John Dash '18 Recruiting Profile

Ever since I was three years old and took skating lessons, I wanted to be a professional hockey player.  Putting on my skates is the same as breathing – I need to skate and play hockey.  With the help of my parents, I was provided several choices/paths that enhanced my opportunity to become a professional player.  However, one important fact that I needed to balance with hockey was my academic standing.  I knew that attending university and playing high level hockey would develop my mind as well afford me more time to hone my craft as a high level hockey player. I didn’t want to sacrifice academics for athletics, so I my goal was getting a NCAA offer to study abroad. Balancing a quality education through high school, to include studying hard, will not only open more pathways moving forward, but it will also separate me from a large portion of my competition. It is said that only 12-13% of high school hockey players will compete at the NCAA level in men’s ice hockey. That is about 145 schools that offer the opportunity, with 60 of them competing at the NCAA-1 level. Over the last two years, I've researched various universities, hockey prep schools, military schools and general universities.  This allowed me to understand some of the challenges facing individuals in this profession.