September 1st of Junior Year question

[2onice]

Being the parent of a junior, I was just wondering what kind of action people were getting from D1 schools. Did you get 5 emails or 35? Did you receive phone calls? What should the expectations be in the coming weeks? Any information would be helpful as we try to decipher how to proceed in helping our daughter to make the right choices and respond appropriately to the interested schools. Thank you in advance for the help.

[joehockey]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

Great questions! You have a great group of hockey people here who give you advice some you will love and other you won't.

1) Start by identifying school's that meet your daughters goals. What does your daughter think she wants to major in? Big or small school? Urban or Rural? Ivy or Private or Public? Location? League WCHA, ECHA, Hockey East, CHA?

2) Do your homework! - What does your player do well? "Big D who shoots left" - find schools graduating that type of player.

3) Why wait, market yourself! - Have your daughter develop a Hockey Bio and write a letter to the Head Coach of the Programs she wants to attend and start the communications process - others already are likely ahead of you.

4) Make an unofficial visit. Best way to know if your daughter will love the school is go see the school.

5) Think school first - many players pick a team. With over 25% of players not staying four years pick a school that prepares you for success in life. The hockey is all bonus - fun, competition, part of a Team, learning to follow, lead and achieve personal and team work.

Our daughter had maybe 12 letters back in 2009 but only really 3 fit her goals don't chase the wrong things.

If you daughter is good this is a large dating process, if she is marginal work the above harder - coaches start with talent but initiative always stands out!

Best of luck, put this on your daughter to be active in, don't do it for her but actively help/support. It is hectic and unnerving - by setting her goals she will better be able to focus. Enjoy the process and make sure she does to! Ask your questions many on this board have traveled the route you are on and can share.

[96IllinoisDad]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

All of joehockey's advice is good. Here is some more...

First, I assume your daughter is not considered a "top prospect" otherwise she would be evaluating offers and going through her 30+ emails. So to respond to your specific questions, last year, my daughter got 1 email at 12:01am, a few more that day/week and others trickled over the next few weeks/months. The emails you got as a freshman or sophomore were fun, but Junior emails generally tend to be REAL emails/interest. Note, many schools do not send emails, and they make contact through your coaching staff or are just on different timetables. You can't get phone calls until July 2014. You can, however, call coaches, and if a school expresses interest to your daughter's coach your daughter should call back promptly. If you want to schedule a visit with a school, your daughter should contact the coach. Almost every school will take the time to meet with your daughter.

Random advice:
1. Your DAUGHTER should drive the process and make all contact/arrangements with coaches. You are there to help her (and motivate her to work at it).
2. Have her take the ACT/SAT asap (late registration for ACT is 9/6 for Oct date). This will give you an idea of where your daughter should be looking. If she is in the teens or low 20s, you may not want to waste much time talking to Ivies or NESCAC schools. If she is in the 30s, then they should be on her list. High 20s are a possibility for Ivies, but you now know she needs to work very hard to get her test scores up.
3. Take unofficial visits to as many schools (and a variety of them) as you can reasonably manage. You need to visit schools and meet staffs to see where your daughter wants to be. Many visits will surprise you negatively and positively. Your daughter may get great advice/motivation from coaches along the way even if she doesn't end up at a particular school.
4. Have your daughter pick at least 3 DIII schools she would be happy at if DI (or the right DI offer) doesn't fit her needs. Visit at least 1 if convenient.
5. Know how many kids that school is graduating/needs for your daughter's position/year (see committment list for 2015-16 thread for filled spots).
6. Promptly respond to coaches. (Note, they cannot return calls until after July 2014).
7. Your daughter should be prepared to ask questions. (My daughter wrote them out and was thankful on visits when she didn't forget to bring them).
8. Be honest with coaches.
9. Be prepared for honesty from coaches and LISTEN to what the coach is telling you, not what you want to hear.
10. When your daughter starts getting offers, encourage her to wait until she is confident it is the right decision. (If you have taken early visits and ACT tests, this should help with the decision).

[joehockey]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

Great list and you are right GPA and Test Scores do open conversations.

My last advice is coaches have a job to do to get good players, who are good students and teammates on a Team to win. With the Junior class they will have their selling shoes on. If they need 2 D they have a prioritized list of 20 and same on forwards. They don't want to cull people till they have no spots. Listen as suggested but also ask follow up questions. We consider you a scholarship player can mean a lot of things. Be ready to nicely ask do you see that as a full scholarship or partial? If partial - Do you see it as a half or greater? There are only 18 per Team and many Teams are now carrying 24-25.

Good luck!

[UCONN FAN]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

Great list and you are right GPA and Test Scores do open conversations.

My last advice is coaches have a job to do to get good players, who are good students and teammates on a Team to win. With the Junior class they will have their selling shoes on. If they need 2 D they have a prioritized list of 20 and same on forwards. They don't want to cull people till they have no spots. Listen as suggested but also ask follow up questions. We consider you a scholarship player can mean a lot of things. Be ready to nicely ask do you see that as a full scholarship or partial? If partial - Do you see it as a half or greater? There are only 18 per Team and many Teams are now carrying 24-25.

Good luck!

Do not confuse inquiry with interest and interest with commitment.

[HockeyEast33]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

All of the above is good advice. If your daughter is not one of the highly sought after players in her graduating class (and that may be the case because many of those players are already committed in her class it appears), then here is one additional fundamental and key question I would suggest she needs to answer for herself - "how important is it for me to play D1 ice hockey?". For some kids, playing D1 hockey is more important than anything else and where they are able to go to school and play Division 1 hockey is nearly irrelevant. These kids will take any D1 opportunity that comes along because that is the focus of their life and they will do anything to attain it. Other kids have a different view.

If your daughter is a partial scholarship kid or a recruited walk-on, then it is probable that she will not be a feature player at the D1 level and may see limited or no ice time. Most D1 teams, even the weak ones, regularly have 4-6 players sitting in the stands every game as healthy scratches. D1 hockey is a lifestyle and can be a grind - you have to REALLY want to play D1 hockey. At most schools, the time commitment is all consuming and there is little to no opportunity to do anything other than play hockey and go to school. Many of the D1 players (Ivies aside) now attend school during the summer to lighten their course loads during the season (which is effectively 75% of the academic year). Most D1 players find that certain majors are simply not feasible to pursue - particularly lab intensive ones (sciences, pre-med, etc.). I know of numerous girls who wanted to major in some form of pre-med or engineering that were told by their coaches or team academic advisors that they could not do that because the class schedules conflcited with practice/conditioning/video sessions. D1 coaches effectively own the scholarship girls' time and make decisions as to how they will use it. So you give up a LOT to play D1 hockey. If you are on full scholarship and playing regularly, this likely seems a fair trade-off. If you are on a partial scholly or a walk-on on standard financial aid and are playing sporadically or not at all/sitting in the stands, this may not seem like a very good trade-off at all.

If your daughter isn't a kid that HAS to play D1 and is not one of the players likely to see big minutes, then she should consider D3 an option. Kids who are marginal D1 prospects are the most sought after D3 recruits. She will likely have her pick of several high quality D3 programs and (dependent on her academics) be able to play hockey with the opportunity to have more academic freedom and time to do other things. I know a several girls who received 5-10 D1 contacts after the contact day who were marginal D1 prospects - they all attended multiple NDCs and played on accomplished club and/or prep school teams. But they recognized that they were going to be 5-8 defenseman or 7-12 forwards at the D1 level and opted to have a regular shift at D3 and be able to do things outside of hockey. Most of them could not be happier with their decision (there are always exceptions - one of them transferred to a D1 school this year).

[WIrinkrat]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

To expand on HockeyEast's comments...

It's also very easy for kids to say their dream is to play D1 and they'll be happy doing anything as long as they can say they realized this dream. Fact is it's much easier to talk the talk than it is to walk the walk. Pretty much every kid that is a D1 prospect is either the best player on their team, or one of the best players on their team. None of them have ever had to work every day just to sit on the bench or in the stands. Some kids are able to handle this reality, but a lot of them aren't. It seems like a sacrifice they are willing to make in theory...until they get there and actually have to do it. You see a lot of kids who either wash out of hockey or end up moving on to different situations (very often D3) later on down the road because of this.

As a parent you know your kid better than anyone else and should have an idea if she's the type of person who can still be truly happy if she's busting her butt every day and not getting the payoff in terms of playing time for 1, or 2 years...if ever. If she's the type of kid that's going to be happier if she's playing a bigger role right out of the gate...then you should have a good idea of how to try and guide her.

[Hockeydad4two]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

All great comments! I just wanted to add to the pick the school rather than the team comments.

My daughter spent her senior year being red shirted. She had a hockey injury that caused her to miss the whole season. She was fortunate to be allowed that extra year to make up for it. That was the good news. The bad was that she didn't graduate with her class. She didn't travel with the team. Didn't get to know the freshmen very well because she wasn't on the ice or in the weight room with the team. Instead, she was doing rehab alone. If it wasn't for a few teammates and other non athlete friends, she would have been very lonely.

If she didn't love where she was at, she may have given it all up. She could have graduated, but decided to play that last year because of the desire to play.

Bottom line is to zero in on a few (our D chose 5) schools due to everything but the athletics. Then let the athletics decide the order of preference. You never know when an injury will end your career and force you to finish at a school you don't like.

[Chirp]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

In my opinion there there is some great advise already posted here and obviously it's coming from families that have experienced the process. I say "process" because unless you are a national level player I suspect the NCAA contact dates come and go without much fanfare. Perhaps an email or two but nothing more. It's a numbers game and the numbers are small. D1's will fill their key players early. Many are already committed by 9/1 of their Junior year. The rest of the spots will take some time and could drag on until the fall of your daughters senior year. Beyond what's already been written, I'd add the following.

1. Be realistic. Aim high, but understand there are only going to be about 165 girls in your daughters class that will play D1.
2. Your daughter needs to be persistent in promoting herself. Don't expect to be seen. Do the work to get on a "too watch" list so you will be seen.
3. Have a DI and a DIII list. Do the research and have it narrowed down. Don't contact every single program with the same schtick.. They talk and share notes.
4. Keep the grades HIGH. She might get more $ for her academics than for her athletics.
5. visit, visit, visit.
6. Read, read and read again the post by HockeyEasts33 and 96IllinoisDad. Spot on.
7. Let your daughter do the work and the talking. You could hurt her chances by "trying to help"
8. Be patient with the process but don't let her sit around waiting for the phone to ring. Do what you can to make it ring.

[UCONN FAN]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

To expand on HockeyEast's comments...

It's also very easy for kids to say their dream is to play D1 and they'll be happy doing anything as long as they can say they realized this dream. Fact is it's much easier to talk the talk than it is to walk the walk. Pretty much every kid that is a D1 prospect is either the best player on their team, or one of the best players on their team. None of them have ever had to work every day just to sit on the bench or in the stands. Some kids are able to handle this reality, but a lot of them aren't. It seems like a sacrifice they are willing to make in theory...until they get there and actually have to do it. You see a lot of kids who either wash out of hockey or end up moving on to different situations (very often D3) later on down the road because of this.

As a parent you know your kid better than anyone else and should have an idea if she's the type of person who can still be truly happy if she's busting her butt every day and not getting the payoff in terms of playing time for 1, or 2 years...if ever. If she's the type of kid that's going to be happier if she's playing a bigger role right out of the gate...then you should have a good idea of how to try and guide her.

Speaking from experience...My daughter's first year at UCONN they finished 9th in the country. The team all got along and the coach wasn't to hard on them because they were winning more than they were losing. My daughter played and everything was rosy. After that year the skid started. Players started to transfer out or just quit mid-season. The team's last 2 seasons were even worse. They lost 5 kids with full scholarships and even more walkons. How many more would have quit if not for the scholarship money? If my daughter didn't love the school and her teammates (and $)she never would have gotten through it. As a parent you go from a fan to a therapist. Four hours a day six days a week from the last week in August to first week in March. They skated on Thanksgiving and had only 10 days off at Christmas. That is a typical DI schedule and it is brutal schedule even when you're winning. It's a lot harder when you win only 3 games all year. If she doesn't love her school there is a very good chance she will just give it up.
Too many girls make DI the barometer of their hockey careers. If you daughter is a DI bubble player then make sure you are exposing to the DIII schools and sooner rather than later. I'm not 100% sure but I think the NESCAC coaches can sponsor a player to help get them admitted but you have to be close to the academic standard. NESCAC schools are very hard to get into but the coaches are up front about the process. Good luck

[2onice]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

This is all very helpful information. Thank you to all those that have replied to my first post. After reading all of the responses, I thought of a few more questions.

1. What if you had previously received several letters of interest from a school as a freshman/sophomore or even just a couple of weeks prior and the Sept 1st date came and went without hearing from that school again? Could my daughter be off their short list now?

2. How many of these schools, that contacted us on Sept 1st, have genuine interest in our daughter? Some of the emails weren't very convincing or lacked enthusiasm vs others whom we had never heard from prior and they seemed quite enthusiastic about having us contact them ASAP. Is the enthusiasm of the emails directly proportionate to their level of interest in our daughter? I know that seems ridiculous, but there was a definite discrepancy in tone.

3. How many of these schools really have girls in their 2015 incoming Freshman class committed? Someone indicated that if we had not already been looking at offers that we were likely not a top prospect.

By the way, I have never heard the statistic of 25% of the girls quitting / leaving D1 sometime prior to graduating is that a "real" stat? That is definitely food for thought! Thank you all again for all of the great advise.

[ARM]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

Most D1 teams, even the weak ones, regularly have 4-6 players sitting in the stands every game as healthy scratches.

Check out the size of the rosters of the programs in which you have an interest for several seasons and note how many players the team carries and how many dress and play. The latter is obviously easier to decipher for goaltenders, where the minutes are kept as a stat. How a coach handles a roster size and a bench can vary quite a bit from program to program, so don't assume that they are all alike.

Most D1 players find that certain majors are simply not feasible to pursue - particularly lab intensive ones (sciences, pre-med, etc.). I know of numerous girls who wanted to major in some form of pre-med or engineering that were told by their coaches or team academic advisors that they could not do that because the class schedules conflcited with practice/conditioning/video sessions.

I also know of student athletes who have pursued all sorts of majors successfully while playing DI. It may be too difficult for some, but like athletic abilities, scholastic abilities can vary greatly. Some coaches will be more willing than others to work with you to make a dream reality.

Some of the emails weren't very convincing or lacked enthusiasm vs others whom we had never heard from prior and they seemed quite enthusiastic about having us contact them ASAP. Is the enthusiasm of the emails directly proportionate to their level of interest in our daughter? I know that seems ridiculous, but there was a definite discrepancy in tone.

The problem with trying to gauge the tone of an email is you can't be sure how much of it starts from a form letter. It may easier to learn just how interested a certain program is via an actual conversation. I'd say the less heralded your daughter is and the more she is trying to reach a bit to garner a spot, the more crucial it becomes for her to be proactive. For example, a walk-on or minimal scholarship athlete often earns a roster spot as much through passion for the program as ability. For those roles, coaches want players willing to put the interest of the team above personal desires. Such players may feel unappreciated at times, but coaches and teammates do recognize those who make a positive impact in a non-glamourous role.

By the way, I have never heard the statistic of 25% of the girls quitting / leaving D1 sometime prior to graduating is that a "real" stat?

Programs are ranked by the percentage of scholarship athletes who remain at the institution and earn a degree.

[HockeyEast33]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

This is all very helpful information. Thank you to all those that have replied to my first post. After reading all of the responses, I thought of a few more questions.

1. What if you had previously received several letters of interest from a school as a freshman/sophomore or even just a couple of weeks prior and the Sept 1st date came and went without hearing from that school again? Could my daughter be off their short list now?

2. How many of these schools, that contacted us on Sept 1st, have genuine interest in our daughter? Some of the emails weren't very convincing or lacked enthusiasm vs others whom we had never heard from prior and they seemed quite enthusiastic about having us contact them ASAP. Is the enthusiasm of the emails directly proportionate to their level of interest in our daughter? I know that seems ridiculous, but there was a definite discrepancy in tone.

3. How many of these schools really have girls in their 2015 incoming Freshman class committed? Someone indicated that if we had not already been looking at offers that we were likely not a top prospect.

By the way, I have never heard the statistic of 25% of the girls quitting / leaving D1 sometime prior to graduating is that a "real" stat? That is definitely food for thought! Thank you all again for all of the great advise.

Thoughts on your questions:

1. It's possible your daughter has fallen off their list for some reason - and it is not so short likely at this point. Could be that they didn't like how she plays - a harsh reality. Just as likely it could be something like the asst coach responsible for recruiting left and your daughter got lost in the shuffle. It's like most things in life - if you want to know, ask. Your daughter should send an e-mail to the coach of the school that sent mail and see what she gets back. After all, they courted her with letters - it is reasonable to expect them to answer her inquiry.

2. Very difficult to gauge and some schools tell everyone they are their first choice. Some schools blanket e-mail and some are very targeted. I know one family that accidentally got 5 e-mails from the same coach that were supposed to go to 5 other girls with the EXACT same verbage about them that their daughter's e-mail had - it wasn't even clear if he had seen them play - he was fishing based on reputation to see if they responded before investing any time in watching them. Tone differential could be as simple as some coaches being better writers than others. Again - if you want to know, have your daughter tactfully and respectfully ask. Another way to go if you are concerned about appearing too pushy is to have your daughter's club or HS coach call the college coach and inquire as to how serious they are. If they are an experienced coach and you trust them to represent your daughter positively, they know how to have this conversation without screwing it up. They also can likely sift through the response to tell you their opinion of whether the school is interested.

3. The kids listed on this forum as committed for various schools generally are pretty accurate even though it is "self-reporting". And there are other kids who have committed who are not listed here (Canadiens especially). Most Div 1 schools have at least one or more Fall 2015 entrants verbally committed at this point - even the Ivies nowadays. And they have their first (and probably second or third) cut of players they are interested in and think they can get. So the lists have been created and they are now sorting through them to find the more definite prospects for their schools. The top kids (read U-18 and NDC kids) in your daughter's class are pretty much verbally committed at this point - the schools are into the much bigger second tier now.

[HockeyEast33]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

Speaking from experience...My daughter's first year at UCONN they finished 9th in the country. The team all got along and the coach wasn't to hard on them because they were winning more than they were losing. My daughter played and everything was rosy. After that year the skid started. Players started to transfer out or just quit mid-season. The team's last 2 seasons were even worse. They lost 5 kids with full scholarships and even more walkons. How many more would have quit if not for the scholarship money? If my daughter didn't love the school and her teammates (and $)she never would have gotten through it. As a parent you go from a fan to a therapist. Four hours a day six days a week from the last week in August to first week in March. They skated on Thanksgiving and had only 10 days off at Christmas. That is a typical DI schedule and it is brutal schedule even when you're winning. It's a lot harder when you win only 3 games all year. If she doesn't love her school there is a very good chance she will just give it up.
Too many girls make DI the barometer of their hockey careers. If you daughter is a DI bubble player then make sure you are exposing to the DIII schools and sooner rather than later. I'm not 100% sure but I think the NESCAC coaches can sponsor a player to help get them admitted but you have to be close to the academic standard. NESCAC schools are very hard to get into but the coaches are up front about the process. Good luck

NESCAC coaches can exercise influence on the admission process for possibly 1 C band (low academics that wouldn't otherwise get in) player depending on the school and multiple B band players. But you HAVE to go Early Decision for that influence to be used. Brings up another point. Sometime in the Spring of junior year, if D1 isn't panning out, you have to help your daughter transition to D3 otherwise she is missing the window of opportunity on alot of the better D3 schools - they are filling their commitment lists in Spring and Summer nowadays as D1 recruiting has advanced.

[joehockey]

Re: September 1st of Junior Year question

Here is another thing to share with your daughter if she wants to play D1 or D3.

A lot can change in a Junior and Senior year. The story I tell MN kids is Bethaney Brausen entering her Senior year at MN and a Captain as a Junior on last years Undefeated Team) was not selected as a U16 to go to National Camp from MN before her junior year. She went out and had an incredible Junior and in her Senior year in HS and was named Ms. Hockey in MN the highest HS Honor and took an early commitment to MN before her Senior Year.

Kids grow, train, pound thousands of pucks, lift, do speed work and learn how to put it all together. Others don't committ and enjoy dating and parties and priorities change. Both choices are personal and correct.