At the tender age of five Brian Paolello laced up his skates and hit the ice for the first time.

Little did he know that hockey would lead the 23-year-old to play for two high school teams, a club team and finally a spot on the Cyclone hockey team.

Paolello, a senior co-captain, followed the footsteps of his older brother John, who also played hockey for Coach Murdoch’s Cyclone team. The brothers played on the same team for one season, Brian’s freshman year at Iowa State.

“That was a great experience and we gelled together well,” Brian Paolello said. “It was a lot of fun getting to play with him.”

From the time he joined the team Paolello has contributed, having his highest scoring season during his sophomore campaign. Paolello has nine points, six goals and three assists already this season and hopes this will be his highest scoring season of his career.

This season the Cyclones are relying heavily on Paolello, as he is one of only three seniors on the squad.

They look to him not only for his scoring but also for his leadership away from the game.

“Paolello is just doing a great job showing leadership, and he does it both on the ice and off of the ice,” head coach Al Murdoch said.

Paolello said when there is a young team like the Cyclones have, the upperclassmen have to show by example. He tries to set an example by getting out on the ice and playing hard at all times, while keeping yourself out of the penalty box.

“[Paolello] is just a tremendous worker out there, and his penalty minutes per game is one of the lowest averages on the team,” Murdoch said.

“We have to continue our leadership in the locker room,” Paolello said looking ahead to the rest of the season. “If someone is starting to slack off, then you have to motivate them and keep them going.”

He admits that some players might get tired of him trying to motivate them off the ice, but he wants them to know he expects as much effort from them on the ice as he is putting forth.

“Some guys might see me as a complainer, but I’m just trying to portray to them that I’m not going to let guys slack,” Paolello said. “I don’t like to see guys sitting around and being complacent.”

Although the Cyclones struggled in their conference opener against Eastern Michigan, Paolello can see the momentum picking up the last two weeks heading into this weekend’s game against Western Michigan.

He believes the team still needs to improve on throwing their bodies around more and becoming a more intimidating opponent.

“We don’t want people to think that because we are small that they can just roll over us,” he said, “if everyone plays their role we are going to be in good shape.”

After playing 18 years of hockey, he said that it has begun to wear on him and could see this season being the end of his hockey playing career.

Paolello said knowing this is his last season at Iowa State is always on the back of his mind, but hopes he can use the hockey knowledge he has gained the past four years to coach young kids some day.

“Hockey has been great here, the fans are unbelievable and the education just tops it all off,” Paolello said.

“I’ve learned a lot the past four years, especially about my own self-discipline,” he said. “How much I can push myself past that point of exhaustion to get even more out of myself.”