Each player and athlete will come to a crossroads during their final U18 season or the end of their High School season and they will ask you for advice. Do I go to college? Trade School? I still want to play hockey… am I good enough to play Junior or NCAA Hockey? Can you help me find a good ACHA hockey program?
These are really big questions and your involvement can greatly influence a player’s life, and future. As a coach for many years at this level and the Junior level, it is extremely important that you practice honesty and take a broad view perspective, taking in all the details and information you have about the athlete and giving your best, sound advice.
According to the online site Neutral Zone…
It’s not only age that divides incoming freshman from D1 to D3, it is also the leagues they come from. Nearly 70% of D1 committed players are coming from Tier 1 (Junior A) or Tier 2 leagues where they pay no tuition to play. Compare that to D3 and we see a much different picture. In the case of Division 3 we see that approximately 90% are coming out of pay to play leagues.
It’s not really news to anyone in the industry, as the rise of junior hockey has created new pathways to the NCAA, but it shows that the line from High School hockey to D3 is nearly extinct. While New England Prep School represents nearly 7% of the 2016 D3 recruiting class, most of those players repeated or did a post grad year.
The College Hockey Landscape: A Study of the 21-year-old Freshman – Neutral Zone
Playing Junior hockey after U18 can be an amazing, life changing experience. You build relationships, you dramatically elevate and develop your game. You take some college credits in most cases, and the best programs offer Community Service. Junior hockey is a wonderful ride. However, parents and players really need to look themselves in the mirror and ask themselves, are they ready to take on this challenge? The Hockey world gets harder, not easier. You likely can not get on the ride unless you buy a ticket, so have the hard conversations and make an educated decision.
By Andrew Trimble
To Purchase Andrew’s new book “The Hockey Planner” click here- The Hockey Planner: A Year by Year Plan to Assist You on Your Hockey Coaching Journey: From Learn to Play to Junior Hockey: Trimble, Andrew: 9781963743388: Amazon.com: Books
