When the scouts of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program traveled to Indianapolis to watch a specific candidate for their team, they did not exactly get what they came for. Instead of watching an anticipated performance from their 15-year-old prospect, they watched him sit on the bench for half the game.

Gregg Naumenko, Head Coach for the Chicago Young Americans (CYA) U16, made the tough decision to bench sophomore James Sanchez after an unsatisfactory defensive performance in the beginning shifts of the game. What he witnessed next, however, was what he described as an unusual teenage reaction from his youngest player.

“He didn’t pout or complain,” said Naumenko of Sanchez. “He just came back the next game and played even harder. His dream is to play for [Team USA.] They came to watch him and only him. And for half the game they watched him play average, then sit on the bench. As a kid, wanting these things and knowing that the scouts are out there, it’s very difficult not to think, ‘Why is my coach sitting me when this is such an important day for me?’ But he realized that one day is not going to make it or break it. That’s when I knew that this is a great kid and a great hockey player in the making.”

But Sanchez has been “making” himself into the hockey player he is today for quite some time. The first time Sanchez set foot on the ice was when he was three years old, following the footsteps of his dad, who played college hockey, and his older brother, who played in the North American Hockey League before joining DePaul University’s club hockey team.

After 12 years on the amateur hockey scene, Sanchez is now one of the top point scorers on the third best team in the country for the U16 age division.

Sanchez is currently in his second season with the CYA and in his first season under Naumenko. Sanchez tallied 26 points through 27 games with 18 assists and 8 goals this season before suffering an injury to his right hand on Nov. 9.  Though doctors initially told Sanchez he would be out six to eight weeks, Sanchez returned to practice during the first week of December and plans to return to game play on Dec. 13.

Naumenko, who is a former National Hockey League goaltender, said that Sanchez ranks “in the top five percent [of players] for his age group,” and is on a “good path to play Division I NCAA hockey.”

In addition to an impressive talent level and skill repertoire, Naumenko said Sanchez displays a special kind of leadership.

“I don’t have a story of why he’s a great teammate because I’m never surprised with [Sanchez],” said Naumenko. “You tell a story when you’re surprised that someone is acting a certain way but I just expect it out of [him] and he never disappoints.”

Before joining the CYA, Sanchez played on a number of select travel teams around the country, including Bauer Selects, East Coast Selects and West Coast Selects, which has given him the opportunity to compete abroad in places such as Canada and Latvia.

In August of 2012, Sanchez traveled to Riga, Latvia to participate in the Bauer Latvia Invite while playing for Bauer Selects. Besides engaging in a brawl in his fourth game of the tournament against a Russian team, Sanchez brought home the memory of winning Most Valuable Player at the tournament’s closing ceremony.

“I was just kind of sitting there on my phone waiting for it to be over and I hear, ‘This year’s MVP is Forward Jams Sahn-ches from Bauer Selects,’ it was pretty funny, they didn’t even know how to pronounce my name and I wasn’t expecting that at all.”

In addition to playing for top tier teams throughout his career, Sanchez traveled to Buffalo, N.Y. this past summer to participate in the preliminary rounds of the tryout for the USA National Team Development Program. This organization is the same one that J.T. Compher, Northbrook native and 35th pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft, played with.

“The skill-level was through the roof,” said Sanchez. “All the coaches were either college coaches or ex-NHLers…I had a coach who was a real small guy, no bigger than [5 feet 8 inches] and you could tell he was kind of a mean guy. He kept telling us how his whole life he thought things were just handed to him and he realized that came back to bite him when he got older. He said you can never settle and you can always get better some way.”

Sanchez plans to attend the tryouts next summer, where he will attempt to secure a spot on the U17 national team. As for this season, Sanchez and the CYA are preparing for a possible national championship run.

“The thing about James is that he wants to be a great hockey player,” said Naumenko. “There’s two types of players out there. There’s kids playing hockey and then there’s hockey players. James is a hockey player.”