Thank you for visiting Hockey Prospects. The next evaluational step from Scouting Ohio Hockey. I am John Holt, the Director of Scouting for the Philadelphia Little Flyers EHL South Champions 2013-2014. A title that was granted to me by Head Coach and GM Rocky Russo. A title that means, essentially, Rocky is more trusting than not of my player evaluations, lol. Should you be new to my "Blog" you will find a lot of LOL and sarcasm, humor and at times vented frustrations. So I hope you find writings enjoyable, and educational.
We are deep into the tryouts time of year. Should you have a daughter with NCAA aspirations, she should be playing girls travel at the highest level Team she can make: u19- Freshman in HS. You are doing yourself or her no favors having her play with boys HS teams, if alternatives are available. I will be asking a few select woman hockey players to submit their thoughts and opinions on Girls-Woman player development paths. I do respect how busy these woman are, and we may have to just have me interview them and put up some guidelines.
The boys I can address with some more clarity. So we will, start in some form or measure of the beginning....for players on an NCAA track. Today, and say that from May 16 2014 there are 59 NCAA division 1 College Hockey Teams, 73 NCAA D3 Teams and 25 ACHA D1 teams (club hockey). We will discuss some of these club teams at length in the near future as the process for making one of these teams is very similar to NCAA team, and the college hockey experience is at times better or Rivals most NCAA d1. The top 1/3 of those club teams rival about 1/2 the the D3 teams, more parity for another time. But what is important to note is that today as you read this and type, there are some 350,000 players ages 15-20 competing for those positions. The average NCAA d1 Locker room has 28 players in it. So in round math there are 1652 men (average age of Freshman is 20.4 years old) which equates to a raw chance of .4% one of those 350,000 players gets a locker. Think your getting a scholarship? you have a .2% of getting any money at all, let alone "THE FULL RIDE" Schools dont have the money...the ECAC which are the IVY league schools dont have athletic scholarship. Atlantic schools just went to allowing 16 scholarship for hockey...other leagues are capped at 18. Its not about getting a scholarship. That is the gravy. Its about earning the privilege to play college hockey. Every year there are lots of players offered D1 spots, who can not go, because the cost of tuition is to high. its a fact.
Self assessment number 1 for parents. What can we afford to pay for college?
Self assessment number 2 for parents What amount, based on our sons acidemic desires, is reasonable to graduate indebted? This is big. Does johnny want to be graduate from X school with Y debt knowing Z average starting pay for his chosen field? Does the math work.
Self assessment 3 for parents Johnny is only young once, JR hockey does offer him the chance to play the game as far his ability will take him. We have invested in him to this point, there is no reason to stop now....or is there? Only you can debate those questions.
The big one...on deciding when to leave home. Yup...Johhny will have to leave home at some point. Some kids age 10-18 play at boarding schools. Others leave home to play AAA bantam and Midgets. Others still leave home to play Jrs at age 15...they may even take online High school classes. Self assessment 4 for parents- why cant johnny leave home? Not mature enough...really? He is 15 he has all the tools and skills to board and play hockey away from home. The really issue is letting him leave the nest. Its reverse home sickness. Helicopter parenting. Face it, you have been toting him to and from everything to now..and been part of his whole life...being cut off is scary. But you can do it. So leave the maturity thought off the table, those are your FEARS.
more to come...
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