COLLEGE HOCKEY SELECTION GUIDELI

COLLEGE HOCKEY SELECTION GUIDELINES

NCAA DIVISION I - II - III - ACHA DIVISION I - II - III - NJCAA - CLUB

By Tom Keegan

This College Hockey Guide contains information on hundreds of college level hockey programs. A number of these programs have either junior varsity or other second levels which brings the number of potential intercollegiate playing possibilities to well over five hundred.

The opportunities range from NCAA Division I to NCAA Division III, ACHA, NJCAA or club level hockey. Some frequently asked questions include: Where do I fit? Do I also want an education? Do I want to graduate in four years or five? Do I want to play or will I be satisfied to sit on the bench for the first few years? Can I get a scholarship or financial aid? These are but a few of the questions that must be answered before you can select a school.

The standard recommendation from most concerned educators and parents over the years has been to pick a school where you will be happy for four years in the unfortunate event you don’t make the hockey team. We subscribe 100% to this recommendation. This still leaves you with many alternatives. We assume that the overriding influence on your college decision is hockey. You want to play at the college level. So, should you select the best school or the best hockey team?

If you are one of the talented few prospects that is unofficially offered a guaranteed full scholarship for four years from a quality NCAA Division I program, then you probably have the talent to play at any school you choose. You must then select the school which provides you with the best combination of educational opportunities, location, social experience, cost, hockey, etc. based upon the importance of each factor to you.

Athletic scholarships are technically renewed annually and not awarded for four years. If you are not quite at the talent level to be offered full scholarships for the duration, you may be offered either a full or partial scholarship for the first year, with the balance of the scholarship dependent upon your performance your first year. Or, you may be told that a scholarship will be available to you, but not until you prove yourself during that first season. If the school is not interested in providing you with a four year scholarship, then the school probably is not certain that you will be successful in their program. This situation should suggest to you that your value to that particular school may not be as great as you had thought. Given this situation, you may want to explore schools that have teams which are not quite at the same competition level. If the top NCAA Division I schools are not able to commit to you for four years, maybe some schools in the lower echelon of Division I are willing to make the full commitment. A player considered marginal at one of the schools which routinely goes to the NCAA tournament may be an impact player at another Division I institution.

As we review preseason Division I rosters it is not unusual to find forty to fifty varsity prospects. In this kind of a numbers game we know that from ten to twenty-five players are going to be disappointed by the time final cuts are made. Even after those cuts the squad may still include from five to ten players that will not normally dress for games. This College Hockey Guide contains information on hundreds of college level hockey programs. A number of these programs have either junior varsity or other second levels which brings the number of potential intercollegiate playing possibilities to well over five hundred.

As we review preseason Division I rosters it is not unusual to find forty to fifty varsity prospects. In this kind of a numbers game we know that from ten to twenty-five players are going to be disappointed by the time final cuts are made. Even after those cuts the squad may still include from five to ten players that will not normally dress for games. Most of the players cut probably could have had an impact at the NCAA Division II/III or ACHA Division I level.

The preseason rosters of NCAA Division III programs may bulge to 75 or more and it is obvious that only about one-third of those players trying out will actually make the squad, much less the travel squad. Here again many players could have opted for a team playing at a slightly lower competition level and made the team.

Division I coaches have problems picking their teams, but those problems are generally resolved in the spring. The typical Division I program will have about thirty to thirty five returning or recruited players and from five to fifteen walk-ons. All of the recruited players and quite possibly most of the walk-ons have been seen by one or more of the coaches, usually more than two or three times. The Division I coach can pretty well predict his team makeup by the beginning of summer with very little movement after that.

NCAA Division III coaches may have a more difficult time. Since they normally do not have the luxury of scholarships and early and regular signing periods, they must actually recruit many more players than they really need. Just to make it a little tougher add the fact that the typical coach will not get a chance to see most of his prospects on the ice. He depends primarily upon recommend-ations from other coaches. He knows the positions that must be filled for the coming season, but he will not be able to make up his preseason roster until he checks the dorms in September to find out which prospects actually enrolled.

Depending upon his particular school situation he may have to dramatically over recruit. If he is the coach at a very selective school that accepts an average of only fifteen percent of applicants, he may have to recruit two hundred players to get thirty admitted. Of course those thirty admittees will not result in thirty players because many of those were also admitted to other schools and he may be lucky to get half. So, in this situation, two hundred recruits may actually result in just fifteen players on the ice.

Now, if his recruits don’t fit his historical admissions patterns he may have other problems. If he gets lucky and the admissions office accepts twenty percent of his prospects, and seventy-five percent accept he could end up with thirty quality players vying for fifteen positions. Great for team competition but there will be fifteen unhappy former players wandering around campus that fall.

When you are filing applications for colleges one method calls for applying to two or three schools that offer certain admission, two or three to which you should be admitted, and two or three to which you might be admitted. Add hockey to the formula. Make sure that at least one school at each level is one where you know you can play.

We stated earlier that the typical NCAA Division III coach will not see most of his prospects play. The burden then falls to you. If you are going to spend four years at a school, take the time to visit and get a good feel for the school and the hockey program. Attend a game and a practice, stay overnight and spend some time with the team. You can’t learn too much about the school if you are considering the commitment of time and money involved. A good weekend visit to one school is far more worthwhile than visiting two or three schools over a weekend and learning nothing about the schools. We recommend visiting from Thursday through Saturday when the hockey team has a Friday home game. Arrive early enough to watch the entire Thursday practice and spend Thursday evening with the team. Stay overnight, have your interview and tour and dine in the cafeteria. Also attend some classes on Friday and the game on Friday night. Spend as much time as possible around the team and the coach. When you depart on Friday night or Saturday morning you should know not only if you are good enough to play on that team, but if you fit in with the character of the team and the school.

As a prospective college player you should visit enough schools to feel comfortable with your eventual choice. Visit schools at several competition levels. Consider all of the options. Prep school, high school, midget and junior hockey players should seriously consider teams at all levels. A visit to an ACHA game at Penn State, Illinois - Champaign, Iowa State, Colorado, Arizona or Towson might offer a real surprise. They often play in front of capacity crowds in large modern rinks.

If you seriously want to play college hockey there is a place for you to play. The College Hockey Guide provides you with a fairly detailed page on every NCAA and many ACHA men’s programs. In addition to all of the programs listed there are club level or junior varsity programs at many schools at all levels. Club level contacts change frequently and it is difficult to maintain communications at this level. If you are attempting to locate a specific club program, contact College Hockey Guide directly for current contact information.

If you are realistic about your own hockey ability, and you take the time to evaluate the various hockey programs and schools, you will find a place to play.