My kid wants to play in college...how does it work and what should I be doing now to help...

[massalsa]

I know that this is a HIGH SCHOOL forum but there are people all over the place that lurk and post here.

Here is our (my kid's) story in a nutshell and it will lead to the recruiting conversation.I started my time here when my 2020 HS grad was in 7th grade and asked for help deciding if she should play for our High School or a second year of Peewee (boys). There were not any girls options in our association and the options available playing for other associations were not appealing to my kid. She started HS hockey in 8th grade. She played Varsity for all 5 years of HS and also did HP 15, 16, & 17. Made MN & Natty camp as a 15, missed out on 54's as a 16, and then made it to 54's at 17. She primarily trained with OS in the summers in HS and did some positional training early in her HS experience. She did some specific edge work and skills training in addition to the other stuff and that was extremely helpful in every way. She played HS Elite League 3 years and also played at NAHA 2x. She was contacted/recruited by D1 coaches for the first time in the spring of her 8th grade year and did not commit until after her Junior HS season. It was quite a process over those years...friends and teammates committed in 9th/10th/11th/12th grade.

It was a weird, mysterious process a lot of the time and we did not know what to do other than write emails and show up at Prospects. We trained and continued to try to play in situations where she might be seen. We attended 2 camps/showcases out of state too. Without trying to brag my kid was elite but not super elite. It seemed as if most of the super elite kids were/are in high demand and had lots of options. She was in a spot a couple of times where coaches would want to talk and then asked my kid to let them know prior to committing elsewhere and another time where she was told that she was the next recruit on the list if a current extended offer chose to attend elsewhere. One time she was asked to visit a school by the head coach and she found out the coach was fired the morning our flight landed (we visited a couple of other schools that trip so it worked out ok). Two coaches asked us to visit during her 9th grade school year and we waited until the next summer. Both had filled their commitments for that year by the time we visited the next summer.

Things appear to be different now with the new recruiting rules but I am guessing that there will be some things that will be the same. If I was to give some advice to uncommitted girls that are 2021's and younger it would be this:

1. Try to visit as many schools as you can when you are able. We started between 9th & 10th grade and it was very helpful in our process overall. There are a bunch of schools that one can visit over several days in the Northeast. One can see 4/5 completely different types of schools/campuses over a weekend or 2 full days in New England. BU has a completely different feel than BC and they are 10 minutes apart. Harvard is less than 10 minutes from BU and feels totally different than BC and BU. Boston is less than 4 hours from at least 16 Division 1 womens programs. One does not need to do public tours at all schools but if your kid is able it is very helpful and worth the 60-90 minutes nearly every time.

2. Begin to accumulate some video footage if you can of your kid. Even better if you can get footage against known kids in the recruiting universe. Game footage against a powerhouse is valuable and one can see how your kid skates and makes decisions under the pressure of schools like Edina/Andover/Minnetonka/Benilde/Breck/other. We were able to get game footage from our school that they streamed online. I broke the footage down to smaller sections (like periods or even shifts) on a couple of games of significance and uploaded to a private youtube channel. My kid included the links to that footage on emails to targeted schools along with contact info of summer/school coaches.

3. Be ready to act if a coach or team contacts you and wants you to visit. We made a major error in waiting to visit two schools early. Even just driving thru those campuses would have been helpful. I also believe that showing interest in a school by having visited (even without the coach asking) could help. You want to give those coaches reasons to be more interested in you...not less.

4. Our experience with an invite to an on campus camp with multiple coaches/schools that my kid was interested in was a bunch of baloney. It may not be that way for you but manage your expectations. Only 2 of the 7 schools that were to attend showed up.

5. OS Prospects is a big deal. It is a great opportunity to be seen and to meet some coaches on the bench. We found the 1st & 2nd weekend to be much better than weekend #3.

6. Grades and ACT/SAT scores might matter a lot. No reason to give a school whether it is D1 or D3 to not recruit you. Womens hockey can open up some very significant educational opportunities for your kid. If she is good enough at hockey she can most likely get into an Ivy or NESCAC school with a 26/27 and a 3.5 versus a 34 and a 3.9 (that still may not be able to get in!).

[Indy96]

Great post- thanks for sharing. Will be interesting to see how things change with COVID. I have a 2023 grad and I feel like this is the group that will be most affected with the COVID cancellations in terms of recruiting as this was their last summer to showcase before coaches can call directly on June 15th after sophomore year. This was the summer she was planning to attend some college elite camps on campus for the schools she is interested in (all of which she was invited to). All camps have been outright cancelled or "postponed" but I don't have high hopes that they will proceed at any point.
It's worrisome from a recruiting standpoint- my daughter did not get any interest until the summer before her freshman year- she was a late bloomer in terms of her strength and height. Anyway her varsity coach set up a few calls for her right before the rule change but of course hasn't been able to speak to any of the coaches directly since then. She had a very successful HS season but a lot of the east coast coaches don't get the chance to come to MN during the HS season so she was really counting on HP/National camp and OS Prospects this summer.

One other thing that may be helpful- some coaches requested to follow her on twitter and instagram so we assume that those who are following her are at least somewhat interested. She follows schools she is interested in as well so I'd encourage players to check out the pages of the schools they like as a way to let a coach know they are interested.

[ShakestheClown]

My child is a 2021 grad, and has had a similar experience as Massala, with a few exceptions. She tore her knee up during her freshman season and couldn't participate in the HP 15s, which put her behind a bit; but she has picked up steam since. She has participated in the elite league and it is a great way to be seen, especially the NIT weekend.

We went out east last summer to a college camp and used the time to see a bunch of schools. Her experience at the camp was good, and it resulted in a lot of phone calls and tours we weren't planning on making after the camp. The NESCAC schools are great both for academics and hockey.

The three most effective tools we've used over the years are:

1)This is not really a tool, but the kid needs to have a high inner drive and level of compete. If it isn't fully there, then they really aren't or shouldn't play collegiate hockey.

2)Power skating - edgework and quick feet make a player stand out. If your child is willing, sign them up for as much of it as possible.

3)Hockey IQ - watching and playing are the best way to do it.

Every coach she has spoken with has said her skating ability and hockey IQ are what set her apart from others. YMMV with your daughter. It may be their shot, passing, skating, etc.

There are services like NCSA that can help too, but if you follow Masalla's advice it is effectively the same direction that those services steer you. Save the money and follow Masalla's advice.

[massalsa]

All camps have been outright cancelled or "postponed" but I don't have high hopes that they will proceed at any point.
It's worrisome from a recruiting standpoint...She had a very successful HS season but a lot of the east coast coaches don't get the chance to come to MN during the HS season so she was really counting on HP/National camp and OS Prospects this summer.

One other thing that may be helpful- some coaches requested to follow her on twitter and instagram so we assume that those who are following her are at least somewhat interested. She follows schools she is interested in as well so I'd encourage players to check out the pages of the schools they like as a way to let a coach know they are interested.

I cut your message up a little bit to add some comments to what remains. I thought that I read that HP was cancelled...I am guessing that if OS Prospects can happen it will and it will matter. Keep training for that! I would strongly recommend finding some game footage of your daughter playing and getting it to east coast schools to watch during their quarantine and to get her on their radar if she is not yet. Might be worthwhile to send some measurables if she is tall or has something else worth sending to them.

The insta and twitter follows are good...maybe encourage her to post some workout footage or stick handling or shooting if she can dazzle.

[MNHockeyFan]

The insta and twitter follows are good...maybe encourage her to post some workout footage or stick handling or shooting if she can dazzle.

I've been following girls and women's hockey for quite a few years now, and over that time it's become obvious to me that the No. 1 skill that separates the mature talented male from the mature talented female is....SHOOTING! Wrist shot, snap shot, slap shot and backhand...and getting them off QUICKLY - with ACCURACY - are in many cases, at the next level especially, what separates the merely good female hockey player from the great female hockey player. Needless to say, D1 goalies, on average, are much bigger and more talented...which combine to make it more difficult to score on than what opposing skaters typically faced in high school. That makes shooting talent, even though it's just one component of what makes a truly great player, all the more critical.

That said, when it comes to being able to shoot hard, with accuracy, mature girls are at a big disadvantage compared to mature boys, and that disadvantage increases with age. It all comes down to developing strength, particularly wrist strength. For the truly motivated, especially during this terrible COVID-19 down time, when most others aren't doing all that much, this is an opportunity for girls looking to excel in college by becoming proficient goal scorers can really improve their arm and wrist strength.

Sure, it takes hard work, but for the truly motivated strength training - especially for the wrists - can play big dividends.

[massalsa]

Might as well revisit this with something I read today. Hope that all are hanging in there...

The excerpts below are from this article...I have not found a better writer/blogger for a womens team then Grant Salzano...the dude loves BC and womens hockey...it is too bad he writes almost exclusively about BC and not womens hockey in general.

https://www.bcinterruption.com/boston-c ... ockey-east

BCI: Off the ice, how has COVID-19 affected the coaching staff’s usual recruiting routine? Does it put more emphasis on kids reaching out with video? Or do you have to look more for streams of games with players in them that you have your eye on? How’s it different?

HCKC: I mean, you get some video, even pre-COVID, but obviously with COVID there’s been a lot more video, a lot more watching live streams of games. Like you said, that’s the only way you see new players or players that you want to look at right now, is by watching online. So that’s certainly been something that we’ve utilized more than ever, and, you know, I guess it’s nice that you don’t have to really leave home [laughs].

But there’s still nothing like seeing a hockey game in real life; I would still opt for being able to walk into a rink and watch a game. But thank goodness for technology, and that we’re able to still watch the players and keep recruiting while we’re in this crazy time.

BCI: Has the new rule prohibiting contact with recruits until junior year taken a little bit off your plate for the time being with some future classes partially filled, especially with regards to the Coronavirus making it more difficult to recruit anyway?

HCKC: Yeah, we’ve had some kids committed for a while that definitely eases it a little bit. But I feel bad; it’s not easy for anyone. You feel bad for the recruits, you feel bad for kids who are juniors and seniors who maybe aren’t committed somewhere yet, and you feel bad for the kids out there that thought they would be signing an NLI that maybe the plans have changed for right now. So it’s not easy for anyone, and hopefully everyone ends up finding a spot for themselves and hopefully it’s not too stressful on them.

This was interesting too that could semi affects HS graduates (committed or not) from 2020-2025:

BCI: The NCAA granted players an extra year of eligibility due to the Coronavirus, but as we understand it, it won’t necessarily mean we’ve got rosters with five years of turnover — especially in the non-revenue sports. So how does the women’s hockey program expect to handle that additional eligibility, especially when you consider how it impacts the future freshmen?

HCKC: It’s going to be on a case by case basis and we’re going to kind of walk through that as we get closer to that situation being more impactful for us. This year we have two seniors, so we have to have that conversation with them. I’m not sure which way it’s going to go right now. And every team is different with how they’re going to handle it and what they’re going to do.

It obviously depends on what the player wants, too — what do they want to do after their senior year? What are they looking to do? So there’s lots of different options. It’s certainly going to be a challenging thing to navigate, especially with, like you said, roster sizes. I would say we’ll probably be bigger in the future than what we’ve been used to, but we’ll navigate that as we get a little bit closer to it and have conversations with those players. It definitely changes the way you have to do things as a coach and as a staff, but we’ll figure it out and try to make it work for everyone.

[massalsa]

If you are interested in D1 college hockey this year this blog is a great follow for up to date games that will be televised (even if online) and has great recaps with highlights and more. The best spot for one-stop coverage before and after every hockey weekend this season.

If your kid has ANY interest in playing for Yale, another Ivy, NESCAC, or another HA college/university the information about academics or the high academic recruiting process it is a must read. My kid was on the radar of Yale at one point so I ended up getting an email from the coach (I must have been on some Yale hockey email list somewhere) and read it every time there is an update.

Lots of great general information about D1 hockey even for non Ivy/HA hockey kids too...

https://bulldogpipeline.com/posts/

[massalsa]

I am sure that there are many kids and parents that are concerned about Covid and the recruiting environment. I know that I had concerns about my kid when she was going thru the process and now am having concerns about another kid in another sport and this at a minimum 13 month dead period from Division 1 recruiting in person for any sport other than Football & Basketball (I think that they have different rules). Here is the latest from the blog of the Yale assistant coach...I know that there are not a ton of kids wanting or having the ability grade wise or skill wise to play Ivy Hockey but the blog has a bunch of overall college womens hockey content (both playing and recruiting) and if you are on this board reading this post you probably would find the blog interesting...

https://bulldogpipeline.com/

COVID Recruiting Update… Players & Parents Hang In There!

Recruiting in women’s hockey has been turned on its head and in many respects has come to a standstill for certain age groups. Needless to say, it’s been a bit messy. On March 12th, 2020 the NCAA announced the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA Women’s Hockey National Championship due to concerns over COVID. Shortly after that announcement the NCAA announced a temporary ‘COVID’ recruiting dead period which basically meant no off-campus recruiting for D-I coaches nor could recruits and or their families make trips to visit campuses in an official or unofficial capacity. Since then, the COVID recruiting dead period has been extended several times and is currently in effect until April 15, 2021.

As coaches we often tell our players to be patient… things will work themselves out in time. Well… whether you’re a player, a parent, or minor/youth coach reading this, I’d like to offer the same bit of advice – be patient with the recruiting process during COVID.

I’ve spoken to several club and high school coaches since the holidays on how the pandemic is impacting their players. Almost across the board, coaches have intimated their players and parents are on full out freak-out mode relative to their D-I recruiting situations and perceived loss of opportunity–mostly for those who are in grade 11. And the biggest complaint I heard is the lack of information coming from college coaches back to these players and parents. And there is good reason why college programs aren’t providing that info — because they don’t have it themselves, yet.

Part of this angst stems from a recruiting environment we were all used to prior to the pandemic where early commitments and back-and-forth communication was the norm. Players could call coaches on their own and get the info they wanted/needed to make decisions or just to know who had interest in them was nice to know because it meant you might have some options. Since June for those in grades 9 and 10, most of that has been taken away due to NCAA rules. Players in grades 11 and 12 have been subject to a whole new world of college recruiting in the COVID era where coaches won’t know how many spots they’ll need or what there roster could look like in a lot of cases until May or June this Spring. I’ve talked with plenty of college coaches of late, and the sense I get is they want to be patient. Not being able to see players play live doesn’t make for great recruiting decisions. And let’s face it – players haven’t really been able to play. Some yes, but this hasn’t been a normal hockey season of development. Add in a whole class of NCAA players who can come back and play next year and you have a new transfer market college coaches are now taking into account. Trouble is, college coaches won’t know who’s going to transfer in a lot of cases until this Spring.

When I first started coaching in the early 2000’s, coaches wouldn’t even call players for the first time until the summer between a players’ junior and senior year when the rules said we could. Official visits were a real and a vital aspect of the recruiting process which absolutely helped determine who we made official offers to… after the player came to campus. Players would actually take multiple visits to schools before making a decision and for the most part were patient with the process.

Then, all of a sudden the process changed and early recruiting/commitments became the norm. So too did the expectations of players, parents, and their club or high school coaches. Patients in the process went out the window. Enter the pandemic, a NCAA dead period that will last at least 13 months, and NCAA rules allowing current college players an extra year of eligibility… Welcome back to the early 2000’s and programs taking their time to make recruiting decisions.

Here is the reality for a lot of college programs–they don’t even have all of the info they want and need to make recruiting decisions. In part because watching live games of club and high school hockey has been off-limits due to the dead period. And also because the NCAA threw a nice wrench into the mix granting all players on a roster this year an extra year of eligibility. A lot of programs are still trying to hash-out what seniors may come back or transfer elsewhere. Chances are that won’t be known until sometime this Spring after the season is over.

The old saying ‘control what you can control’, really applies here – otherwise you are going to drive yourself nuts over-thinking all of this. You can’t control what the NCAA does nor a college program.

So if you want to be smart, use this time to your advantage and take control of your development. Do what you can to make yourself a better player so when the time comes for coaches to get back out on the road and watch games live, you’re ready and can show them how much you’ve improved. You might have to re-think your approach to your process like taking a gap year somewhere or you might have to consider other schools where you know there is an opportunity for you. Because there are still spots available out there – but you have to be good enough to get one. Case in point… when the Univ. of North Dakota dropped their program in March of 2017, all but a player or two found a home. That meant there had to be space on rosters and scholarship money available to give out – and there was. So, if you’re one of those players who’s in a holding pattern and haven’t heard much from the coaches you were chatting it up with this summer or early fall, take a deep breath, hang in there and be patient as you let this crazy process play itself out. Things will get better but it will take some time.

[massalsa]

And please let me know if this at all begins to look like greybeard's frequent posts on concussions! I will stop them! They are important for some but how much of it is different stories saying the same things and research over and over...