College Club Hockey - ACHA/AAU
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Anonymous
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I have been trying to understand the labrynth of leagues/divisions within college club hockey (ACHA/AAU are there others?). My son is an UA/AA player at a local club. He is interested in smaller college (UofR, Wake Forest, Bucknell are on his list). Academics and college fit are first but he would like to have a shot at playing hockey. Would any of these programs be potentially attainable for him? Can one of the hockey expert parents here help me out? |
Anonymous
| Don’t try to figure it out, it changes every year and there are 3 levels of club hockey and clubs are constantly jumping around. As an aa and higher level ua player he should have a shot. |
Anonymous
| +1 The club make up and levels changes every year. Look at schools with established programs and he should be fine. |
Anonymous
| Wake Forest has a team he could probably play on. Not sure about the others. Club hockey is pretty random at a lot of schools, as its typically student-run, which means that leadership/organizational skills can vary pretty significantly from year to year. If he's a UA or AA player, he can probably hang with most ACHA D3 programs, as well as many AAU programs. ACHA D2 programs are more spread out, talent-wise, so there are probably some where he would have a tough time making the team (or getting playing time if he did). But if he loves hockey, he should definitely give it a shot in college. Its been one of the best parts of my kid's college experience so far. |
Anonymous
None of the schools you list should be an issue for a decent travel player. Look for prospect days to get on the team's radar. Check out the ACCHL website. The D2 Premier are pretty good squads where a AA player could get cut and the D2 Elite schools and AAU D2 are quite a bit weaker. |
Anonymous
Richmond is playing GW tonight at 9PM at the St. James. Early November is ACCHL showcase and Richmond and WF should be there. Bucknell plays in the lowest division of the DVCHC and is probably no-cut. |
Anonymous
Looks like the old D2 Premier has moved en masse to AAU so they have a shot at Nationals |
Anonymous
I meant D2 Elite |
Anonymous
| Maryland (ACHA D2) is playing Navy (ACHA D1) at Laurel this Friday. May be worth checking out if your kid is interested in club hockey. Navy regularly wins its league but struggled last year. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Terps won. |
Anonymous
Maryland has some good players. Should be a good game. |
Anonymous
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JMU played VT this weekend and lost 8-4. Do they practice? It seems like Piedmont is home rink. Anywhere else? Just wondering how feasible it is to play there. Looks like the old Langley HS Coach is now the JMU Coach.
Plus, how much do the kids pay to play? |
Anonymous
They do practice, but many kids don't make it to the practices because they are so far away (over an hour each way). My kid has a couple of friends and former teammates who have played for JMU, and have generally liked it. I think its pretty low-key. Not sure what the costs are, but likely in the 2-3K per year range. |
Anonymous
| JMU and UVA lost their rink years ago (they shared the same one in Charlottesville) and there is no replacement. So they both travel over hour to and from practice and games. My advice is if club hockey is strong driver look at schools where there is more than 1 rink in case it disappears. |
Anonymous
Isn’t VT far from its rink? Do they get fan support? Have weekday practices? WM and CMU seem to have good options but play in pretty weak leagues. |
Anonymous
Navy won in OT. They are playing Pitt this weekend, which is one of the stronger programs normally. Looks like Pitt easily beat WVU D1 but lost 17-0 over 2 games to Liberty. Be interesting to see how Navy does and how strong a supposedly good ACHA D1 team in Pitt is compared to Maryland. I think Navy streams the games. Maryland is playing WVU D2 at Laurel. So Navy at 7PM in Annapolis and Maryland at 8:40 in Laurel. |