When I was 15 years old, I was lucky enough to receive an invite to the WHL combine. Although I was a top player for my age, the tempo was much faster than anything I was accustomed to seeing on the ice. All the players around me at the combine possessed similar hands, decision making, and shots ability to mine. At the end of on-ice testing, I began doubting my prospects of a career in professional hockey. How can I make it to the NHL if everyone can skate, shoot, and pass just as well as me or better? What happened next laid the foundation of what ibuildathletes stands for today.

I ended up being ranked in the middle to bottom third of players in my cohort at the conclusion of on-ice testing. At this point of the combine, I figured that my fate had been sealed despite my best effort. 

Then we moved to the off ice portion of the combine…..

At this time in my playing career, I had also been playing football in Texas with a $20 million dollar facility dedicated to my school’s program. A personal trainer was assigned per every 10 players along with a completely personalized training regimen curated for each player. In this time, I became an extremely capable athlete with strength and  plyometric training a part of my daily routine. 

Coming in to the second phase of testing, I placed in the top 1% of all athletes since the off-ice portion was tracked by the WHL. Despite being a player considered middle to bottom third on ice at the end of the combine, I was the ONLY player out of 63 participants to be offered an opportunity to move forward. Other players there might have been better hockey players than me, but I was the ONLY athlete. In the upper echelon of our game, teams are looking for ATHLETES. You are an asset that must physically survive a 60+ game regular season plus playoffs per standard in most Tier 1 & 2 junior/professional leagues.

After my playing career, I founded ibuildathletes to share my knowledge of athletic development and on ice skills training to young players looking to achieve the same heights in today’s game.