Connor McDavid is a 24-year-old Canadian hockey player from Newmarket, Ontario. Now playing in his sixth NHL season with the Edmonton Oilers. Connor inspires me with his past stories and road to glory. He is best known for his hockey ability and shows perseverance, humbleness and work ethic on and off the ice. Connor has always had a drive to be the best player around, starting from his first steps on ice. When Brian McDavid (Connor’s dad) first took him on the ice, three-year-old Connor pushed away his dad’s helping hand and starting to take big strides. Throughout Connor’s entire career he has been miles ahead of the competition of his own age group always having played with older kids. Connor is now arguably the best hockey player in the world, but it didn’t come from nothing. Connor and his older brother Cameron would spend hours a day shooting pucks and balls in their garage. Their father Brian had to eventually put up a thick reinforced-plywood barrier in front of the battered drywall, and the three-inch gap between the two. Connor would take shots at it every day to try and get through the thick barrier. His dad once said, “If you get through that wall, you will get an NHL tryout”. Sure enough, Connor did both. As a 15 and 16-year-old Connor was compared to NHL stars like Crosby, Orr, Gretzky and others. In the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OHL), players must be 16 to start playing in the league. As a 15-year-old, Connor was granted Exceptional Status and was able to join the league a year early. He would turn out to be one of the best players but starving no attention from fans. One question I have is ever since he was a kid, what pushed him to always be better?

These acts are just a small sample of why Connor McDavid inspires me to be the best person and player that I can.