David Amortegui

Interview with David Amortegui, Colombian ice hockey player.
David Amortegui (defense), is a 3 time state champion for his high school team at Winston Churchill High school(2010-2015). David Amortegui also represented his club hockey team in the international competition "Silver Sticks" held in Canada, after he and his team won the national competition. Now a member of the Colombia men's national ice hockey team, we got a chance to ask David a few questions on his journey to getting here.

Being a 3 time state champion, and a national champion, how do you physically and mentally prepare for going from state level hockey, to national level competitors, and then how does your preparation change when facing international opponents?"'That's a great question. For me, I don't really think about state versus national versus international level competition. I think it starts mentally. When I train, I train thinking every opponent I face is training harder than I am. And that drives me. And I take that same mentality into games. Before each game, I go in thinking that every single player on the other team has out trained me, and the only way for us to win, is if I out work them, out hustle them. I think a combination of those two things really prepares me well for any level of play.'"You're very well known to never have suffered an injury, what do you think you do differently that has allowed you to stay healthy?"'I think when it comes to sports, its very easy to do sport-oriented training. That is, training your muscles in a way that they are specifically in your sport. For me, I love training in new and different ways. Yoga and flexibility is huge for me. But besides my training, I also play and train other sports too. I keep my body having to adapt to new exercises, I think that's what's helped me. I still do all my hockey workouts, but I add these in too.'"What advice would you give a younger hockey player who wants to get to be where you are right now?"'The biggest thing I could tell anyone, is never lose that hunger. All my young life as a hockey player, I never made the team as a starter. During tryouts I would always barely make the team. But in every single team I played on, by the end of the season I would be a starter. So don't be discouraged. Keep working hard, you shouldn't ease up once you made the team, or won the championship, you should double down on your hard work. That's how to keep growing, that's how you do anything great in life. At least thats my opinion.'"What do you think you biggest adversity has been on getting to where you are today?"'For me, it was hard finding a mentor. Someone who could guide me through the process, I wasn't able to find a mentor until I reached high school and I had a coach believe in me, and my goals and thanks to him, he was able to teach me things, not just hockey things, but mentality things, that really affected my game. I know if I had met him earlier in life, I would be in a very different place right now. Both in the game of hockey and in my personal life. Finding a mentor for me was the biggest thing I didn't know I needed, until I had one."

For more information on David Amortegui and the Colombian national team, please check out our page here.