Xavier Vaillancourt '22 Recruiting Profile

Every time I step onto the ice, I feel that same thrill and rush of energy when the cold air hits my face as I did when I was five years old and my skates hit the ice for the very first time. The commitment, hard work, discipline, strategy, skill, team work, winning, losing, overcoming adversity, the thrill of high-pressure moments has all shaped and continues to shape me into an elite hockey player. Hockey is also serving as a great ecosystem to successfully prepare me to face anything life will throw at me.

 I am excited to be playing at Tabor Academy for the 2021-22 season and for the opportunity to have this experience bring me closer to my goal of making it to the division one level. As passionate as I am about hockey, I fully appreciate the importance of building a strong academic foundation therefore my plan is to continue to develop athletically and academically so that I can next rank among the hockey elite who secure positions with NCAA D1 Teams.

 During the 2020-2021 season, I played on the U16 team at South Kent Academy. I was able to play 37 games, hit the ice 7-8 times per week and got way stronger in the gym. I’m happy that I was able to accomplish all this despite the pandemic given many hockey players (especially Canadians) couldn’t play competitive games. This experience has played an important role in shaping me into the hockey player/student  I am today.

 To date, one of my fondest athletic moments was winning the International Pee-Wee Quebec Tournament in 2016 which was a dream of mine since watching it on television as a young boy. I also had the privilege to play in Europe at the World Select Invitational (WSI) with the East Coast Selects Team (Legacy Global Hockey) in the Spring (2016-17-18). This was an incredible opportunity to compete and measure myself against the best in the world, meet and make friends with players different countries and finally expose me culturally to three European countries. In the final year of this program, I went on to compete in the WSI in Philadelphia with the Midwest Selects Team which was a merged team with the former East Coast Selects Team.

As a player I can be described as calm/assured, consistent, skilled and hard working. I anticipate and create plays and have been described as a playmaker. I am also a player who loves to get in the dirty areas and battle for the puck. I have also played as a defenseman for 2-3 years on and off and this has helped further develop my hockey sense as I have literally played the game competitively from every position. Past coaches have also described me as respectful, having a great attitude, hardworking and easy to coach, these are all descriptors I am very proud of and carry with me off the ice as well in my daily life.