Nevada Hockey - Jose Gonzalez [2/2]

[Jose Gonzalez 33]

Jose Gonzalez

Born: February 11, 2001

Birthplace: Reno, Nevada

Shoots: Right

Position: LW

Height: 68''

Weight: 192lbs

Early Life

Jose Gonzalez was born in Reno, Nevada on February 11th, 2001. He lived for hockey he would watch it nightly with his mother and hoped one day to play for a team. He sometimes had the opportunity to play with some sticks, and when he did he would try to shoot as hard as he could. His mother noticed this and bought him a field hockey set which he would play nightly and some days he would even try and get a piece of wood to use a goalie. His time in Reno was short however, as he moved to Las Vegas when he was just 8 years old. He would play street hockey in the streets and roller hockey whenever he could at his local roller rink, but when he realized that this wasn't challenging enough his friend Alexander Pepper convinced him to get into ice hockey. Jose started his ice hockey career with the local league and he scored an amazing 10 goals in 52 games when he was just 12. He was always one of the best players on the team, but never thought anything of it. He was always picked first in teams, and would never go a game without scoring at least one point. When Las Vegas got the Las Vegas Aces Jose went to a game and watched as he realized he could play at that level. He would soon realize that that game would cause him to change what he wanted to do with his life, "I never dreamed about being a professional hockey player. I always thought that it was just there and that I was not good enough to be in the professional leagues. I guess that game really did ruin my childhood with those long nights at the rink." (chuckle)  

Growing as a Player

He would play every night shooting into the air vents in his attic. In an interview his parents said, "You get used to it, if he hit a really hard one sometimes it would come out in the living room, but he kept a bag there and collected them." When he had time to practice with Alexander they would do slap shots and shootouts. Alexander always was bigger then Jose, but they never really looked at it as a flaw. This lead to his biggest weakness, his size. He is a very small player and he gets pushed around constantly when facing larger players. In one in when he was 16 he was attempting to pass a player who just stopped skating and Jose fell and broke his ankle on impact. His parents were worried that if he kept this up he would get seriously injured one day and possibly ruin his entire life, but they would never convince him to stop playing the sport that he loved to play. 

Late Teenage Years

When Jose was 16 he started driving himself to the rink. This changed his entire practice routine. His parents said, "We would rarely see him except for when we asked him to be home. He would always be working out on the ice. We are really proud of him though because he found something and he worked really hard on it." On July 6th. 2016, his mom was left paralyzed after a drunk driver hit her car going on the 215 heading home. He would stay home with her, but she told him that if he wanted to play hockey professionally then go for it because you only have one chance in your life. He would go to practice every other day the weeks after his mom was hit. Jose would eventually have to take up a job to help support the family, with one less paycheck they were having trouble paying the bills. He would work everyday after he was done with school and every weekend, with time to practice hockey. He would have to buy his own sticks, his own gloves, and his own tape. These years would define him as a person. just weeks after his mom was hit he would sign up for the combine for the VHLM draft. He extremely under performed, but he was on the scouts books, and that was all he could hope for that night. Jose would work harder going into the draft, every night he would spend more hours then the night before until it was the special night.

Draft Night

Jose was contacted by one team before the drafted, but reached out to Las Vegas and said that he wanted to be apart of that specific organization. He watched the first round just a viewer. 1st pick was no surprise Ryuu Crimson. He kept watching as the drafts came in, Lando Baxter, Julian Borwinn, Shawn Glade. He then received a call, "Yea we are looking into picking you up soon keep your hopes up kid." He was hoping for a specific team though, he wanted to be in one city. Here came the picks for the team that called him, and there they went. He wasn't going to be that soon. He decided to call the team that he wanted to be picked up by, "I am just letting you know that you are the team that I want to be drafted by." "I didn't even see you if you are still around for our next pick we will be picking you up." However, there was still 8 more picks to come before that pick. The names seemed louder then they were before, they felt more real, Chance Matthews, Mike Lavallee, Ansii Koivuchak, Anderson  LaVey. He got a call during this time, "If you are still available during our next pick we will be picking you." They were in just two picks, he thought there was no chance he would end up where he wanted to be, until "The Las Vegas Aces have traded for the 27th pick." He had never been so happy in his life, but he had to wait until they called it. "For the 27th pick of the VHLM Dispersal Draft the Las Vegas Aces are proud to select Left Wing Jose Gonzalez." He called Anderson Pepper, "I WAS SELECTED BY VEGAS I'M GOING HOME." In just 7 more picks Anderson Pepper would be selected by Las Vegas. The two people who grew up in Vegas would be playing hockey in Vegas. It was almost as if it was planned.

Las Vegas Aces

We don't know if Jose Gonzalez will ever be a star, but as of right now he is a story line along with Alexander Pepper.

[DrHexDex 68]

Review:

Great work on the bio! It's well formatted and the story was interesting.

 

Good work.

[bagelbitesisbae 71]

Review:

You went over the top in your player biography! It’s so cool how you moved to Las Vegas and then got a chance to play for the Las Vegas Aces. It’s also formatted really well! Great job, bud.