Our story begins just down the street 20 minutes in Groveland, Florida. Sebastien Ressler was born into a French-American family that puts education on the top of the pyramid. Education was not the only thing that Sebastien had his eye on as he was part of the Orlando City DA.  While competing with some of the best players in the Orlando area, Sebastien was also attending Montverde Academy. At age 14, he reached an impasse, as he and his family saw his academy team would be based out of Seminole but school would be all the way back at Montverde. That is where they decided to look at the option that provided both, the SIMA program. 

In his Freshman Year, Sebastien began in the SIMA program. Coming from his experience in Orlando City he felt that he would be able to find a similar environment to the previous one. As the year started he saw himself placed on one of the team with the younger players consisting of Middle School students and a couple of freshmen. This made him see that the experience in the SIMA program would be one that he would have to grind through as he felt he had a bit of a "chip" on his shoulder. And grind he did. For the next three years, he began progressing from team to team and even had the possibility of training with the morning teams. He even had the possibility to train with SIMA Gold in the summer leading into his senior year of HS.  His senior year was one to marvel at both on and off the field. Academically, he was chosen as head prefect and was also looking at applying to many prestigious schools. On the field, aside from just getting to train with Gold in the summer, he also got the possibility to play against Team Canada in a friendly. Thanks to his hard work in both areas, he received an offer to go play for Rollins College while also getting into Cornell, Notre Dame, and Wake Forest. When it came down to making a decision for his future, he remembered the importance of education that his family had always instilled in him and all the doors a good education could open and decided to go to Cornell University.

At Cornell, Sebastien was offered to walk on for the team but he felt that academically the student athlete life balance would begin to take its toll. He decided to join the Big Red club team while pursuing his academic goals. He is currently majoring in Agricultural Science while minoring in Business and Information Sciences. He is currently in recruitment for consulting, something that entails a lot high level networking! In September he plans to apply for some Junior Internships and in the near future hopes to get his MBA and go back to help the family at IMG Citrus Farm! 

"I really loved how the SIMA program really wanted to focus on being a good human first then an athlete later" stated Ressler. He also mentioned how he liked seeing the use of the SIMA values being implemented everyday. 

"I attribute my journey to a lot of resilience because college definitely tested it. The harder I work for something the more even the playing field"

"One piece of advice that I would say even though it seems redundant is, trust the process." He states his journey moving through all teams in SIMA is a testament to that of trusting the process. "Work hard and it will pay off, keep your head high and commit to the program "