SST Athlete Watch 4
Clifford’s a Keeper
Long time SST athlete Kyle Clifford has found himself a new home with the Los Angeles Kings. With his dedicated attitude and his proven gritty style of play the 19 year old rookie has earned himself a permanent spot in the Kings line up as a 4th line left winger. Clifford is a good role player with a very positive outlook on being an NHL player, and humbled by the opportunity that he has earned himself.
“It’s just the beginning,” he said, “so we have to keep trucking away and stay focused and make a career out of it now.”-Kyle Clifford, Los Angeles Kings
Kyle has trained with SST’s high performance hockey camp over the past two summers, driving an hour and a half every day, both ways, in order to train with his fellow Uptown sports clients, among many others. Cliffy is one of the hardest working and most dedicated players to join this group of elite athletes. He never missed a workout, a set of a workout or for that matter, a rep of a set. This is a guy who throws a 40 pound vest on himself, willingly, for an entire workout and trains as if it didn’t exist. His athletic ability is very impressive, but more importantly his work ethic is second to none. In the weight room Kyle is a true leader and sets an amazing example for all of the other athletes because of his unmatched drive to be the best!
Last season with the Barrie Colts, Clifford put up outstanding numbers averaging a point a game. Cliffy also invited to the Canadian world junior evaluation camp and was tied as the leading scorer after exhibition play. Kyle wasn’t even invited to the NHL combine, which holds the top one hundred draft prospects, but managed to impress the Kings so much they ended up picking him up in the 09 entry draft in the 2nd round and 35th overall. After a long summer with a lot of hard work, Clifford went into Kings camp as a long shot to make the big squad. Clifford has played in 12 games this season, which is enough to earn himself a full time NHL salary as a 19 year old.
If you get a chance to tune into any LA Kings games you can catch Cliffy with a toothless grin, waving at the at the crowd after one of his sloberknocking tilts! We would like to congratulate Kyle on his early NHL success! His endless hours of hard work and dedication to the game in which he loves has finally paid off.
Chris Korol Cracks National Bobsled Squad
Chris Korol (pictured above) has officially been named to the Canadian National bobsled team despite being nearly 4 years younger than any other member of the team. Korol let his performance speak for itself and earned himself a spot on both the two and four man teams. Chris joined the team after a big scare, when his driver and training partner Jesse Lumsden tore his ACL while playing with the Calgary Stampeders. Chris already had a chance to showcase his skills with Lumsden and impressed the coaching staff enough to land a spot on the National team and is now sliding with Justin Kripps, who ran with Pierre Leuders at the 2010 Vancouver games. We would like to wish Chris the best of luck from here on in!
Continue to train hard and good things will certainly come of it.
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