Personal Statement
Hi, my name is Mateo Lopez I have been playing hockey for 6 years, started when I was 11 years old. You would assume that I would say that I fell in love with the sport at a young age and immediately once I put on my first pair of skates, but not in this case quite frankly.
Hockey was a relationship that I had to build over the years and I'm very much happy that I built it this way because without building a bond with the sport over time and just immediately falling in love with it, I wouldn't be the hockey player I am today. I wouldn't be that player who consistently put himself in front of the line to be the one who did the drill first each time. I wouldn't be the player who pushed himself every single drill that my team and I did. I wouldn't consider myself the player who put everything out on the line, even when the light at the end of the tunnel was dim in the last minutes during the finals, down 2-1, keeping my head up to be the leader that I was towards my team to show that the game of hockey can go either way in a blink of an eye. With a bond that I had to structurally build, physically and mentally, over the last 6 years with up and downs, putting me in humble situations, I wouldn't have the passion and push to keep building my skills and getting better, even after my failures.
With a sport that I bonded over time, it made me build discipline for myself and the goals that I wanted to accomplish in the future of this sport. I reminded myself constantly that my 11 year old self would and should not be satisfied of where I am and who I have become as a player and a leader outside the sport. For my teammates off and on the ice. Knowing that I could always be better than who I was yesterday. Achieving the person who I want to become tomorrow and the person 5 years from now, hopefully making it the big leagues. Knowing that in order to achieve this status, I would need to push myself and compete with high caliber people who are better than me. Making me compete the player who was slightly better than me and not stopping until I become better than him and than move on to the next better player until I get to the spot where I want to be. Knowing it was going to take time.
In order for myself to compete at high levels, such as in division 1 schools, I would need to have good academics, since that's always a priority. Though my competitiveness that was build through playing sports, it made me also compete academically. I always pushed myself in school, achieving high levels and achievements. Building my knowledge and making it into high level classes, specifically mathematically. Studying Calculus at a young grade in high school, freshman year. I've build good status and test scores. I have put myself in many clubs and extracurricular activities and also having officer positions within them. I have joined my school wrestling team which I have also taken very seriously since it has greatly helped me in my conditioning for hockey. I have built competitive fields in both sports and in academics as well.
As a person who pushes himself to higher limits, and motivates himself everyday in anything I come about, I also do that for others. Taking a leadership role in a team should be earned and not assumed. I believe that I would need to get the trust and loyalty from my teammates before thinking that I could lead them. Building a bond through communication is in my opinion the key factor in developing a good, successful team, no matter the skill level of the players. I have become the leader and captain of my team through the bond I build with each one individually by spending time with each one and getting to know them, especially when competing at a high level where communication is very much needed. True leaders know that they aren't the smartest ones in room, but rather know that each player has their own skill that makes them better than anyone else in that field of skill. That's why as a leader myself, on and off the ice, I know that its needed and important for a team to come together and combine each players knowledge to make one whole team; not two teams, not three, one successful team. And this can only happen if the leader himself understands that he's not better individually but rather with his whole team on his side. Knowing that everyone on the team are leaders as well in their own way and knowledge that they bring to the table.