In a message dated 9/7/2003 9:49:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
A son of a friend is a junior at Wentworth, which has risen quickly in the
> D3 hockey ranks over the past few years.  Over the weekend, he told me that
> just about every player who has come into the school is either from Ontario
> or British Columbia and are already 20 or 21 when they enroll.  Now, before
> Larry jumps all over me, let me say that the fact that they are from Canada
> and are of drinking age is irrelevant to me
Hopefully the relevant parts of my friend have been quoted in context- I am
not jumping all over you. The Lord favored me with 2 sons who had outstanding
D1 careers and I could write a book about the recruiting wars and the hypocrisy
of many so called pillars of higher education including Harvard admits with
950 SAT scores. It personally offends me that the NCAA permits the recruitment
of foreign athletes who will if they hang around until graduation will be 25
years old. It creates a literal cold war situation because the response of the
American player is to add another year of school (look at the New England prep
schools- which at least has academic and athletic synergy and worked well for
both of my sons) and/or go to the USHL and defer college for another year so
that you would be the same age as the Canadian you are competing against (to
be fair apparently some provinces in Canada have a fifth year of high school).
D3 recruiting is very dangerous because there is little financial investment
on the part of the school. I know of one goalie who was recruited by a fairly
good academic school only to find that another goalie who had committed to and
entered Air Force had dropped out during summer basic and was now enrolled
(with the strong re-recruiting of the hockey coach) in his school. The father was
beside himself but really could do very little. All of the academic choices I
encouraged as a parent were all predicated on "what if hockey does not work
out?"- is this the right place to be? In that context their choice of West
Point could not have been better and there are no more pleasing words for a parent
then a suggestion by a child that you may have given them some sound advice.