thehockeymaven
New member
Re: RIT (aka Team Canada)
A few years ago, I asked a coach of an institution that doesn’t offer athletic scholarships why there were so many Canadian players on his team. He then went on for 10 minutes about what he has to go through to get someone on his team. What he said was:
Hockey is an expensive sport, especially in the US. Many parents of US junior players make too much money to qualify for a substantial need based aid package but don‘t make enough to be able to pay full tuition. So to get a US player on his team, he has to look for players that will qualify for a substantial need based aid package, or they have to be extremely smart and would qualify for an academic scholarship or they have to be in an upper income bracket where it doesn’t matter how much the school costs. This severely limits the pool of players that he has to choose from. He said this is not so for most Canadian players. Many more qualify for need based aid and many schools (including his) offer grants and/or scholarships for foreign born students. So while I don’t think the Canadian players are getting a free ride, I’m sure they pay substantially less than the comparable US born player.
And if you think a school can get away with giving Canadian students what amounts to an athletic scholarship, DIII SUNY Geneseo was just recently nailed by the NCAA for doing just that.
A few years ago, I asked a coach of an institution that doesn’t offer athletic scholarships why there were so many Canadian players on his team. He then went on for 10 minutes about what he has to go through to get someone on his team. What he said was:
Hockey is an expensive sport, especially in the US. Many parents of US junior players make too much money to qualify for a substantial need based aid package but don‘t make enough to be able to pay full tuition. So to get a US player on his team, he has to look for players that will qualify for a substantial need based aid package, or they have to be extremely smart and would qualify for an academic scholarship or they have to be in an upper income bracket where it doesn’t matter how much the school costs. This severely limits the pool of players that he has to choose from. He said this is not so for most Canadian players. Many more qualify for need based aid and many schools (including his) offer grants and/or scholarships for foreign born students. So while I don’t think the Canadian players are getting a free ride, I’m sure they pay substantially less than the comparable US born player.
And if you think a school can get away with giving Canadian students what amounts to an athletic scholarship, DIII SUNY Geneseo was just recently nailed by the NCAA for doing just that.
