Its too bad some of you have had less than positive experiences at times. Mentors are a great resource, but don't forget you can do anything if you really want to. When I got into graphic design and 3D, it was still very expensive. The company I was at paid $150K
for a basic 3D system. Any access you had to a 3d program was rare. The community college had a few Silicon Graphics workstations that were busy from 7 am till midnight with signups for login time. Today we have free access to a world class 3D app sitting idle for 10 months a year. Reading tutorials and just experimenting with all the tools is a good way to learn.
This isn't a "back in my day..." speech (well ok, maybe it is), but I'm still amazed that all this power is so affordable.
Spend some off-season time getting to know 3DSMax - I know easier said than done. I myself don't spend that much off season time with it. I'm a Mac user, so I don't have it installed on any of my own computers.