Hiring a private college consultant for a strong student/athlete? Where do I start?

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by toobusytoday

Disclaimer, I know nothing about ice hockey. Do players often get recruited to go pro right from HS or is College ice hockey where most of them come from? And doesn't it make a big difference that the OP is talking about a female? Since ice hockey is more of a northern tier of the country thing, doesn't that limit the college choices quite a bit?

Yes, boys get recruited out of HS to go pro but most play in college. Most of the recruiting happens out of their travel leagues but enough out of high schools known to have strong programs. There are 59 DI men's teams and 72 DIII teams. Even though the numbers are not huge, there aren't as many kids playing either. A girl that is the top player or one of the top players on her team for a reasonable program will get recruited at some level. There are some AAA teams where EVERY player ends up playing in college. Since the OP sounds like her D will be a GPA boost, she will be a good prospect if her play develops as expected.

[GoCUBS1]

Thought this site had some interesting 2011-2012 figures on the % of H.S. athletes who eventually play their sport in college...

Odds of playing a college sport from high school

Interestingly, girls' hockey is the 2nd highest at 22.7% (fencing is 1st at 38%) and there is also this caveat:

the number of participants at the high school level does not include high school age athletes who don't play on a high school team, but compete on club, travel and similar teams.

As I've noted, many of the high level female players compete only on the AAA club/travel teams (or even on the boys' varsity teams), so they are not counted as playing on their H.S. teams. This leads me to believe that the % of club hockey players who eventually play in college is likely even higher than the 22.7%.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by Momma_bear

Coaches will not just find you. Even if the OPs daughter is on an AA team her parents still need to market her to coaches.

Depends. My brother is a college coach and recruiter, and was himself recruited for Div. I when he was a young student. I know that his biggest red flag in the world is parents marketing their kid to coaches. Referrals from club coaches, school coaches, etc. carry so much more weight than parents doing the marketing, for all the obvious reasons.

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Our HS GC was a fantastic help. It's hard to make blanket statements like that. Momma Bear--the hockey coaches are all over the AAA league games. It's just different with hockey.

The hockey coaches may be all over the AAA games but unless a student makes contact with a player there is no way for a student to know if the coach is there to see HER play. Marketing yourself to college coaches is a very good idea in any sport, even the specialty sports.

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

Depends. My brother is a college coach and recruiter, and was himself recruited for Div. I when he was a young student. I know that his biggest red flag in the world is parents marketing their kid to coaches. Referrals from club coaches, school coaches, etc. carry so much more weight than parents doing the marketing, for all the obvious reasons.

My experience is that kids market themselves to coaches. The coaches my son was in contact with wanted to hear from the students, not their parents.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Momma_bear

The hockey coaches may be all over the AAA games but unless a student makes contact with a player there is no way for a student to know if the coach is there to see HER play. Marketing yourself to college coaches is a very good idea in any sport, even the specialty sports.

Like I said, hockey is just different. If a coach is at a game watching some sophomores and sees a stand-out 7th grader you better bet that girl goes on his list of future kids to watch. They then follow through various websites and reportings from the club coaches. Yes, down the road the student needs to be more proactive, however, with the limited number of girls in hockey, playing on a travel team that has a good reputation is usually enough to get you noticed, especially when you have coaches that are on the ball like the OP's D's coaches.

For other sports, yes, the student needs to initiate contact in 99% of the cases. In the other 1%, they are found through AAA type programs and are so outstanding that they have 100 coaches after them.

[southbel]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Like I said, hockey is just different. If a coach is at a game watching some sophomores and sees a stand-out 7th grader you better bet that girl goes on his list of future kids to watch. They then follow through various websites and reportings from the club coaches. Yes, down the road the student needs to be more proactive, however, with the limited number of girls in hockey, playing on a travel team that has a good reputation is usually enough to get you noticed, especially when you have coaches that are on the ball like the OP's D's coaches.

For other sports, yes, the student needs to initiate contact in 99% of the cases. In the other 1%, they are found through AAA type programs and are so outstanding that they have 100 coaches after them.

Agree completely. I was a top hockey player in high school. Went to boarding school and believe me, those coaches know the players in the programs. Plus, in high school, you start with the camps, invites to USA training camps, etc. Even though there are plenty of players out there, the hockey world and especially for women is still a fairly small world. For me, it did get me quite a few accepted college applications. Oddly enough, after one year of playing D1 college hockey, I decided to give it up to concentrate on my studies. The college I went to did not have athletic scholarships. However, playing hockey was a huge hook for me and I got into colleges that I never would have been able to otherwise - even those without athletic scholarships.

[GoCUBS1]

Originally Posted by southbel

Agree completely. I was a top hockey player in high school. Went to boarding school and believe me, those coaches know the players in the programs. Plus, in high school, you start with the camps, invites to USA training camps, etc. Even though there are plenty of players out there, the hockey world and especially for women is still a fairly small world. For me, it did get me quite a few accepted college applications. Oddly enough, after one year of playing D1 college hockey, I decided to give it up to concentrate on my studies. The college I went to did not have athletic scholarships. However, playing hockey was a huge hook for me and I got into colleges that I never would have been able to otherwise - even those without athletic scholarships.

Southbel, thanks for your response... Did you go to a hockey boarding school? If so, could you tell me more about your experiences? What are your opinions on the girls' boarding programs out there?

My DD is just starting her first year as a AAA U12 player. She attended a few natl. camps this summer and I can see there is a relatively small market of elite players. I agree that the college coaches will be aware of the pool of players. They all talk and a few coaches seemed to already know of her. We are now on multiple mailing lists. I am hoping to get a lot more information at the college planning seminars our league sponsors.

I am wondering how the balance will work with her high level of academics and playing such a travel heavy sport. Like you, I think she can use it as a "hook" to get into some very good schools. We may consider a boarding school if it has very strong academics. Another option is continuing with the AAA club program and applying to a top magnate H.S. (e.g. IMSA).

Thanks for any insight you can offer...

[southbel]

Originally Posted by GoCUBS1

Southbel, thanks for your response... Did you go to a hockey boarding school? If so, could you tell me more about your experiences? What are your opinions on the girls' boarding programs out there?

My DD is just starting her first year as a AAA U12 player. She attended a few natl. camps this summer and I can see there is a relatively small market of elite players. I agree that the college coaches will be aware of the pool of players. They all talk and a few coaches seemed to already know of her. We are now on multiple mailing lists. I am hoping to get a lot more information at the college planning seminars our league sponsors.

I am wondering how the balance will work with her high level of academics and playing such a travel heavy sport. Like you, I think she can use it as a "hook" to get into some very good schools. We may consider a boarding school if it has very strong academics. Another option is continuing with the AAA club program and applying to a top magnate H.S. (e.g. IMSA).

Thanks for any insight you can offer...

I wouldn't call my boarding school a hockey school in particular but it did have an excellent hockey program. I went to Choate however I am familiar with several of the other boarding schools as well. It's kind of a small world when you start talking boarding schools. As an aside, boarding schools will recruit much like colleges - especially if you have a multi-sport athlete. We've had several D1 and Olympic players from our program. Of course, we also had quite an array of our players that went on to Ivies. They don't offer scholarships but they do recruit and heavily influence admissions.

One of the advantages I found to boarding school was both the necessary exposure was pretty much built in and the school/sport balance was already worked out (half days on game days, etc). My education was top notch (made college feel easy!) and something you would see at many boarding schools. During the summers and holiday breaks, I would go to camps, etc and spent some time playing on traveling teams. I LOVED boarding school but it's not for everyone. So I would think long and hard about going that route.

You can still get recruited from regular high school as well. Very easily. A key to that is the exposure at national camps. The coaches begin following hockey careers pretty early on for those promising athletes. Either way, if your daughter shows promise, she'll quickly be on recruiting lists. It was kind of overwhelming when my junior year of high school rolled around. I wasn't even aware that so many coaches knew who I was and then suddenly, there were all sorts at my games, I was getting an intense amount of mail, etc. Even when we set up to visit the college campuses, the coaches themselves were the ones that greeted us, brought us around, etc. It was crazy and a bit fun.

If anything, it was harder to balance playing college hockey with my academics and desire to have a social life. It was a big part of the reason I decided to quite after my first year of play.