Are girls moving from figure skating to hockey?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women's ice hockey is actually a much better way to get into an ivy league school than figure skating.

You’re nuts. I don’t know anything about figure skating but getting any girl to d1 level of hockey, let alone ivy, means sending them to boarding school, or commuting to Philly or Pittsburgh for hockey, starting when there 14. The only local girl within recent memory that did it without leaving played coed (boys) aa through 16u…

They aren't technically nuts...it was kind of a stupid statement, but factually true. Figure skating isn't an NCAA sport, so there is no recruitment for it. Sure, Nathan Chen got into Yale because he was an Olympic champion...Chloe Kim was accepted to Princeton (with admittedly middling SAT scores according to her) because she was an Olympic champion snowboarder (and then she promptly dropped out after 1 year)...but there is no Princeton Varsity snowboarding team.

Hockey is an NCAA sport and the Ivy schools that have a team actively recruit players...as they do for all their NCAA sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beyond college what can they do with it? I’m down if anyone wants to start a pro league

Um, ever heard of the PWHL??? There is a pro league that is growing every year. Caroline Harvey, the top NCAA player in the country and Olympian from the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team is expected to be the number 1 draft pick this year. Hockey has become a very popular sport for women. There is no checking in women’s hockey and players don ‘t have to be huge to be good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beyond college what can they do with it? I’m down if anyone wants to start a pro league

Um, ever heard of the PWHL??? There is a pro league that is growing every year. Caroline Harvey, the top NCAA player in the country and Olympian from the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team is expected to be the number 1 draft pick this year. Hockey has become a very popular sport for women. There is no checking in women’s hockey and players don ‘t have to be huge to be good.

I don't know what you define as "huge" for a woman...but she is 5'8" and 160. She is definitely solidly built.

[Anonymous]

Agreed that it is a growing sport.

One correction. Checking is allowed in the PWHL, and it is likely only a matter of time before they introduce it in women's college hockey. That will change the game a little in terms of size, but for now it's not an issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Beyond college what can they do with it? I’m down if anyone wants to start a pro league

Um, ever heard of the PWHL??? There is a pro league that is growing every year. Caroline Harvey, the top NCAA player in the country and Olympian from the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team is expected to be the number 1 draft pick this year. Hockey has become a very popular sport for women. There is no checking in women’s hockey and players don ‘t have to be huge to be good.

And they make peanuts to boot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women's ice hockey is actually a much better way to get into an ivy league school than figure skating.

Well….of course. Figure skating isn’t an NCAA sport…of course the Ivy needs to have a team. Not all do.

It's a niche sport, sure, but plenty of wealthy people care about it, and some great schools also have great figure skating programs. Dartmouth, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, BU, Cornell, etc all field competitive figure skating programs now. There is actually a high concentration of skaters from the better schools, so perhaps there is a correlation between the grit it takes to train, starting as early as 5 am, for 3-4 hours every morning before school, and success in school. Like almost all college athletes, figure skaters will go on to do other things after college. So what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean...are the figure skaters prepared to gain like at least 50 pounds and start getting smashed into the boards...and possibly fighting?

Just seems a little strange. Like saying that a downhill skier is now going to become a freestyle skier...both sports take place on skis, but require a different physique and mental approach.

Tell me that you don’t know what you’re talking about while telling me you don’t know what you’re talking about

So, are there lots of girls moving from figure skating to hockey...because the consensus from this thread is no.

I can't speek to national trends but at our rink, but I've seen about 5 girls from our over the past several years take up at least high school hockey, because if you can skate well in enough to pass your golds in skating skills and freestyle, you can skate well enough to make the high school jv team without much hockey training even if your stick skills are terrible. You are likely to be the best skater on the jv hockey team if you got your golds in figure skating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women's ice hockey is actually a much better way to get into an ivy league school than figure skating.

You’re nuts. I don’t know anything about figure skating but getting any girl to d1 level of hockey, let alone ivy, means sending them to boarding school, or commuting to Philly or Pittsburgh for hockey, starting when there 14. The only local girl within recent memory that did it without leaving played coed (boys) aa through 16u…

Not true in all cases. Mariya Rauf played Pride 16U-19U here (graduated 2022). She committed to Yale, but due to the COVID bubble played a year in Canada before reporting there. She's dressed consistently freshman and sophomore year and played every game this past year. Girls from this area going to the Ivies are few and far between, but if you're good, you're good, and the schools will find you. I actually think it's easier coming from a 'small market team' to get into an Ivy for hockey because they are not handing out athletic scholarships, and you have to have the grades to get in. A lot of the better known Tier 1 players don't have the grades or are chasing scholarship money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women's ice hockey is actually a much better way to get into an ivy league school than figure skating.

Well….of course. Figure skating isn’t an NCAA sport…of course the Ivy needs to have a team. Not all do.

It's a niche sport, sure, but plenty of wealthy people care about it, and some great schools also have great figure skating programs. Dartmouth, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, BU, Cornell, etc all field competitive figure skating programs now. There is actually a high concentration of skaters from the better schools, so perhaps there is a correlation between the grit it takes to train, starting as early as 5 am, for 3-4 hours every morning before school, and success in school. Like almost all college athletes, figure skaters will go on to do other things after college. So what?

You are conflating some things. Figure skating is a club sport and there is no formal recruiting for it.

I guarantee that every year a bunch of kids apply to Harvard who are figure skaters and some years, none will get accepted and other years some will get accepted. They don't care all that much about the club figure skating team...much like they don't care all that much about the club rugby team or other sports where they have club teams but no varsity teams.

Hockey is a varsity sport, so every single year, 7 or so hockey players will 100% be accepted at Harvard, because they need to backfill for the players who graduated.

That's the distinction I was trying to make.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women's ice hockey is actually a much better way to get into an ivy league school than figure skating.

Well….of course. Figure skating isn’t an NCAA sport…of course the Ivy needs to have a team. Not all do.

It's a niche sport, sure, but plenty of wealthy people care about it, and some great schools also have great figure skating programs. Dartmouth, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, BU, Cornell, etc all field competitive figure skating programs now. There is actually a high concentration of skaters from the better schools, so perhaps there is a correlation between the grit it takes to train, starting as early as 5 am, for 3-4 hours every morning before school, and success in school. Like almost all college athletes, figure skaters will go on to do other things after college. So what?

You are conflating some things. Figure skating is a club sport and there is no formal recruiting for it.

I guarantee that every year a bunch of kids apply to Harvard who are figure skaters and some years, none will get accepted and other years some will get accepted. They don't care all that much about the club figure skating team...much like they don't care all that much about the club rugby team or other sports where they have club teams but no varsity teams.

Hockey is a varsity sport, so every single year, 7 or so hockey players will 100% be accepted at Harvard, because they need to backfill for the players who graduated.

That's the distinction I was trying to make.

Fair, but neither sport is going anywhere after college, so the distinction doesn't matter so much. Sure, the PWHL exists, but the salaries are egregious, with Hilary Knight topping out at $103k. You can make more than that coaching figure skating now, especially with Zoom lessons. For ~99% of women, college is the end of competitive athletics. You can get a recruiting bump at Harvard to play women's hockey, but if you are a nationally ranked figure skater, that helps, too. There are quite a few figure skaters at schools like Dartmouth for such a niche sport. Either it counts, or the work ethic translates into academic success.

[Anonymous]

Ultimately, women's and men's hockey are the same. All roads lead to beer league.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Women's ice hockey is actually a much better way to get into an ivy league school than figure skating.

Well….of course. Figure skating isn’t an NCAA sport…of course the Ivy needs to have a team. Not all do.

It's a niche sport, sure, but plenty of wealthy people care about it, and some great schools also have great figure skating programs. Dartmouth, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, BU, Cornell, etc all field competitive figure skating programs now. There is actually a high concentration of skaters from the better schools, so perhaps there is a correlation between the grit it takes to train, starting as early as 5 am, for 3-4 hours every morning before school, and success in school. Like almost all college athletes, figure skaters will go on to do other things after college. So what?

You are conflating some things. Figure skating is a club sport and there is no formal recruiting for it.

I guarantee that every year a bunch of kids apply to Harvard who are figure skaters and some years, none will get accepted and other years some will get accepted. They don't care all that much about the club figure skating team...much like they don't care all that much about the club rugby team or other sports where they have club teams but no varsity teams.

Hockey is a varsity sport, so every single year, 7 or so hockey players will 100% be accepted at Harvard, because they need to backfill for the players who graduated.

That's the distinction I was trying to make.

Fair, but neither sport is going anywhere after college, so the distinction doesn't matter so much. Sure, the PWHL exists, but the salaries are egregious, with Hilary Knight topping out at $103k. You can make more than that coaching figure skating now, especially with Zoom lessons. For ~99% of women, college is the end of competitive athletics. You can get a recruiting bump at Harvard to play women's hockey, but if you are a nationally ranked figure skater, that helps, too. There are quite a few figure skaters at schools like Dartmouth for such a niche sport. Either it counts, or the work ethic translates into academic success.

Well, as you point out they likely come from wealthy families and have great test scores and grades. Go to any Ivy and you find a national banjo competition winner...a national chess champion...they like to accept accomplished students. I would probably argue that the top 5 college-applicant figure skaters in any given year probably get a slight bump (but again, it's not a recruiting bump), but that's probably it...vs. 7 hockey players per team X the number of top academic school teams. Only difference is it would be # of Olympic skaters in any given application cycle + top 5 skaters as Olympians will always get a bump.

I'm not sure why it matters if the sport is going anywhere after college as this was just about getting recruited to attend college.

Also, the WNBA started at like $50k but now they negotiated a pay increase to $500k I think minimum...same process for women's soccer league. Not sure if the PWHL will be as successful, but if it is, then salaries will be much higher 5+ years from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to be -big to be a good women's hockey player. Kendall Coyne Shofield is 5'2" and has two gold medals. Cayla Barnes is also either 5'1" or 5'2". Amanda Boulier is only 5'1". There is a place in hockey for small, fast players. I believe Cayla Barnes started out as a figure skater.

I had no idea women’s ice hockey players could be this small. I live in boston and all the Harvard and bc hockey girlies are 5’7+ amazons

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to be -big to be a good women's hockey player. Kendall Coyne Shofield is 5'2" and has two gold medals. Cayla Barnes is also either 5'1" or 5'2". Amanda Boulier is only 5'1". There is a place in hockey for small, fast players. I believe Cayla Barnes started out as a figure skater.

Very few girls over 5’8” play ncaa

Really? Harvard and bc women’s hockey players seem so tall

https://bceagles.com/sports/womens-ice-hockey/roster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to be -big to be a good women's hockey player. Kendall Coyne Shofield is 5'2" and has two gold medals. Cayla Barnes is also either 5'1" or 5'2". Amanda Boulier is only 5'1". There is a place in hockey for small, fast players. I believe Cayla Barnes started out as a figure skater.

I had no idea women’s ice hockey players could be this small. I live in boston and all the Harvard and bc hockey girlies are 5’7+ amazons

Tammy Shewchuk (Canadian gold medalist who played for Harvard in College) was known as "Barbie" during her College/early Canadian national team days when she played at 5'4" and 108 lbs.