a leader I am.

    What sets me apart from any other player I’ve ever met is my leadership abilities: positivity, vision, goal-setting, diplomacy, and conciseness. Through having a true leader aside from a coach, players are more able to come together to see a common vision and set goals to get there. None of this can be done by one person in hockey and so my presence on a team is my biggest asset. My leadership also makes me a harder worker because no matter where I am I ask myself the same question, “am I building a good habit right now?” So I am not going to waste my time playing video games or worrying about social media or other fruitless things. I am going to spend that time I have honing my craft and building strong, effective relationships.

    That is my philosophy and I believe that is what makes a good player great.