New England Prep Schools

[WarriorCarol]

My daughter is looking into going to New England/North East Prep School to play hockey in a year. Is there a list of the schools and the leagues they are in or the divisions anywhere? Or are there websites for the divisions? We have done some searches and have come up with several schools but we have no idea of what divisions or leagues they play in. We would love to be able to do more research but can not find much information out there.

Even if there was some site that ranked the schools teams.

Really, any information would be greatly appreciated.

Carol

 

[Black Bear]

Re: New England Prep Schools

http://www.ushr.com/

http://www.preprepshowcase.com/

 

[notfromaroundhere]

Re: New England Prep Schools

My daughter is looking into going to New England/North East Prep School to play hockey in a year. Is there a list of the schools and the leagues they are in or the divisions anywhere? Or are there websites for the divisions? We have done some searches and have come up with several schools but we have no idea of what divisions or leagues they play in. We would love to be able to do more research but can not find much information out there.

Even if there was some site that ranked the schools teams.

Really, any information would be greatly appreciated.

Carol

Try looking here

http://www.digitalsports.com/sportscentral/type/organization/typeid/23/id/125.aspx

You will find links to leagues and D1 and D2 team lists.

As to rankings, I like to remind people picking a hockey school is like picking a stock - past performance does not guarantee future returns. I encourage you to visit several schools where your daughter will fit in both hockeywise and more importantly academically. While standardized tests are not the be-all and end-all of measuring academic talent, selecting a school where your daughter's SSAT (common prep school test) fits within the school's middle is a good way to ensure that your child will be at a school that is neither overchallenging nor too slow for her.

You can send me email if you'd like more info on the boarding school selection process. My D will be entering her 4th year (Sr.) next month.

Good Luck.

 

[Fivedevs]

Re: New England Prep Schools

Our family just finished this process this past winter and I have goods news for you, you have started early...but you've only just begun. Here is some suggestions for you:

1) Visit schools, a lot of them. Even if you are just taking a road trip and traveling through unofficially. You will be able to add or subtract some schools just by looking at them.

2) Pick about 10 schools and take the official tour and interviews. Doing this will allow you to get a good feel for the school to see if it is the right fit for your daughter and you. You have to be able to tell yourself, "I could send my daughter here!" You will also be able to tell what the schools priorities are. Do they care more about athletics than academics for instance. We made a visit to one top 10 D1 hockey school that it was clear that athletics clearly came before academics.

3) Notice I haven't talked about hockey yet. Be patient. Make sure that during your visits you speak with coaches, that includes the field hockey/soccer or softball coaches, as well as the hockey coach. They will be interested in finding out more about your daughter and seeing her play. All students at Prep school are required to participate in an activity each season. You will also want to speak to the chorale or band director or the head of whatever activity interests your daughter.

4) Finally hockey. Coaches will need to see your daughter play. The best way to be seen is by playing in the Connecticut Polar Bear Tournament at Christmas time and the Rhode Island Panther Thanksgiving Tournament. Both are heavily recruited. Hopefully your daughter's team already goes to one or both of these tournaments, if not encourage it as they are great experiences. Either way the hockey is the easy part. If you can't play in front of the coach video tapes, having coaches call. etc may also be good choices.

Other considerations:

Financial aid - if this is a factor make sure that the school has an endowment that allows families to get what they need. Check this site out as it rates the schools by several different factors and generally includes average financial aid awards.

http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/researchschools.php

You never said were you lived but a consideration for us was how far away is too far. We have spent many hours and weekends traveling around New England with our daughter which ultimately gave her the opportunity to move on to prep school, and we would still like to see her play once in awhile. Fortunately her first choice and the school she will attend is a 2 hour drive for us. I've traveled further to play a single hockey game...

Well I've rambled enough and I'm sure others will have plenty to add.

Good Luck

 

[Offthepipe]

Re: New England Prep Schools

You can also look into the NEWHL Pre-Prep tour team. For a ~$50 registration fee you can (depending on availability) play against many of the schools your daughter may be interested in. Typically a tour of the campus is included, as well as a chance to talk with coaches and players after the game.

 

[Fivedevs]

Re: New England Prep Schools

You can also look into the NEWHL Pre-Prep tour team. For a ~$50 registration fee you can (depending on availability) play against many of the schools your daughter may be interested in. Typically a tour of the campus is included, as well as a chance to talk with coaches and players after the game.

Good call. In the late hour that I was writing last night I left this one out. We were involved with this program and it is an excellent resource.

 

[Hux]

Re: New England Prep Schools

You can also look into the NEWHL Pre-Prep tour team. For a ~$50 registration fee you can (depending on availability) play against many of the schools your daughter may be interested in. Typically a tour of the campus is included, as well as a chance to talk with coaches and players after the game.

More info on the NEWHL Pre-Prep Team can be found here.

I believe last season's schedule was roughly 40 games against all but one or two of the New England Preps that have a girl's team.

 

[IceIsNice]

Re: New England Prep Schools

Just a couple of additional thoughts,

There are a number of quality players who have gone on to successful college careers by choosing a Prep School whose hockey team did not necessarily have the greatest success year after year.

One recent example is Kate Brock, who just graduated from St. Paul's. Kate was also a member of the USA U-18 team, however her prep school team did not qualify for the end of season New England Prep Tournament in any of her four years there.

In my opinion, just for the pure love of the game, it's nice to feel as though your team will at least be competitive if not dominant, and past results may often be a reasonable measure of that particularly if there is continuity in the coaching staff.

In the case of my own daughter, it was perhaps more a combination of her club team play as well as her high school play that ultimately led to her college opportunity.

My advice is to balance all of the following.... a reasonably competitive sports opportunity, a comfortable social setting, and an appropriately challenging academic setting. Keep perspective on all three areas and I think you'll find your daughter will be very happy four years later.

 

[UCONN FAN]

Re: New England Prep Schools

Just a couple of additional thoughts,

There are a number of quality players who have gone on to successful college careers by choosing a Prep School whose hockey team did not necessarily have the greatest success year after year.

One recent example is Kate Brock, who just graduated from St. Paul's. Kate was also a member of the USA U-18 team, however her prep school team did not qualify for the end of season New England Prep Tournament in any of her four years there.

In my opinion, just for the pure love of the game, it's nice to feel as though your team will at least be competitive if not dominant, and past results may often be a reasonable measure of that particularly if there is continuity in the coaching staff.

In the case of my own daughter, it was perhaps more a combination of her club team play as well as her high school play that ultimately led to her college opportunity.

My advice is to balance all of the following.... a reasonably competitive sports opportunity, a comfortable social setting, and an appropriately challenging academic setting. Keep perspective on all three areas and I think you'll find your daughter will be very happy four years later.

Yes!

 

[mayralphie]

Re: New England Prep Schools

One other thing you need to look at especially if your daughter wants to play college hockey. I have a hockey scouting business and can tell you that it is very important that you expose your daughter to as many college scouts as possible. The prep school she attends needs to play where the college scouts can see her perform. Most colleges have limited budgets to travel and see teams play. They like to go for a weekend where they can see multiple teams play not just two teams. This is why Polar Bears is so populer for college recruiting. If the league she plays in has a format where they meet and play multiple teams in a weekend that will attract the college scouts. If the prep school is located in an area that is not a hockey hotbed they need to travel to a traditional hockey area. The North American Prep Hockey League has this format and I am sure there are others. Another thing to consider is the team schedule at the prep school. Alot of school have a very short game schedule which does not help exposure. Hope this helps.

 

[futurestar]

Re: New England Prep Schools

... it is very important that you expose your daughter to as many college scouts as possible. The prep school she attends needs to play where the college scouts can see her perform. Most colleges have limited budgets to travel and see teams play. They like to go for a weekend where they can see multiple teams play not just two teams. This is why Polar Bears is so popular for college recruiting. If the league she plays in has a format where they meet and play multiple teams in a weekend that will attract the college scouts. If the prep school is located in an area that is not a hockey hotbed they need to travel to a traditional hockey area. A lot of school have a very short game schedule which does not help exposure. Hope this helps.

This is very true. While possible, it's difficult to drag a college coach out to single games. Some prep schools participate in December or January tournaments and you'll see the biggest concentration of college coaches there. Some tournaments pull in more scouts than others so you may have to do some further research once you find out where the school might play.

 

[wihobserver]

Re: New England Prep Schools

One other thing you need to look at especially if your daughter wants to play college hockey. I have a hockey scouting business and can tell you that it is very important that you expose your daughter to as many college scouts as possible. The prep school she attends needs to play where the college scouts can see her perform. Most colleges have limited budgets to travel and see teams play. They like to go for a weekend where they can see multiple teams play not just two teams. This is why Polar Bears is so populer for college recruiting. If the league she plays in has a format where they meet and play multiple teams in a weekend that will attract the college scouts. If the prep school is located in an area that is not a hockey hotbed they need to travel to a traditional hockey area. The North American Prep Hockey League has this format and I am sure there are others. Another thing to consider is the team schedule at the prep school. Alot of school have a very short game schedule which does not help exposure. Hope this helps.

and another piece of advice is don't waste your time and money using a scouting/recruiting service to get your daughter's name out there...she can use this website to navigate to any college athletics website and find the email address and phone number for any coach she wants to contact directly...no need to waste the money these services charge...good luck to her

 

[ref11]

Re: New England Prep Schools

and another piece of advice is don't waste your time and money using a scouting/recruiting service to get your daughter's name out there...she can use this website to navigate to any college athletics website and find the email address and phone number for any coach she wants to contact directly...no need to waste the money these services charge...good luck to her

Look at tenure and coach’s length of time with program - not the end all but will give you a sense of their ability to recruit, manage the admissions process. Names that float to the top: John Copper (Hotchkiss - very competitive academically), Tom Resor - Nobles (very competitive), Paul Kennedy (Cushing) - Moe Tarrant (sp) Greenwich Academy (D2). There are more, but these guys have at least 10+ year at the helm. If you want to take a flyer try Waddy Rowe at Pomfret - He came back to the bench after a 3 year hiatus, previously was there for 18+ years, but rebuilding program. This is also a very East Coast centric list. Good luck