In a message dated 1/23/99 2:08:10 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:
 
<<  On a statistical basis, it is a tremendous advantage to have two or three
extra years to add muscle mass before playing college hockey. To say
nothing of developing a much better and mature head for the game.
 >>
 
This is much too general of a statement. I've know too many 18 year old phenom
prospects who failed to continue to develop  and have seen 20 year old come
from nowhere kids go from 5'11" 170 lbs to 6'1" 200 lbs 2 years
 
<<There are not enough rides in hockey to redshirt all the freshmen like
football does, and besides college hockey doesn't draw well enough to
justify it financially if there were. So the system and the law of player
supply and demand work to make PG years and USHL experience a requirement.
  That doesn't happen in a lot of sports.   Hockey is pretty unique here.>>
 
Hockey is also unique in that 90% of the players on the roster get to play
quite a bit in each and every game...vs. under 50% on most football rosters,
60-70% on most baseball and basketball rosters.
 
<<All of us can cite vignettes which are good counter-examples. In my mind,
 they just prove the rule. Dave Hendrickson's example of BC is a case in
point. The next year those kids he mentions were on the power play and
playing for the national championship. True. And they were joined on the
power play, if memory serves (and I am not going to bother to look it up),
by a twenty or twenty one year old freshman from Niskayuna who had done
BOTH the prep school and the USHL thing.
after high school. >>
 
Excellent attempt at making no point whatsoever.
 
 <<I think the point is that a large proportion of the kids who play at the
D-1 level have now been forced into extra years after high school before
they are big enough and good enough to play in college. From a hockey
perspective that is perhaps OK. But the vast majority are not going to make
careers in hockey. For them, is it OK? For the schools in question and the
effect that it has on campus culture is it OK? Those are the questions
which have to be asked.>>
 
I said it before in this thread...I'll say it again...there used to be...say
40-50ish years ago...a system widely used in this country called "preparatory
schools" that students went to so they could further prepare themselves for
college...back when colleges did not have to "make it easier" for student
athletes to gain admission. Since then the NCAA has had to implement Prop 14
just to ease the radical development of schools letting kids in that don't
even know how to write! Never mind the difference in athletic development
here...not all students are ready for college either! Remember...that's what
it's all about!!!
 
Randy May
Colorado College fan
(The school that refuses to redshirt.)
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.