Chasing Greatness: Mark Senden

Mark Senden was the captain of his Bantam AA team that went to the state tournament, captain of his Wayzata Trojans High School team that brought their program their first ever State Championship and was Captain of the Fargo Force when they won their first Clark Cup in Franchise history. 

But the journey has been anything but easy. 

Senden was an Assistant Captain his junior year of High School and the Trojans had an underwhelming season, finishing with a record of .500 (including 6 one goal losses) and losing in the Section Semifinals. 

It was a tough season, but Senden came back for his senior year with options to go elsewhere. That summer Senden discovered the balance of the pressure to be "the guy", "the D1 commit", "top-5 team in the state" and he just went out and played hockey. 

Senden has always been a selfless leader, willing to accept any and all roles along his journey. On the State Championship team, Mark accepted a shutdown centerman role against Casey Mittelstadt. This role included:

*Not being on the top Power Play. 

*Playing a ton of Penalty Kill minutes.

*Playing on a line with a senior forward that was on JV his junior season and a sophomore phenom. 

*Never started a game. 

*A team that rolled 4 lines and 6 defenseman the second half of the season. 

Following his State Title in 2016, Senden reported to Des Moines in the USHL, but was traded to Fargo just 16 games into his season to the Fargo Force.

As a North Dakota commit, Senden was headed north and was going to play in Fargo just over one hour away from Grand Forks. Senden attributes a lot of his successes to his coaches along the way, whether it be Nate Hagemo at Wayzata Bantam AA (his favorite season of hockey ever) or Pat O'Leary at Wayzata HS and Cary Eades with Fargo. 

Senden has never lacked two things, work ethic and humility. His leadership qualities are lead by example and do whatever it takes to help the overall success of a team. Never cared about personal accolades, goals, assists, but only about winning. 

He has carried that into his 3-time captain career for North Dakota and will continue to exemplify that into his professional career. Senden is the type of player that can fill any role on a hockey team. Top 6 center, top 6 winger, bottom-6 center, bottom-6 winger. Net front specialist, penalty kill specialist, face off specialist.

Mark Senden is the definition of a captain, leader, winner and undoubtedly is Chasing Greatness.