Hassan Abdul-Mutakabbir '24 Recruiting Profile

My name is Hassan Abdul and I am currently 16 years old and I was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. I started ice skating at three years old when my father took me to a local rink and I immediately fell in love with being on the ice. When I was four years old, I played in my first hockey house league and at the age of five I started playing travel hockey. In my travel hockey journey, I have played at the AAA and Elite level all over the United States, Canada and Europe. 

Coming from central Brooklyn where no one in my school or neighborhood plays hockey has provided me with a very unique childhood and often I have to find different ways to train myself off the ice. Furthemore, I have learned so much about hard work and perseverance through my years playing hockey. I never had the inside track to anything, every tryout was high stakes for me and I had to learn at a young age to face failure and disappointment.

Fortunately, as I am now playing in my first year of juniors I have become very resilient and always stay in a positive state of mind. I am also in the process of increasing my GPA and changing my study habits. I spent over a year and half at home during COVID participating in remote learning and it had a very detrimental effect on me as I often felt alone and isolated. I was always an honor roll student but after the pandemic I began to procrastinate and fall behind academically.

Because I was in accelerated classes, I am on target to graduate one year early but I have also been working constantly on getting back to my old study habits and prioritizing and organizing my studies. So far this year, I’ve been doing much better as I decided to take difficult classes like accounting, physics and precalculus in my senior year to challenge myself. I’ve been studying harder than ever and the results so far have been good. 

I believe that I will be a great fit to play college hockey because I am a hard worker who has always had to prove himself. I have been in very tough situations and my resolve was tested but I am not the type to ever quit or give up. I know that commitment, sacrifice and dedication will always land me where I want to go even if I have to take, as my father says, the scenic route. I hope to hear from you or to see you at one of my games this year so I can learn more about your program and institution.