Examining your future hockey options

By Bettina Young Prochnow

Is hockey in your future? If you’re a Bantam- or Midget-aged player, that is the question you should be asking yourself right now. And if you’re a PeeWee, great—you’re that much ahead of the game. If playing hockey after high school is your goal, then you need to look at what the options are, what is possible, and where you fit in. The sooner a player begins this process, the quicker he or she can target in on what suits them best.

The two post-high school hockey options are, of course, either college or Junior levels of play. The bottom line to achieving either one? “Strengthen your grades and strengthen your game,” says Coach Steve Malley, a Maryland high school hockey coach, and Bowie Hockey Club’s Director of Coaching. Malley, who also interviews prospective college entrants for Harvard, suggests that between those two areas, you will help create your very own “Player Profile.” This is essentially a sales brochure about you—the kind of player you are, the kind of person you are, and what you have accomplished. This is what you will then send out to the schools you have targeted.

Scout your schools

But first you have to find out about those schools and their teams. A good reference is the College Hockey Guide published by Athletic Guide Publications. They also have a Junior Guide, both of which list rosters, coaches, and locations. They are not an academic source, but minimum requirements for GPA and SAT scores are listed. Be prepared to maintain at least a 3.20 GPA in high school, and post an SAT score of 1000.

The competition is tough, and a strong GPA will at least open the door. As an example, Malley cites Penn State’s coach, Joe Battista. He looked at 60 aspiring freshman who wanted to play hockey for the school this season. He only took 14.

“Travel, practice, and academics are tough to balance,” says Malley. “Ask yourself which is going to help you achieve your goal; taking your CD player or your books on the bus?”

The other half of the equation is strengthening your game—otherwise known as exposure, exposure, exposure. The best way to pick up your game is to play against serious players and to learn from, and be observed by, coaches whose opinions count. Find out where those coaches work in the summer and go to their camps. For example, Battista runs a summer camp at Penn State. Use the College Guide, contact the schools that you are interested in, and ask. They’ll tell you if they run a camp and/or where the school’s coach does.

Show yourself off

Pursue the showcases—like Chicago or Hockey Night in Boston, to name a couple. Go to their tryout camps. By the time camp is over, you’ve played for coaches who network with even bigger-name coaches. Many times, a college coach will pick a player based on the recommendation and opinion of another coach that he knows.

This is why Prep schools have an edge in placing students in Division I colleges and universities. For example, Phillips Exeter not only prepares their students academically (they’ll have 50 kids get into Harvard each year) but having their own rink also allows them to put kids on the ice every day. In the summer, they play host to a hockey camp run by the 20-year coach at Wesleyan. So you don’t have to go to Prep school all year—just for a few weeks in the summer if you so chose.

Malley further encourages players to narrow their college choices down to six schools.

Meet and greet coaches

“Try to visit the teams and schools you are interested in and try to meet the coaches,” he adds. “Then send each of them a serious letter, telling them that you saw them play, why you’re impressed with their team, and your profile—grades, SATs, hockey strengths.”

Most importantly, he says, if the coach returns the interest, then the player needs to respond promptly. Return the phone call or complete and mail the résumé the next day. Because of NCAA rules, colleges can not pursue players. If you don’t follow up, the interest will stop. “Parents need to help with each step of this process,” Malley says. “And the sooner a family begins, the better. Most kids who get to college had a hockey parent pushing them with a gentle, firm, but never-ending push!”

Bettina Young Prochnow is a hockey player with the NCWHL and has two sons in hockey. She is a columnist for a newspaper in Livermore, CA.

This first appeared in the 02/1995 issue of Hockey Player Magazine®
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