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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^ pride is a disgrace too. Girls good enough to play ncaa d1 have to leave after their freshman year and go to boarding school, commute to Philly for practice, or homeschool and find another tier 1 team with a weeknd model. It’s a nightmare. I wish USA hockey would step in and allow other assns to start aaa, or at least hold these guys accountable. They shouldn’t be protected like nfl franchises. [/quote]

As a mother of a female player I desperately want a Virginia AAA girls program. I've heard nothing but bad things about Pride so even if it was closer I don't think we'd play there.[/quote]

As a parent with multiple kids in this program, I would say that it's like any other program, there are good things and bad things. If you're expecting any kid in this are, girl or boy, to go from AAA to D1 it is a stretch. Not impossible, but clearly a stretch. At the end of the day. One of the big benefits with Pride is that they will get you seen. They go to the right tournaments, and the Director has the connections to get your kid exposure. We heard from multiple coaches in the recruiting process how much they like/appreciate the JWHL model (league run by the Pride director). This is not like some sports, for example lacrosse, where the recruiting process is pretty prescribed and there is a recruiting director. Your kid will have to take the initiative to reach out to people. The director will help advise and talk to coaches when they reach out, but it is incumbent on your child to do the footwork.

That said, at the end of the day, your kid is either a D1 player or not. Probably not. For perspective, a quick review of the eight birth-year girls who started with one of my kids:
- Four went to boarding school, of those three re-classed, of those one is not playing hockey in college, one is likely to play lacrosse, too early to tell on a third. The girl who did not reclass is playing D3. 
- For those going to prep school,if you are want to play in college, you have to pay for the cost of prep school as well as Tier 1 hockey, the teams in the northeast play a shoulder season, so very light during the prep season, but you are then having to manage/coordinate logistics for getting your kid from prep school to Tier 1 practices as well as to tournaments/events.
- Prep schools are generally better academically than public if that is where your kids are now, not necessarily better than a private school in this area. 
- If your kid is a multi-sport athlete, prep school will allow for them to play multiple sports vs having to drop everything else to participate in Tier 1 in this area
- The other option that is gaining traction is a hockey academy, which functions more like a regular Tier 1 program, playing August - March, like Shattuck/BK/Lovell. These are harder to get into and focused on hockey vs academics. Some are just online school, others regular classrooms, although my understanding is that the education itself is not great.
- Of the four girls my daughter played with who did not go to prep, three are playing D1. The remaining girl ended up dropping hockey to focus on lacrosse Jr year, and is playing D1 lacrosse.

Moral of the story, prep is definitely a pathway, but unless your kid is a D1 player to begin with, prep will not make your kid a D1 player. (With only 40 some D1 women's hockey teams, and 40% of the players coming from Canada/outside the US the bar is very high.) There are certainly advantages in terms of education and exposure, but at significant financial and family time cost. At the end of the day you do what is best for your kid and family in your circumstances, but nothing is a guarantee, and the things that people hate about hockey in he DMV (politics, travel, etc.) are not absent of avoided if you go the prep route. You might be shielded from it a little bit more because of distance, but it's still there.
[/quote]

Nice way to hijack a thread. [/quote]

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