Sam McDonnell '23 Recruiting Profile

My name is Sam Mcdonnell and I live in Hull Massachusetts, I am 16 years old and i have been playing hockey all my life. For my whole life hockey has been a passion of mine, and I have loved it every step of the way. I have lived in Massachusetts most of my life apart from five years that I spent living in a small town in Minnesota. While I was in Minnesota I played hockey every year that I was there and I got to experience a slightly different style of hockey.

Even though I am only 16, for the past five seasons I have worked on a lobster boat with my grandfather. Every morning that we go out I get up at 4:30 A.M. make my own breakfast and get ready for the long day on the water. Most if not all kids that I know had to wait until they were 14 to start working at a restaurant, while I was lucky enough to be presented with an opportunity to start working when I was only 11 or 12 years old. Since I started working I have been very dedicated to being the best that I could and being dependable for my grandfather. It has taught me how to be more responsible and most of all it has given me a much better work ethic than most kids my age. Due to working on the lobster boat however, I have not been able to really play hockey during the summers. I am not doing all sorts of hockey programs during the summer, but I am staying in shape due to work.

Just this past season(Sophomore year) I decided that I wanted to change. I didn’t really like where I was with my body, so I decided to start eating better and working out more. Doing this not surprisingly helped me significantly with hockey. I became much stronger, faster and more efficient on the ice. As I reflect on the changes and improvements that I made last season I look forward to adding on to them and to keep bettering myself on and off of the ice.

Along with bettering myself physically I have bettered myself even more with my mental ability. In school I have gone from only being in one honors class freshman year to being in all honors classes sophomore year. Even more, I am going into all honors classes Junior year with one AP class. All along the way I have gotten on the honor roll every term on top of the whole pandemic as well. I hope to be able to keep my grades up and improve in school at the same time as bettering myself on the ice too.