Meet Conner Souza | Hockey Player and Skills Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Conner Souza and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Conner, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Well starting my own business is something I’ve always wanted to do at some point in my life, but I didn’t expect to do it now if I’m being honest. My girlfriend has her own business in the personal training world and owns her own gym. I currently play hockey competitively and have started coaching kids here and there, and we both thought it would be fun to combine our areas of expertise. Unfortunately I had to have major lung surgery (due to pneumonia complications) in August of last year. This caused me to miss this hockey season and not play. This time off gave me and my girlfriend the perfect opportunity to start this business of ours combining hockey training and working out.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I lost my dad to melanoma cancer when I was 17 years old. I was a senior in high school at the time, and playing hockey away from home trying to pursue this career. When he had passed, I contemplated quitting hockey at the time cause I truly did not know if I could keep going after losing him. 3 and a half years now have passed since his passing and I am proudly playing hockey competitively. Unfortunately my trouble only became worse when in July of 2023 I found out I had to have major lung surgery due to pneumonia complications. This illness went mistreated and misdiagnosed multiple times and all of this caused a lot of scar tissue and fluid build up in my lung. This all had to be removed and caused me to be in the hospital for a week with 3 tubes in my chest and a foot long scar going from the left side of my chest wrapping around to the middle of my back. Obviously, I was forced to take a lot of time off to let my body fully heal from this. I was contemplating quitting hockey once again due to feeling so far from the physique I once had. Having a lot of time to reflect, I took time to look back on my hockey journey, teams I was on, accomplishments I had. I am just not ready to stop this long and beautiful journey. I am currently, training and preparing for my college hockey journey along with building the business my girlfriend and I have starting. I have learned that as long as you have love and are set on something, you will always find a way to come back when you are knocked off course. If it’s easy, it’s not worth it to me. I’m proud to say I have a great work ethic from both of my parents. So all in all, my story is still being written, and I am proud to be where I am and beyond excited for where I will be.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Los Angeles definitely has its obvious spots to visit and see, so I will try and stray away from those. For breakfast, I would take them to this little cafe called Santa Fe Cafe. They have amazing coffee and fantastic food. Small cafe away from the big crowd of typical LA. This cafe has breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Okay maybe I will be obvious, this cafe is 20 short minutes from the beach, and Malibu. Most beaches are super crowded, which I try to avoid, so I would go to a smaller beach away from the crowd. Malibu has so many good spots for lunch. I would take them to the Malibu Mart, a little shopping and food court, to find an option for lunch. For the evening, we would go the LA area (me being a hockey fan), and go watch a Kings game. There is a little sports bar with good food called Tom’s that we would go to for a fun atmosphere before the game. After the kings game, there is a new LA bridge that was put up with really good views that I would take them to go see at night time. After that, we would head home for the night. Other places I would take them are Santa Monica Pier, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Santa Barbara.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mom is definitely the one I want to dedicate my shoutout to. Ever since my dad passed away in 2020, she has done nothing, but be the parent any teenager/ young adult would want. To this day she sets the example for how tough, and hard working someone has to be in order to be successful and make a living for yourself and for others in your family. I also want to dedicate my shoutout to my girlfriend. Her story is absolutely inspiring and is the perfect example of achieving anything you put your mind to.

Instagram: conner.souza

Youtube: @360_total_performance

Image Credits
Lola Mormino Foresee Studios