A player’s academics will be one of if not the determining factor in their College Hockey options if they so choose to pursue hockey at the NCAA level. NCAA Hockey is extremely difficult to reach, and players limit their opportunity for acceptance at the limited number of NCAA hockey schools if they do not have the minimum standards for entry. Around 61 NCAA Division I schools participate in hockey, compared to 350 Division 1 Basketball schools. Another 6 NCAA DII Hockey schools and 85 Division III. Players are competing for these positions against their peers INTERNATIONALLY… NCAA hockey players come from not only the US, but Canada and Europe as well. The competition is real.
Hockey players in college use this pathway to prepare them for college life. Take for example the APR, or Academic Progress Rate. This tracks all NCAA athletes, and holds institutions accountable for the academic progress of their student-athletes through a team-based metric that accounts for the eligibility and retention of each student-athlete for each academic term. Men’s Ice Hockey routinely scores at or near the top of this category when compared to their peers, with 10 Division I schools (out of 61) scoring record scores of 1000 (including Clarkson, Colgate, Penn State, University of Nebraska- Omaha and all Ivy League schools). Comparatively Penn State, Colgate and UNO all scored 10-50 points lower in both Men’s Basketball and Football.
Consider also, Graduation rates.
NCAA men’s hockey student-athletes continue their remarkable academic success, posting a 94.6% NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in the latest data, released Wednesday by the NCAA.
That single-year data, which measures student-athletes who enrolled in 2011, is men’s hockey’s best single-year number since the NCAA began tracking GSR in 2002. It ranks second among all Division I men’s sports in this year’s data behind only skiing (95.2%)
http://collegehockeyinc.com/articles/2018/11/ncaa-hockey-graduation-rate-reaches-record-high.php
The numbers show being a College Student/ Athlete is a lot of work. Encourage your athletes to commit and stay dedicated to their academics. This does not happen by trying to course-correct in their Senior year of High School, or taking a few college courses upon graduation. This is best served early in their academic lives, and reinforced throughout it.
By Andrew Trimble
To Purchase Andrew’s new book, The Hockey Planner, follow this link- 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: 9781963743395: Amazon.com: Books
