Hockey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here- but if you make your high school hockey team and play club hockey, do you have a better chance of getting into an Ivy?

Are you a troll? You must know the answer to this, right? HS and club hockey in this area means basically nothing. I’m sorry to be so blunt if this was an honest question. Just enjoy playing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:not really more so than any other sport or extracurricular. Ivy League hockey is big time d1. Heck all ncaa d1 hockey is big time. If a hockey d1 scholarship was a real possibility for your son or daughter you would know by the time they were a sophomore. Hockey is a weird sport in that the high school system (except in maybe mass and minn) isn’t really part of the development pipeline. If your kid isn’t one of the best players for their age group in the dc area, just let them play and have fun. There are so many other benefits to hockey other than positioning for college.

Thanks. My DC is not a hockey player but his friend and the friend’s siblings have been on travel/club hockey for multiple years. My DC’s friend’s mom keeps telling us that club sports are important for high school team and college. My kid does another sport but she insists that he should play on travel teams so that he can get on high school and ultimately get a college scholarship/recruitment. But I see their entire life revolves around managing hockey schedules/travel for 3 kids. And I certainly do not wish to pursue that lifestyle even if it meant a guaranteed admission to an Ivy.

It depends on where you live. Some high school rosters are stacked with AAA/AA players, and some don't allow AAA players. High schools in nontraditional markets might have kids on the roster who have never played travel hockey, but that's rare. Most have played travel hockey since 10U. Parents with kids who play travel hockey are generally well aware of how impossible it is to play NCAA hockey, and many of us don't want our kids to take years off school between high school and college to play juniors. You play club hockey because there is little depth, and you need to travel for competitive play, but your family loves the game. Hockey is a terrible sport to play to get an edge at college admissions. There aren't that many NCAA programs, and you're competing against North America, Europe, and Russia for those spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is ice hockey one of the easier sports when it comes to recruiting for Ivies? I say easier because fewer kids do hockey compared to soccer.

No! One of the hardest college sports for recruiting and basically have to play at least a year or two in Juniors before most Div 1 or even Div 3 schools will look at you. Completely different than most other college recruiting.

What do you think are the easiest then? Crew, fencing, soccer?

[Anonymous]

I have heard wrestling is good for admission. And women’s crew. But of course people could be reading up on all this and all the kids for the next 5 years may be pushed into wresting and women’s crew and you lose the advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to know if ice hockey helps with admission to the top Div3 schools

I know it helped a lot of dumbasses I knew from Massachusetts years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is ice hockey one of the easier sports when it comes to recruiting for Ivies? I say easier because fewer kids do hockey compared to soccer.

No! One of the hardest college sports for recruiting and basically have to play at least a year or two in Juniors before most Div 1 or even Div 3 schools will look at you. Completely different than most other college recruiting.

What do you think are the easiest then? Crew, fencing, soccer?

Fencing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is ice hockey one of the easier sports when it comes to recruiting for Ivies? I say easier because fewer kids do hockey compared to soccer.

No! One of the hardest college sports for recruiting and basically have to play at least a year or two in Juniors before most Div 1 or even Div 3 schools will look at you. Completely different than most other college recruiting.

What do you think are the easiest then? Crew, fencing, soccer?

Fencing.

I don’t think that’s true anymore. Tons of kids in China are now doing fencing. And Ivy minded kids in the US are fencing now too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to know if ice hockey helps with admission to the top Div3 schools

I know it helped a lot of dumbasses I knew from Massachusetts years ago.

I don't think that's nearly as true anymore. In general, the top academic DIII schools with hockey have very good hockey teams. Its very hard to get recruited to those teams, especially straight out of high school. (Its more common - but still pretty rare - for some of the prep school kids to go that route). My kid started down that path with Williams. He had a lot going for him, including fantastic academic qualifications and legacy status, as well as a lot of experience at the Tier 1 level of hockey (captain of his team, very well regarded by his coaches, etc.). But it didn't matter. They just weren't interested in him at that point. He would have needed to head to juniors and continued his development, with no guarantees of anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to know if ice hockey helps with admission to the top Div3 schools

I know it helped a lot of dumbasses I knew from Massachusetts years ago.

I don't think that's nearly as true anymore. In general, the top academic DIII schools with hockey have very good hockey teams. Its very hard to get recruited to those teams, especially straight out of high school. (Its more common - but still pretty rare - for some of the prep school kids to go that route). My kid started down that path with Williams. He had a lot going for him, including fantastic academic qualifications and legacy status, as well as a lot of experience at the Tier 1 level of hockey (captain of his team, very well regarded by his coaches, etc.). But it didn't matter. They just weren't interested in him at that point. He would have needed to head to juniors and continued his development, with no guarantees of anything.

These days NESCAC is not that good at hockey and still pull kids from NE Prep Schools without Jrs. Only Trinity made the tournament this year. Rest of D3 is all Jrs based, they won't look at kids unless they play a multiple years in Jrs. Some pretty mid local players got spots because they bit the bullet and played EHL until they exhausted eligibility. But Stevenson, Neumann, Chatham, Arcadia, Aurora, etc. don't seems like the best schools. Very top of D3 like Hobart, Adrian, Uitca, have a lot of Canadians and D1 washouts.

[Anonymous]

I think this thread sums up a lot of things I see wrong with youth sports. Why are you trying to pick a sport based on what will get you into a Ivy League school? Why not just let your kid play what they want and learn the lessons - teamwork, winning and losing, working hard, etc. if they really love it they’ll apply themself and get really good at it. Fencing? Give me a break.

And the youth hockey development is nuts. Do you really want your kid to play tier I their entire childhood, skip years of schooling to play juniors, just for a shot at making a ncaa team? Why not just let them play aa (which is rotary competitive all round with great coaching) and for their hs team, and let them play on a college club team if they want. Why chase the dragon? Hockey is such a great sport and has so many lessons in it, and I understand the temptation, but jeez unless your kid is pounding pucks off the garage door 4 hours a day…

[Anonymous]

Weird auto correct, meant to say aa is really competitive around dc with generally great coaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:not really more so than any other sport or extracurricular. Ivy League hockey is big time d1. Heck all ncaa d1 hockey is big time. If a hockey d1 scholarship was a real possibility for your son or daughter you would know by the time they were a sophomore. Hockey is a weird sport in that the high school system (except in maybe mass and minn) isn’t really part of the development pipeline. If your kid isn’t one of the best players for their age group in the dc area, just let them play and have fun. There are so many other benefits to hockey other than positioning for college.

Thanks. My DC is not a hockey player but his friend and the friend’s siblings have been on travel/club hockey for multiple years. My DC’s friend’s mom keeps telling us that club sports are important for high school team and college. My kid does another sport but she insists that he should play on travel teams so that he can get on high school and ultimately get a college scholarship/recruitment. But I see their entire life revolves around managing hockey schedules/travel for 3 kids. And I certainly do not wish to pursue that lifestyle even if it meant a guaranteed admission to an Ivy.

Your DC's friend's mom is clueless. The path to college hockey is a New England prep/boarding school followed by Juniors. Not playing club hockey in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to know if ice hockey helps with admission to the top Div3 schools

I know it helped a lot of dumbasses I knew from Massachusetts years ago.

I don't think that's nearly as true anymore. In general, the top academic DIII schools with hockey have very good hockey teams. Its very hard to get recruited to those teams, especially straight out of high school. (Its more common - but still pretty rare - for some of the prep school kids to go that route). My kid started down that path with Williams. He had a lot going for him, including fantastic academic qualifications and legacy status, as well as a lot of experience at the Tier 1 level of hockey (captain of his team, very well regarded by his coaches, etc.). But it didn't matter. They just weren't interested in him at that point. He would have needed to head to juniors and continued his development, with no guarantees of anything.

Tier 1 hockey, AAA around here, isn't even very high level. Freshman are routinely 21 yrs old even at D3 schools. My DS played at HADES for 3 yrs had multiple conversations with coaches from Bowdoin, Colby, Hamilton. They all lamented the juniors trend but said that they can't stay competitive if all the schools are putting 21 yr old freshman on the ice and theirs are 18. Same is true for D1, unless you're an exceptional player. Add in the international players, and hockey is incredibly difficult to be recruited. D2 Club teams at big hockey schools (Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, etc) are very competitive as those players come from juniors and prep programs, often they just didn't want to delay college in the hopes of playing somewhere.

Much easier to be recruited for Lax and/or soccer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this thread sums up a lot of things I see wrong with youth sports. Why are you trying to pick a sport based on what will get you into a Ivy League school? Why not just let your kid play what they want and learn the lessons - teamwork, winning and losing, working hard, etc. if they really love it they’ll apply themself and get really good at it. Fencing? Give me a break.

And the youth hockey development is nuts. Do you really want your kid to play tier I their entire childhood, skip years of schooling to play juniors, just for a shot at making a ncaa team? Why not just let them play aa (which is rotary competitive all round with great coaching) and for their hs team, and let them play on a college club team if they want. Why chase the dragon? Hockey is such a great sport and has so many lessons in it, and I understand the temptation, but jeez unless your kid is pounding pucks off the garage door 4 hours a day…

Sometimes there are kids, like mine, who simply can’t find teams in the DMV (AA, TM and WLC) that play at his level. Yea, maybe it sounds obnoxious or you think I’m blowing smoke, but he is very competitive and was frustrated by all of the hockey in this area. He simply plays at a higher level. So I hate it when hockey friends turn up their noses and assume we are chasing some hockey dream. The reality is that he loves the sport and got bored with what he had in the DMV. Will he play college hockey? Maybe, maybe not. It’s a long shot especially when you throw in that he’s at a top HS and we won’t let him sacrifice academics for hockey. But please don’t judge our choices. For some kids, there simply isn’t enough here in the DMV to play at a certain level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d like to know if ice hockey helps with admission to the top Div3 schools

I know it helped a lot of dumbasses I knew from Massachusetts years ago.

I don't think that's nearly as true anymore. In general, the top academic DIII schools with hockey have very good hockey teams. Its very hard to get recruited to those teams, especially straight out of high school. (Its more common - but still pretty rare - for some of the prep school kids to go that route). My kid started down that path with Williams. He had a lot going for him, including fantastic academic qualifications and legacy status, as well as a lot of experience at the Tier 1 level of hockey (captain of his team, very well regarded by his coaches, etc.). But it didn't matter. They just weren't interested in him at that point. He would have needed to head to juniors and continued his development, with no guarantees of anything.

These days NESCAC is not that good at hockey and still pull kids from NE Prep Schools without Jrs. Only Trinity made the tournament this year. Rest of D3 is all Jrs based, they won't look at kids unless they play a multiple years in Jrs. Some pretty mid local players got spots because they bit the bullet and played EHL until they exhausted eligibility. But Stevenson, Neumann, Chatham, Arcadia, Aurora, etc. don't seems like the best schools. Very top of D3 like Hobart, Adrian, Uitca, have a lot of Canadians and D1 washouts.

How hard is it to get your kid into one the NE Prep Schools that feed the NESCAC hockey teams? Wonder also if Jr/Sr year is enough.