2023 | Minnesota | BOYS

St Paul Academy and Summit School | Spartans | BOYS

After reading about the values that shaped the legend of Hobey Baker, I couldn’t stop thinking about George Peltier a student/athlete and hockey player at St Paul Academy and Summit School.
George’s character is impeccable on and off the ice and its more than we see him doing to help out fellow teammates, students, coaches and administrators. I heard a story from the father of a new incoming, shy, freshman at SPA and how George tracked down his son, talked to him, introduced him to other students and made this student feel important in his new surroundings.
George is a person always striving to do more and to be great even making mistakes along the way. He wants to learn and grow as a person. It is his effort, will and his desire to learn that is excellence. Excellence reminds me of one of George’s favorite quotes, GOOD, George you played good tonight; good, I have to play better. George you were one of our best players tonight; good, I have to make my teammates better.
George has encountered much adversity with injuries over the past 3 seasons. It was his love for the game of hockey that drove George to overcome his injuries, missing games and still became one of the teams leading scorers. He worked very hard to get healthy and to comeback as his best self. George apologized to me for being injured. It was during George’s Senior Speech to his classmates, family and friend that George told us he used these injuries not as a setback, but as an opportunity. George’s love for hockey, playing with his two brothers and teammates helped him to work through his adversity.
Sportsmanship has never been questioned about George. One game George had two goals disallowed during the game. George went to the official after the game and thanked him for his efforts, shaking the officials hand and told him he had no bad feelings toward the official. This official shared this with me before leaving the ice. George’s sportsmanship does not stop there, after a hard fought soccer game at Minnehaha Academy, being tired, sweaty and dirty, he ran over to one of the Minnehaha school rooms to meet with the Minnehaha AD, Minnehaha hockey players and myself to talk about his excitement that they were going to be a co-op partner with our hockey program this season. I received a phone call the next day from the Minnehaha AD expressing how impressed he was with George especially the smile and excitement he showed 10 minutes after a soccer game with their school.
I believe the legend of George Peltier and his values will be the standard when comparing other student/athletes in the SPA Community and Hockey Program. George is better than one of his favorite quotes GOOD; George is elite!