My parents were told that I wasn't going to walk,
I wasn't going to go to college.
High school would kind of be, like, the limit.
My parents were told that I wasn't going to walk,
I wasn't going to go to college.
I wasn't going to go to college.
I've always competed against able-bodied athletes.
I don't know anything different.
So I can't tell you how many times I've failed.
The honest first inclination was to learn more about the body
because I wanted to be able to help myself
to understand what I was going through.
And through that, I realized I loved coaching,
I loved sports, and I loved athletics.
And I personally loved how the weight room made me feel
because I could compete against myself.
You're never moving that same kind of motion all the time.
You still have to work on your base,
meaning your stick handling, your puck skills,
your slap shot, those sorts of things.
However, your lateral movement, forward movement, back pedal,
that's all changing.
So why, from my point of view,
I just decided to develop a mindset within myself
and what I expected and what I demanded
and to perceive through all obstacles.
One, two, three, four, five, relax.
Press against my head here.
I think the mindset for me developed with
knowing that personally I have to continually move forward
and from my own disability.
Constantly a work in progress.
Something that keeps me humble
and something that makes me remind myself
that my training begins but never ends.
You tell me.
Yeah.
Now, you're in the present time.
Own what you're doing.
Know that it is what it is right now
and there are more games in the season.
There will be a next time
and when there is a next time,
prove it, prove it.
Know that towards the end, it'll all work out for you
but if you stop and you give up, which isn't in you,
then it will be in the line.
But I think right now,
I think it takes time for anybody to develop trust.
If that is allowed to build over time with respect from both parts,
because there has to be respect on both parts
and trust on both parts.
It's something that can grow into something
that goes beyond the weight room, goes beyond the field
and becomes some of these athletes or kids that have moved on
and took something and now can make it applicable
to business, work, life, whatever it may be.
All right, you're welcome.
Hey, call me next week, all right?
Let's go, baby! Let's go, baby!
As long as you push your work ethic, you push hard,
that vibe and that feel will go to other people within the environment.
Yeah, baby! Roll it in! Roll it in! Fight!
Jeff, get into your shin first!
So just breathe right through your belly
and try to breathe right into the area that I'm pressing against.
Being cut from teams or a team because of your disability,
nobody taking a look at what's necessarily inside.
It makes you see things from a different perspective
and teaching these athletes the same thing.
They don't necessarily have my disability,
but everybody has a disability.
What can I teach them to get through
what they think is in their mind a difficult time?
So I try to use my own experiences to listen to them
and encourage them and get them to understand
there's a process to everything.
Breathe right into it.
Because I think if you reach perfection in your mind,
something's probably wrong
because I think that's the only place that you can really see perfection.
At least for me, because nothing for me is ever good enough.
And it's always driving for more.
Stay with it, stay with it, let's go!
Drive!
