Adjusting To A New Age Group Or Level of Play Takes Time.
The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline…
Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’!
Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey
Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…
Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap
It Takes Time To Get Up To Speed
Adjusting To A New Age Group Or Level of Play Takes Time. It’s Suppose To Be Hard – Embrace It!
It’s a new year at a new age level. You’ve just had your first few weeks of practices & games with your new team. Your coaches have been great. New teammates seem awesome. And now, weekly practices and games have begun. You’re excited for a great year.
But as the season has gotten underway, you feel as though things aren’t going too well.
You’re not happy with how you are playing–no goals scored, no assists, you can’t make pass and you got roasted defending a few 1v1’s. Some of the older girls on the team are giving you the stink-eye with every missed pass. You didn’t think moving up would be this hard. You’re feeling a little lost and don’t know to make things better. You are super frustrated!
Does this sound familiar?
Well, for anyone who moved up an age group, skipped one entirely, or is playing at a higher level like AA to AAA, tier II to tier I, or even tier I to NCAA D-I or D-III… this situation is extremely common.
You have begun – TheAdjustment Phase. That period of time when a player struggles with their play at a new age or competitive level before settling in and getting comfortable.
Players… before you have a total meltdown and think you’re terrible at hockey and should quit the game… and for you parents out there too – before you voice your disappointment in your daughter’s performance – again, just know this:
Almost every hockey player – at every level – goes through a period of adjustment. Doesn’t matter if you’re going from U14 to U16, Tier II to Tier I, Tier I to NCAA D-I / D-III. It’s part of the natural development process and it’s suppose to be difficult for you.
It’s extremely rare for players to seamlessly transition to a new level and have major success right off the bat.
So why an adjustment? Well for starter’s, biology plays a huge role. As you move from one age level to the next, you can expect to play against older (2 years older in some cases), players who are typically more physically developed, more skilled, and who do everything quicker and faster. So for the younger player just starting out at a particular age group… they tend to be a little smaller, not as physically developed, not as skilled or as fast and as quick as their competition. Thus – the success is harder to have. The game becomes harder to process and think, and thus more mistakes get made and you have less of an impact on the game.
This adjustment isn’t just in hockey skill set or physical strength. There is a mental processing or hockey IQ component (which is a skill too) and a social dynamic in play as well. Your brain processes the game a certain way and that changes as you get older and your brain develops. The theory being… the older you get, the quicker you can process. Everyone processes information differently. To some, it’s more visual, players need to see it in order to understand it. To others it’s more auditory, once they hear it explained, they get it. And still, others need both so they can make the connections.
The social dynamic piece is really big and I’m guessing often overlooked as to how long. aplayers adjustment phase can be. Say you are in grade 9 and made your HS varsity team… now playing with girls who are 4 years older. That locker room is WAY different than if you were playing with just grade 9/10 players. The social dynamic of a team can make that adjustment period much longer. Imagine the stress level of a younger player who is trying to fit in with girls that much older? Make a few mistakes on the ice and you can bet that younger player is super worried about how the older girls view her.
So how do you avoid The Adjustment Phase?
For starter’s, you don’t. It’s not and ‘if’ question, but ‘when’. And when it happens, usually at the beginning of the season, you’re best to find ways to cope with it then to pretend it isn’t happening to you.
#1 – Have a positive mindset about your hockey development and know the adjustment is all part of YOUR process.
#2 – Realizing what you need to fix or adjust in your game is like getting answers to the test. If the game of hockey is the exam, once you know what to work on, you can then focus on those areas while letting nature take its course on the physical side of your development.
#3 – Having realistic expectations about your play is also SUPER important. If you’re in the first year at a new age level and expect to score 50 goals while you only scored 13 the year before, that probably isn’t the best frame of mind to be in. However, if you focus on process driven goals, you will focus on something that is absolutely attainable and in your control – no one else’s – not even your opponent. All you need is your work ethic and determination. For example, if your shot needs work, a goal of shooting 1,000 pucks a week vs. getting 10 shots per game is much better to focus on. Goals that drive the process of improvement are really key.
There is no exact timeline of when a player gets over the hump on her adjustment phase. Some players take mere weeks, some months, some even longer. It’s one of those things that takes as long as it takes. You can’t fake it either, the game – and your performance – doesn’t lie (it’s like video).
Look at your ‘adjustment phase’ as an advantage… Identify what needs adjusting, focus on attainable, process-driven goals, and keep a positive attitude about the challenge of adjusting!
Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and Take Care,
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
Engaged In The Recruiting Process? It’s Time To Shift Your Focus.
The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline…
Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’!
Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey
Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…
Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap
The Week Ahead
Happy Monday everyone. Can you believe it? Another school year is about to begin and that means – yes – another hockey season is around the corner. Boy, does time fly!
The week ahead has two marquee events with plenty of current and future NCAA players taking part. USA Hockey’s National Women’s Festival in Lake Placid, NY and Hockey Canada’s Women’s Summer Showcase begin this week.
The camp, showcase, tournament summer recruiting season for NCAA coaches is about to come to a close with just a week or two left with major events taking place.
The recruiting process is top of the mind for many players and parents right now, especially if you’re in grade 11 or 12. And for those of you who are in the midst of your process and trying to figure out next steps, I want to offer you something to think about.
‘Fun’ isn’t what you’re looking for.
The Difference Between Something Fun and Rewarding
There is no recruiting playbook for players and parents to follow which gives you the formula to determine which school and hockey program is right for you. There are just so many variables.
A school close to home + an academic major that leads to a great career + a scholarship + playing time = the school I’ll choose.
It’s just not that simple.
As coaches we often ask players during the process to describe what they want out of their college experience, what are they looking for?
Well coach, I want to have fun! I’m all about making it a fun environment for my teammates. If we have fun – we will win! I want to win and have success, I want to play, I want nice teammates, a great team culture, and I want to have fun!
That is pretty much the norm reply.
Sounds pretty decent and logical, right?
Earlier last week I stumbled upon a social media post from a basketball coach. It was re-tweeted (or is it Re-Xed? come on Elon!) by Craig Doty and was penned by Greg Stemen. It was about the concept of – Do you want something Fun or something that is Rewarding. In an odd twist, this exact concept was talked about by a coaching friend of mine at a showcase we were recently at–this is absolutely a concept we as coaches think about often.
At the end of the day, the post encapsulated – magnificently I might add – a thought provoking message: Don’t look for experiences that are fun. Look for experiences that are REWARDING.
Although the post was about basketball players, you could relate the story to any sport and player. So I started thinking about this Fun vs. Rewarding concept as it relates to our game within hockey.
As a competitive athlete looking to play at the highest level possible, you will have decisions to make along your journey. What team/association do I play for next? Where do I go to college? What is best for my development? How do I spend my time in the off-season?
And while there is no formula out there to help make these decisions for you, I would offer up the Fun vs. Rewarding concept as a way to help evaluate them.
Parents… this is a question your daughters need to answer, not you. And that is – do they want something FUN… or do they want something that is REWARDING?
Fun can be looked at as a short term feeling. You can decide if you had fun after every game based on how you think you played.
The author of the post says, ‘Fun’ is usually based on winning or losing and personal satisfaction or dissatisfaction. And I couldn’t agree more. Rewarding experiences are those that aren’t necessarily fun, in order to achieve results that often times exceed expectations. Rewarding experiences usually involve some kind of sacrifice, pain, disappointment, enjoyment, humbling, and crazy times.
This is the quote that really struck a cord with me… “Is it fun to bust your tail in practice and not get the minuets you had hoped for? Or is it rewarding to know you play with a group of teammates and for coaches who appreciate and value every ounce of effort you put into the success of a program and who know that same effort will be rewarded later on in life if not later on in a career?
Something that is rewarding, doesn’t come down wither or not you won or lost a particular game or won or lost a championship. It’s about what was learned and gained along the way during those ups and downs of the journey.
So as you continue on your path in the sport and come across decisions to make, the Fun vs. Rewarding lens is one of the most valuable to look through.
Fun is short term. Rewarding lasts for ever.
And as for that social media post… here is the article below:
Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’!
Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey
Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…
Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap
What Do The Numbers Say?
College coaches get asked a lot from parents and players – which type of program is best to play? Should I go to a prep school or a hockey academy? Should I stay at my age group of ‘play up’. Should I switch teams for next year? Stay at my local high school?
So, as the years have gone by, I’ve always been curious as to what type of program might be considered ‘best’ to play for. Is there even a ‘best’ program type? ‘Program types‘ would be your local area high school team, a USA Hockey sanctioned tier I club team, a prep. school, or hockey academy, etc.
Given the USA Hockey Under-18 Select Camp is this week, I thought it would be a fun to dive into the player field and see what types of programs are represented and how many in each.
So, below is a PDF of that breakdown. You can see the numbers of how many players came from each type of program and what age levels are represented. MN high schools led the way with 26 of 76 players in attendance. Does the mere fact someone plays for their local high school vs. playing at a hockey academy mean anything? Tough to answer.
At the top of the PDF below highlighted in yellow are all the ‘types’ of program I identified and the numbers of players in each.
What I found was 12 different ‘types’ of programs that players came from based on age classification, gender – girls or boys, whether someone played for multiple types of teams like Prep. School and a club team.
I’m not sure if any of the findings answer what is the ‘best’ path to becoming a successful hockey player. Perhaps we can go back to previous years data and run the same kind of report. But considering the U18 Select camp should have the ‘best’ collection of U18 players, this none-the-less is pretty interesting to see.
What’s great about there being so many options – is – there are so many options and not just one or two.
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
NCAA Coaches Dot USA Hockey and Hockey Canada National Team & Camp Positions
The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline…
Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’!
Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey
Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…
Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap
USA Hockey And Hockey Canada Tap NCAA Coaching Talent
Of 38 National Team coaching positions announced by USA Hockey and Hockey Canada this week, 16, are current Head or Assistant Coaches at NCAA D-I and D-III schools for this upcoming season.
The US and Canada each announced 3 sets of coaching staffs for their respective Senior, Development or Collegiate, and U18 teams. A roster of each teams staff is listed below. Coaches currently working at NCAA schools are noted as well.
In total, 21 coaches have ties to NCAA women’s programs either as a coach or player. You can see the coaching staff rosters and NCAA affiliations below.
USA Hockey National Women’s Team
John Wroblewski, Head Coach
Josh Sciba, Assistant Coach (Head Coach, Union College)
Tara Watchorn, Head Coach, (Head Coach, Boston University)
Stefanie McKeough, Assistant Coach, (Played at Wisconsin)
Vicky Sunohara, Assistant Coach
Haley Irwin, Assistant Coach, (Played at MN-Duluth)
Gord Woodhall, Goaltending Coach
Hockey Canada has named additional camp support staff coaches with NCAA ties to help at their National Women’s Team camp. They are ⬇️
Doug Derraugh, (Head Coach, Cornell University)
Greg Fargo, (Head Coach, Colgate University)
Britni Smith, (Head Coach, Syracuse University)
USA Hockey kicks off its National Festival in Lake Placid, NY, August 7-13. Hockey Canada has yet to officially announce its dates and locations.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Hockey Canada chooses to hold them in Ontario this year. Both the US and Canada will play a 3-game series with their respective U-18 and College Select/Development teams in Lake Placid Aug. 16-19. It probably makes a lot more sense financially to bus to LP from Ontario rather than fly everyone from Calgary where Hockey Canada has held these camps in the past.
You can find links to both USA Hockey and Hockey Canada’s national team staff announcements ⬇️
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’!
Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey
Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…
Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap
Knowing The Rules Of Engagement
You’ve sent multiple emails to the coaching staff of your #1 choice D-I dream school. You can’t wait to hear back from them. You check your email daily. Two months go by, now three. No reply yet. And now you begin to wonder… are my emails even getting through? Why haven’t they gotten back to me??? This is torture!
Communication with coaches can be a bit tricky. Coaches have to not only manage NCAA rules, but time in their schedule to respond or not at all.
You literally you can drive yourself a little crazy trying to read into why you haven’t gotten a response yet.
So, before you bite off all your fingernails or pull your hair out in frustration, here are some tips to managing expectations when trying to communicate with coaches.
Know The Landscape, Communicate Appropriately, Control What You Can.
First, Know The Landscape…
There Are NCAA Rules… Under NCAA rules, D-I coaches are not allowed to engage in regular communication (phone, text, email, social media DM’s, etc.) with recruits or family members until June 15 after the recruits’ grade 10 year (or when finishing grade 10 if after June 15). In-person contacts may not occur until August 1 after the prospects grade 10 year. However, D-I coaches are allowed a one-time response to a recruits’ inquiry where they can advise the recruit/family of NCAA communication rules. Also, D-I coaches may provide their recruiting questionnaire or camp or clinic information at any time.
D-III coaches have no restrictions on electronic communication (phone, text, email, social media DM’s, etc.) with recruits or family members. Face-to-face in-person contacts may not occur until after the prospects grade 10 year is complete.
Coaches are extremely busy… As coaches, we’re extremely busy. For people who think being a college coach means planning practice and just showing up for games, you’d be dead wrong. We manage the entire day-to-day operation of our program. It’s a 24/7, 365 type of commitment. The job doesn’t go away when we leave the office for the day. Programs have limited full-time staffs too. Most D-III programs have 1, may be 2 full-times coaches if they’re lucky. Most if not all D-I programs have between 2-3 (some now 4) full time coaches on staff. Coaches also have lives outside of hockey… relationships to enjoy, friends to see, other interests to take part in. We’re just like everyone else.
Reaching out to coaches is easy… Everyone who runs a showcase or camp and has a recruiting seminar/talk as part of the program – says to reach out and contact coaches. It’s easy. Craft your message and press send. We live in a world of instant gratification. The issue for coaches becomes the sheer volume of inquiries they get from prospective recruits. Additionally, coaches try to balance if that email, DM, or text – is worth responding to right then and there, waiting a bit, or not replying at all.
Second, Communicate Appropriately
An intro email and 1-2 in-season updates before the holidays and after your season has ended, should do the trick. Anything more than that is overkill. Just my opinion though… unless there is a real compelling reason like you changed teams or schools. Don’t be that player (or parent!) who sends an email update after every weekend. It’s not necessary, and quite frankly too much contact is bad form. Intro’s should include a little bit about why you have an interest in the institution, a bit about who you are, the grade you are in, name of your high school and name of the team(s) you play for, your position, your season schedule if you have one. Any academic info like your transcript. Plus–you, your coaches, and parents contact info is imperative. Your In-Season Updates… should be just that. Include how your hockey season and school year are going, any personal triumphs or interesting tidbits about your hockey development, but keep them short and sweet. If sending one at the end of the year, you can include your summer hockey plans so coaches will know where they can see you play.
Control what you can…
You can’t control if a coach responds back to you. But you can control your communication to coaches and most of all – your effort in becoming the best player and student you can be. Which, at the end of the day, is the primary factor in why a coach will reach back out to you – because of how good she or he thinks you are and how you can help their program!
You can control your content – what exactly your messages say – and the frequency of how often your messages are sent. So as hard as it may be, try not to worry if you don’t get a reply. Know that your emails have been received and read–all of them are. Your communication to schools should be looked as a supplement to your hockey development. You might write a great email, but if you can’t play the game, you’ll be tough for coaches to want
And if you do get a reply, be glad you did!
The Bottom Line… There are so many players who want to play college hockey and technology makes it easy for them to reach coaches. Some programs make an effort to reply to everyone who reaches out, others are a bit more selective, and some even take the, ‘Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You’ approach.
At the end of the day, focus on the controllable’s and the communication will become two-sided at some point!
Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’!
Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey
Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…
Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap
The Answer is… It Depends
Coaches often get asked – So, what do you look for in a player when recruiting?
Truth be told, there is A LOT that goes into recruiting a student-athlete. There is the hockey piece of course, but there are academics, character & personality, is she a good human, among a whole host of other factors.
But on the hockey side of things you might be surprised at the answer you’d get. If you asked 10 different coaches, you would probably get 10 different answers.
There is no standard across the board, All-coaches-want-this-type-of-player answer”. What one coach may value, another may not. What one coaches wants, she or he – may not be able to get.
It Depends… is the more probable answer. Because like art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And in the case of recruiting, coaches are the beholders.
So with all the summer showcases, tournaments, and camps to come, here are some basic/general, but important, answers to that question above – What Do Coaches Look For?
At the end of the day, coaches are going to look at how you help your team defend and or create offense. I say it this way because scoring or creating offense is HARD! Not everyone can be that kind of player. The alternative of course, is being a responsible defender. WHICH at minimum most coaches would say, you need to be to be able to do. If you can’t defend and you can’t create offense, it’s really hard for a coach to use you–plain and simple.
Let’s look by position at some general, but really important areas, that NCAA coaches evaluate when watching players.
For Goalies… it goes without saying but, stop the puck. It’s more than just that however. How are you stopping pucks? Are you just blocking shots or are you able to control rebounds and put them to a safe area away from second chances? Or can you eat pucks and not give up rebounds at all? Do you stop dump-ins and set pucks up for your Defenders? Are you communicating to your team? Are you deep in your crease or out on top of it? Are you tracking pucks well through traffic?
For Centers… Face-offs are the one situation that happens the most in a game. Can you win draws? Do you tie up opposing centers on an offensive zone face-off win or just let them go by you? Are you positionally sound in your D-Zone? When the puck is at the point, are you trying to play goalie to block a shot, or have you identified your check and stuck with them?
For Wings… Breakouts are a key game component. Can you break pucks out and advance the play for your team with possession? Or do you turn pucks over in your own zone with ill-advised passes to the middle? Do you just dump pucks out and give up possession? In the D-Zone can you defend? Can you defend an opposing player trying to cut the high seam around the top of the circle or are you able to defend the opposing defender on your side of the ice trying to shoot and block their shot? Can you get pucks back when your team doesn’t have it? Do you take good For-Checking angles to cause turnovers and gain back possession?
For Defenders… Breakouts again – are key… can you retrieve dump-ins and manage breaking the puck out with success? Do you make a good first pass? Are you passive in defending your own end? Do you puck-watch when the opposing teams’ Defenders have possession at the blue-line and lose your check? Can you defend odd-man rushes? Do you get caught outside the dot-lane and over-commit to the puck carrier exposing the middle? Can you get pucks to the net with your shot or are blasting pucks into shin-pads?
Most coaches look for certain traits at certain positions. And there is also a balance between being a little selfish, showing coaches what you can do, vs. playing the game the way you should – making the right play based on the situation you are in. No coach likes a puck-hog. And coaches love players who share the puck and understand how they can gain the advantage for their team. That’s great you’re a speedy player, but do you just get the puck and go with blinders on, or—can you see & understand what is happening as the play is developing? Do you shoot when you can and pass when you should? Or do you shoot from every impossible angle or pass only when you’ve skated yourself out of options?
There are a thousand and one aspects to the game that coaches use to evaluate players. Above, are some some of what coaches may look for.
Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
There are actions you can take to gain an edge in your college search
The Women’s College Hockey Pipeline…
Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’!
Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey
Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…
Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap
Use Your Hockey Travels This Summer To Your Advantage
Put that trip to the Beantown Showcase to good use this summer and go visit some college campuses!
Whether you’re at a camp, showcase, or tournament, you should be going to visit schools. As long as you are within a decent amount of drive time that is.
The school visit is one of the best activities you can do to help in your college process. There is nothing like smelling the smells and putting yourself in your potential physical environment for the 4-best years of your life. Even if the school isn’t on your ‘priority’ list.
Taking a college visit can do a 2 things:
It can prepare you for a future visit that matters… It’s like a dry-rehearsal. You can make all the mistakes without any of the consequences impacting you. Take the wrong turns, visit on the wrong day of the week, ask the awkward questions to the tour guide. But do take note of what you would do differently. This way, the next time you take a visit to a school you have an interest in – you can get that visit right.
You may just get that feeling… you hear a lot of people say, well, I just had that feeling walking around that this was the place for me. Or the opposite may be true… nope, no way I’m going here! Either way, you’re going to get a feeling, good or bad. But one thing will be true, you’ll know what to compare on your next visit somewhere.
You can always spend the money to go visit somewhere. But if you’re already in an area to attend some hockey event, why not kill two birds? Do a little planning, see what campuses are close by, and find sometime to fit a couple stops in.
Here is a couple of rules about college visits to keep in mind:
First, if you plan to visit a D-I school with a hockey program, do know that coaches will not be able to meet with you prior to August 1 of your grade 10 year. If you’re already in grade 11, then you have nothing to worry about.
Second, if you are of age and want to get some face time with a member of the coaching staff, do plan in advance. Reach out several weeks before your visit and see if anyone on staff is available.
Third, as they say – you only get one time to make a first impression. So, if you are able to set up a day/time to meet with the coaching staff, A) Show up early, B) Dress appropriately, and C) Have some questions ready to ask.
The bottom line… if you’re already traveling somewhere for hockey, put that money to good use and go see some schools! Do some homework and see what schools are in the area, contact admissions to schedule a tour around campus, and just go explore.
Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
Stay informed. Get educated. Become ‘HOCKEY-WISE’!
Your leading online resource for NCAA Women’s College Hockey
Latest From… The Women’s College Hockey Podcast – Episode #3B…
Episode #3A Part I – Is Now LIVE|The Recap
Opportunity Knocks, But Where?
Picking Summer Events To Attend Isn’t Easy, But Can Be Beneficial If You Have A Plan
In response to my post last week on cutting down the number of events you attend and saving your summer sanity, I got a number of positive emails responses–Thank you!
I also got many questions. One in particular bears some attention, that being: Which Summer events are best to go to? How do I know which ones to attend?
So, parents… this post is primarily for you… players, be sure to read up as well.
It’s a great question. But not an easy one to answer. In short – it depends. But here are some ideas to help guide you along the way so you’re not wasting money or your time.
Have A Plan
As some astute business guru once said: When you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
The same holds true in becoming a great player and reaching your hockey goals. It’s really hard to attain them if you don’t have a plan on how to get there.
So what does it really mean to have a plan?
Having a plan basically means you’re going to assess certain areas of your hockey life and base your decisions of what summer events to attend off that assessment. Put in a little work, have some self discovery, plot a course – and then go after it.
Step 1… Try to answer What’s the goal with hockey? Are you just playing for fun or because you like being with your hockey friends? Or do you have aspirations to play competitively beyond high school or after college? If playing NCAA hockey is your goal, do you want to play D-I or D-III? Think you have what it takes to be an Olympian? Whatever the case – figure out what you want your goal with hockey to be.
So you figured out playing NCAA college hockey is the goal, D-I or D-III doesn’t mater as long as your playing NCAA college hockey. Step 2… Figure out how long you have until your goal begins. I call this your hockey timeline. So if you’re just finishing grade 9, you minimally would have 3 more years in your hockey timeline before playing college hockey.
You know the goal, you know how long you have before you reach it, Step 3 is to assess yourself as a player and figure out where do you stack up? Are you on the right track to reach your goal? Are you just an average player or one of the best on your team? Are you trying out for and being selected for national, regional, or state/provincial camps within your age group?
Here is why these steps are important.
Step 1, Find Your Goal… If you don’t really have aspirations of becoming a competitive player and you’re just playing for the fun of it, there really isn’t a need to spend oodles of money and time traveling around North America or elsewhere. There are probably local programs around your area that will help you improve and have some fun.
By the same token, if you are a competitive player and want to take hockey as far as you can, creating a plan that includes both a great deal of training and development as well as exposure to college coaches would be important.
Step 2, Know Your Hockey Timeline… The more time you have, the more you can spend on your development. The less time on your side, perhaps exposure might be the better choice way to go. The time you spend on your development, is like saving for retirement. The more time you have to contribute, the better retirement balance you’ll have. CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR DEVELOPMENT. If time is on your side, spend more time on development than exposure.
I’ll throw geography in here as well. It matters and can effect your timeline to a degree. Players from Minnesota on east have a distinct advantage. College coaches don’t get out west all that often. That means you westerners have to travel farther and may be more often for exposure.
Step 3, Assess How Good You Are… So you can pick appropriate events that aren’t over your head. I hate saying attempting something is a waste of money, but realistically – you can do yourself a disservice by attending events that are severely above your level of play. Best to pick camps or clinics, development programs that focus on improvement before focussing on exposure.
Once you have all these steps figured out, you can then assess what events exist, what they offer, and how they can help you meet your goals.
In Friday’s post, I’ll discuss how to evaluate events so you can select the one that fits your needs.
Until Next Time Everyone… Be Well and take Care,
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Paid subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
August 1 visits begin… The 1st of August represents another key date on the D-I recruiting calendar. This is when coaches are allowed to begin face-to-face ON or OFF campus contact. Programs can invite recruits to visit campus for official or unofficial visits. Needless to say, it’s a busy time for coaches no matter what division you’re in. Many D-III schools have similar start dates etc. but they have more stringent rules as to when they can start on the ice with their teams. Which allows them more time to recruit and take care of visits in the early part of the year before their seasons really ramp up.
We mentioned in our last post, recruits wanting to visit to campus is becoming a ‘must’ before making their commitment to a school. Which is nice to hear. One, it means the rules put into place May of 2019 to slow the process down – is working. Two, the visit is a vital part of one’s recruiting experience. It’s a great way to judge and get a feel for what the physical environment will be like. You get to smell the smells, kick-the-tires so to speak. Seeing the classroom spaces, dorms, dinning halls, the rink, athletic facilities, the area around campus, etc. is hugely beneficial.
Here are a few thoughts on visits.
The type of visit you have, whether ‘official’ or ‘unofficial’ should not really matter. What should, is the kind experience you want to have.
Know what you want out of your visit experience. Do you want to see what campus is like when students are in session? Do you want to see the team practice or play? Do you want to eat in the dinning hall, sit in on a class, talk to players on the team, see other facilities? Be sure to communicate what kid of experience you want out of your visit. An easy way to do that, is ask the coach what’s in store for the visit.
Know that coaches usually have a priority list of recruits with whom they want to invite on a visit and by a certain date. If you’re talking with a school and the topic of a visit hasn’t come up yet, ask how the program handles deciding on who visits, when they can happen, and what the potential of having one for yourself is.
Most all visits, official or unofficial are offered by the coaching staff… don’t assume you’re automatically going to be offered a visit just because you’ve had a phone call or two. Official visits involve money being spent by the program – money that is not yours to spend. If the topic of visits come up, clarify what is being offered and ask the coach to go over how the visit would work.
Know that you can’t take more than 5 official visits – 1 per school – at the D-I level. Be prepared to explain how you are going to decide which schools you want to visit. Bottom line, have a plan and be willing to share your logic.
Oh – and one more thing. Try to avoid the unannounced drop-in visit. Coaches have a ton going on and may not be on campus or have their day already schedule an unable to meet. Best to always communicate and plan ahead!
A Busy August & September… The summer is coming to an end believe it or not. And coaching staffs are busy prepping for the start of their season. For some, that comes in as little as 3.5 weeks. Y-I-K-E-S! I know, right? Crazy to think the college hockey season is starting that soon – but for many programs, they’ll be on the ice as a team before August is over with. Orientation for freshmen at some schools begins as early as the Aug. 19-21 weekend with classes starting on the 22nd. On the other end of the spectrum some schools won’t start classes until after labor day or later–as late as Sept. 12th. NCAA rules allow D-I coaches to begin a limited number of hours on-ice with their teams once classes begin at their institution.
August and September are jammed back with coaches hitting the recruiting trail. And there are no shortage of events to attend. Here’s our list of major recruiting events you can expect D-I coaches to be at.
Both the US and Canada announced their respective national team camp coaching staffs. Many NCAA ties on both sides. Team USA has 15 current NCAA Head, Associate/Assistant Coaches while representing both D-I and D-III institutions. Hockey Canada has 9 NCAA Head or Associate/Assistant coaches at their selection camps. 4 head coaches from the ECAC alone. You can see the complete camp schedules, staff lists, and US rosters below. Canada has not announced its player attendee rosters yet. The US and Canada will play a 3-game series in Calgary Aug. 17-20. Games will most likely be streamed as they have been in the passed. We’ll provide streaming info as soon as we have it.
Little tidbits from around the world of women’s hockey…
Our Coaching Changes Tracker has been updated which you can find HERE. Princeton has a position open in operations/video. Stonehill has hired another assistant coach – former Wisconsin Badger Lauren Williams who spent time coaching at Becker College. Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT will add a Varsity Women’s program beginning in ’23-’24. Albertus is a D-3 school. A national search for a Head Coach is underway.
Chris Dilks for SB Nation College Hockey reported yesterday SUNY-Binghamton is doing a study to add men’s hockey. You can read the article HERE. Binghamton is already a D-I school athletically, but that’s not what caught my eye. What did was Dilks’ quote and comment on rumors of Utica University perhaps making the jump to D-I. “The timing also feels right for a smaller eastern school like Binghamton to add a program. Between new additions of independent programs like Long Island and Stonehill, as well as a rumored move to Division I for Utica College… Click the link and it will take you to a story from back in March when the question of what’s next for Utica hockey came up in an article in the Daily Sentinel The infrastructure is already in place with Utica as there is both women’s and men’s hockey… and a rabid fan-base. We’ll pass any news we hear along the way.
Full announcement from the most recent NCAA’s Transformation Committee can be found HERE. Interestingly if approved, student-athletes will be allowed to transfer more than once and still be eligible. Certain sports will become the wild, wild west. Schools accepting transfers will be on the hook to fund financial-aid for student-athletes until they finish their degree or 5th year – whichever comes first.
The International Quebec Pee Wee Tournament in Quebec City will for the first time, host a Girls division. Girls teams have participated, but there has never been a separate girls division. You can find the tournament application HERE. Teams have until October 2022 to get their applications submitted.
Additional news out of Quebec as reported by CBC, “This week, the CEGEP de Saint-Laurent confirmed it’s suspending its women’s program temporarily, citing problems recruiting players and coaches.” Not good news for women’s hockey in Quebec.
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
Today we analyze what appears to be a changing landscape around college recruiting and the showcase/tournament style events coaches attend. Showcase, tournament, and camp/clinic event owner / operators could be facing big hurdles in the future as conditions within D-I recruiting, travel, and the NCAA – change.
Recruiting Event Landscape Changing…
There has been quite a bit of talk this summer amongst D-I coaches regarding the lack of real high-end talent and just even a good concentration of talent at events compared to prior years. One reason, there are more showcases, tournaments, and camps than ever. There are way more event operators in the showcase/tournament/camp/clinic space than ever before. Second, beyond what USA Hockey and Hockey Canada offer as part of their Nat’l Dev. Camps or High Performance initiatives, there is only so much talent to go around and only so many weeks to schedule events. We can think of weekend in June but prior to the June 15th call date where there were 4 and 5 major events goin on in the same weekend. Only a few showcase event operators continually attract potential D-I quality talent. We don’t track event rosters and where those participants end up playing college hockey D-I or D-III, but it sure would be interesting to see. For D-III coaches, its a much different story. The environment is great for D-III programs from a talent prospective. D-III staffs do have the same problem D-I coaches have – not enough staff and or $ in the recruiting budget to get to everything they’d like to. The number of players within the competitive player pool, as we call it, has increased. Travel costs have also increased significantly.
We’re probably seeing the D-I recruiting summer landscape change right before our eyes. Coaches want to go where the talent is, especially in the summer months as recruiting is far more targeted now than it used to be. Rosters for showcase/camp style events are extremely hard to come by. Tournaments, not so much. And yes, we know it’s a chicken and egg type of situation. Event/showcase operators need to promote coaches in their marketing materials so players will sign up. But, recruiting dollars aren’t unlimited. With as expensive as travel has become, programs will probably be very careful where they put their dollars to work. Coaches usually go to events for two reason either A) Identify new prospects or B) Evaluate prospects on their recruiting list–hopefully vs. excellent talent.
The takeaway is this, with an overall talent pool spread thin having to choose between multiple events, travels costs not expected to go down anytime soon, and a lot of events scheduled on the same week/weekends, D-I coaches are probably going to get more choosey with where they go in the future, especially in the summer months. And what could make matters worse, are potential looming changes to the women’s ice hockey recruiting calendar from the NCAA Transformation Committee which could drastically cut down the number of days coaches can be off campus to evaluate players.
Recruiting as we know it, is going to look and feel drastically different sooner than later due to upcoming changes from the NCAA Transformation Committee. How soon no one really knows. But why… is bigger more complicated question.
If you follow news about the NCAA then the NCAA Transformation Committee (‘NCAA TC’ for short) should be a group you are aware of. If you don’t, you need to, because college athletics is about to get real interesting. Unlimited scholarships for teams, players getting paid, flexible transfer rules, squad size limits, are all a very real possibility.
So who and what is this NCAA Transformation Committee and why does it exist?
The NCAA hasn’t had a real good track record with its own athletes or in the court system, or with public opinion. It has an image problem. NCAA athletes largely have been uncompensated employees while the NCAA, athletic departments, and high profile sport coaches have reaped billions, all on the backs of their own athletes’ efforts. The dollar amounts are staggering. Lawyers and the athletes realized they were being taken advantage of. Lawsuits followed, as did congressional hearings in Washington. And after a few social media posts from the 2020 NCAA D-I Women’s Basketball Tournament, the disparity in financial support the NCAA doesn’t give to it’s female sport counterparts became a tipping point. A third-party gender equity law-firm review was conducted and voila – you have an organization in real trouble with egg on its face and unless something drastic gets done, the lawsuits keep coming.
To right-the-ship, the NCAA put together a group of 21 people charged with changing how the NCAA operates, what it oversees, and what decisions it gets to make, and thus – the NCAA TC was born. The real plan for the NCAA seems to be figuring out how to transfer power, not get sued, and limit risk while improving its public image.
The NCAA TC is slowly tipping its hand at what will change and how things will be different. The full extent is not known quite yet, but here are some examples of what this group has already committed to changing.
Set membership standards for each Division — I, II, and III. You want to compete at the D-I level, then your athletic department will have to abide by having a certain level of services and resources. What those are exactly isn’t known. Perhaps its in the area of providing adequate mental health professionals, diet/nutrition specialists, academic support services and the like. What the NCAA won’t decide, is how much money schools or sport programs have to spend in certain areas… like scholarships, etc.
Do away with scholarship limits. Example… hockey has a limit of 18 full scholarships. The NCAA wants to do away with those limits and open it up to allow schools the freedom to spend as they wish.
Squad Size Limits… the NCAA would dictate how large rosters could be. As an example, D-I hockey teams may be limited to having no more than a certain number of players on a roster.
Do away with coaching staff limitations… The NCA would not mandate how many or how few coaches could be employed full-time to work with a team. Now, D-I Hockey has a limit of 3 full-time coaches + 1 volunteer… that could go away and you could have any number of coaches on staff. The number of coaches who could be in a recruiting capacity would be very similar to what staffs have now however. In hockey, this amounts to programs adding compensated skills or power skating/goalie coaches. Whereas before, program could have only volunteer, the prospect of hockey programs having many coaches is real.
Recruiting calendars… This is the big one. Sports would have their own recruiting calendars with a pre-determined amount of weeks where no recruiting activities could take place. As an example, women’s hockey could have a period of up to 10 weeks per calendar year where no recruiting activities can take place… no player evaluations, no communication allowed with recruits, families, youth hockey/high school/club coaches… this is a complete evaluation and communication SHUTDOWN. D-I women’s hockey already has about 6 weeks where we can’t evaluate from the end of April (usually) until June 1. However, coaches can still communicate. Programs would have a certain number of ‘recruiting days’ to utilize per year to evaluate and potentially have NO limits on the number of evaluations or how often communication could take place. As an example, a D-I program may have 200 recruiting days to use as a staff combined between all coaches (not 200 per coach), and recruiting shut-downs would occur from say, around mid-April to mid-June (8 weeks), plus a week around the US July 4 holiday week and the week prior to Dec. 25… again – these dates are only used as examples for now.
Enforcement of rules and who handles that aspect of regulation will change too. It could be the conferences themselves more involved? Perhaps a 3rd party entity will be created? Much is not known on who will control enforcing the rules. But one thing we can infer is, you can’t make major rule/policy changes to say – recruiting – without sorting out how enforcement will work. So until that happens, don’t expect recruiting or scholarship rules to change yet.
The above list is just a smattering of what will actually may change and unfortunately, no one knows exactly when all these will occur. Who will be in charge of managing scholarships, financial aid, and who can spend what? It will be largely up to the conferences or at least we thing that is the direction the NCAA TC could go. May be certain institutions? What is going on is a complete shift in who has power. In college athletics, power is who controls money and people (athletes/coaches in this case) and the NCAA wants out of that business. They’d much rather transfer their risk to others willing to take it on. Conferences have too much $ on the line with TV contracts, apparel deals, etc. to not be the ones to take over for the NCAA in regulating the day-to-day of how college athletics operates.
As things become known, we’ll keep you as up to date as we can. For clear-cut definition and roster of who sits in The NCAA TC, click HERE.
Update as of 9pm EST July 20, 2022… The NCAA’s D-I Council announced its endorsement of several recommendations from the Transformation Committee, “… to better support student-athletes, improve efficiency and timeliness in the infractions process, and improve clarity in the transfer environment.”
The big takeaway from tonight’s announcement has to do with clarity in the Transfer Process... Specifically 1) The transfer window will be open for athletes to transfer more than once. Previously it was one-time. 2) Beginning the day after the NCAA D-I Women’s Ice Hockey Tournament field is announced (and for all other winter-sports), athletes have a 60-day window to notify their current institution in writing their wish to enter the transfer portal. Using this year as an example, the 60-day window would have began Monday March 7, 2022 and ended Thursday May 5th. 3) Schools accepting transfers will be REQUIRED to provide financial aid (athletic scholarships) through the completion of the athlete’s 5th year of eligibility or when their degree is granted – whichever comes first.
The D-I Council’s recommendations must be approved by the D-I Board of Governors next month to be adopted. You may read the NCAA’s official announcement from tonight HERE.
USA Hockey ends the busiest portion of its summer with the U18 Select Camp finishing up today. Yours truly attended the 15 Camp as well as the past 3 days of the U18 Select Camp. The only camp left to be held is the U18 final camp or 30 or so players usually, in early August to select the initial U18 World Championship roster. That team will then head to Calgary, Alberta for a 3-game series vs. Team Canada. Here are some observations…
Lots of D-I coaches on hand for the 15 Camp (’07/’08 birth yrs)… not as many for the U18 Select Camp. And certainly plenty on hand at the 16/17 camp (’06/’05 birth yrs).
USA Hockey made a change this year regarding 15 Camp attendees in that, no 15 Camp attendee would get selected for the the U18 Camp. Parents were not happy. The only way ’07’s were allowed to attend the U18 Camp was if they were selected to it in the first place. Where as 13 players from the 16/17 camp were selected to attend the U18 camp.
15 Camp is probably too long, especially for goalies. Goalies attended a USA Hockey goalie camp before the main camp. 4-5 days total would be plenty. 6 nights and 7 days for players or 10 & 9 for goalies (8 and 7 for staff), is way too much. Less is more. Especially if no one from camp is going to be moving on to the Select 18’s.
Interesting numbers on penalties called at the U18 Select Camp. Too many?
Game #
# of Penalties
Total # of Mins in GM
% of GM on Special Teams
Game 1
4
6
10.7%
Game 2
12
18
32.1%
Game 3
12
18
32.1%
Game 4
14
21
37.5%
Game 5
11
16.5
29.4%
Game 6
12
18
32.1%
Game 7
7
10.5
18%
Game 8
9
13.5
24.1%
*Warning, personal opinion based rant… One final thought from an NCAA coaches perspective…
Everything that goes on at these types of camps matters. You can add in all the Canadian provincial and Hockey Canada camps as well. These camps become extremely important to NCAA D-I coaches. And what better eval do you want as a coach then to watch players in a best-on-best format? It’s great hockey to watch and we as coaches are thankful USA Hockey / Hockey Canada and the Canadian provinces put these events on. However…
Sometimes it appears the ‘importance’ of these event for college coaches gets lost in the mix. Let’s face it, NCAA coaches come to these events and leave making six-figure type decisions that will impact lives and livelihoods based on what they saw at these events. For decades now, NCAA programs have helped produce Team USA and Hockey Canada’s olympic and World Championship rosters. There is a lot at stake. The money alone that gets decided on out of these events is a lot. I’d be willing to bet in the U18 select camp alone, when all the college commitments and scholarship/financial aid offers get made, there was close to $12 million dollars on the ice this week. Not to mention what the 16/17 camp was worth. Heck, if every D-I scholarship or financial aid offer was an average of $40K per year, D-I alone commands about $40 million a year with 42 teams.
Camps are a ton of work, and you can’t make everyone happy. But when 5 on 5 play is only close to 70% or less of game play or a goalie session gets cancelled on the last day of camp and no one outside of USA Hockey knows about it, or roster info doesn’t get distributed until a certain point in an event… lack of those things matters. If the NCAA ever deregulates camps/clinics rules to allow coaches to hold invite only events, perhaps NCAA coaches will band together and organize their own best-on-best events themselves. But until then, with all that money & opportunity on the line, it would be nice to see a different thought process where everything matters.
Last December, our Pipeline Blog Post had grad transfer data… rosters by team of graduate transfer players and statistics through the end of November. You can check it out here. Now that the season has ended, here is the the data for the 21-22 season which you can find HERE.
In all, 80 grad transfer players found their way on to D-I rosters this year. In a typical year, that’s about 1/3 of a incoming recruiting class across D-I. That means, 80 incoming freshman may not have had a spot. In addition to the 80 – 5th year grad transfers, who have now exhausted their NCAA eligibility, there are 200 or so Seniors graduating. That means the pool of next year 5th year grad transfers will come from this pool… but it won’t be all 200. 1) Seniors from Post, St. Mike’s, St. Anselms, RPI, Union, and all 6 Ivy League schools were not eligible for a 5th year. Players needed to be on a college hockey roster in 20-21 in order to get a ‘COVID 5th year’ from the NCAA.
In all, it looks like the grad transfer players were pretty productive with 18.5 points per player. 7.13 goals and 11.36 assists per player. Goalies averaged a save % of .926, GAA of 2.10, and 11.1 wins.
Sifters
Little tidbits from around the world of women’s hockey…
USA Hockey Moving On??? With the end of USA Hockey’s Nat’l Dev. Summer Camps in St. Cloud… we’re hearing rumblings it may indeed be the actual end of camps for USA Hockey in St. Cloud. Rumor is bids are being taken or will be, to host future camps. St. Cloud offered a nice combo of 2 sheets of ice, dorms, dining halls, and all the other services USA Hockey likes/needed to run its operation. No word on possible locations. That said, Lake Placid please???
Best-of-Three In CHA… College Hockey America is changing its post-season playoff format to include the top four team in a 1v4 and 2v3 – best two-out-of-three format hosted by the high seed. Semi-final winners will move on to play a 1-game CHA Championship Game hosted by the highest remaining seed.
ECAC Hires New Associate Commissioner… Nick Sczerbinski has been named new ECAC Associate Commissioner announced by the league office. Sczerbinski is no stranger to the ECAC having graduated from and worked in the athletic department at Quinnipiac University where he was associate athletic director for athletic communications. You can read more on his hiring HERE.
WCHA Hires Interim Commissioner… With Jennifer Flowers departing the WCHA to take an Athletic Director position at Southwest Minnesota State University, the WCHA announced on July 5th former Bemidji State Athletic Director Tracy Dill, has been hired by the league on an interim basis and will begin his duties August 1. In its press release, the WCHA sighted the NCAA’s uncertainty with de-regulation and what the role of a commissioner or conference may be in the near future. You can read more on his hiring HERE. Rob DeGregorio, commissioner of the CHA and NEWHA will also step down as of the end of this coming season. The D-I landscape of commissioners will look very different at the end of next season.
NCAA D-III Passes Legislation… Recently passed legislation at D-III will impact women’s ice hockey for the coming season. The biggest of which is the D-III National Championship Tournament will now be at 11 teams, up 1, from 10. You can read the NCAA’s official announcement HERE. Now the D-I and D-III national championships will have the same amount of teams – 11.
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 3rd season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amatuer and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
