Prep Schools

[Jason Harris 31]

Project, we need one of those "Recommend this post" buttons, because that was great advice.

[Gongshow11 1]

yes its true. However, if you look at a jr league like the OPJHL, its so watered down you could probably find yourself a way onto the bottom feeders. prep is tougher as you need to be a student athlete. And project you're somewhat right. You can play on a bad team and put up good numbers and go somewhere, but that will take a lot of individual talent. Or you can puyt up decent points at say a cushing and get good looks. however, 20 points at a bad school would look like 30 at a good one no? If no, one could ask y is that kid at a bad school? maybe because he was developped by that school into a good player. I mean i know first hand

[Project824 0]

yes its true. However, if you look at a jr league like the OPJHL, its so watered down you could probably find yourself a way onto the bottom feeders. prep is tougher as you need to be a student athlete. And project you're somewhat right. You can play on a bad team and put up good numbers and go somewhere, but that will take a lot of individual talent. Or you can puyt up decent points at say a cushing and get good looks. however, 20 points at a bad school would look like 30 at a good one no? If no, one could ask y is that kid at a bad school? maybe because he was developped by that school into a good player. I mean i know first hand

I wasn't really making any points on putting up x amount of points at one school or y amount at a powerhouse. And as much as the OPJHL has become watered down, it's still hockey on another level compared to most kids playing Midget A or high school hockey in the States.

Kids will say they want to play in this junior league or at this prep school, or follow this blueprint and play at Shattuck's and then Junior A and then NCAA DI and then the NHL. My point was that it's not exactly as easy as just showing up and signing up - it's NOTHING like paying your $2000 and playing travel hockey where you're guaranteed your next shift, a nifty matching uniform and a trophy no matter what place you come in. They have to WANT you to play Prep DI, or Junior A, Major Junior, etc. If it was that easy there'd be a whole lot more players in the show, don't you think?

The other point I was making wasn't so much playing for weaker or stronger prep schools - it was whether it's worth the expense, change in lifestyle, etc. if you're not even making their top varsity team. Let's face it, those coaches know exactly who is going to play on their top team, and they'll have stud sophs, repeat juniors or PGs coming in to replace graduated seniors or PGs. They know it, and if you are one of them, you'll know it too. I played prep, and it was a great springboard to get where I needed to advance my career, on the top varsity team. Would it have been worth it/would I have done it if I would have been playing Varsity B or JV A? Doubtful, those kids rarely moved up onto the top team because new recruits showed up every year, and it certainly would not have been worth $30,000/year in that stuffy environment, and spending 9 months a year away from my family at 15 to do so (I received a pretty substantial aid package, but if I had been a JV player you could count on that package being a lot less as well). I actually left prep school and went back to public hs for a year before leaving for Junior A. That year was among the best of my life.

[Langenbrunner15 0]

I know you don't just get a slip to sign. But isn't it better to get the coaches of the prep team or w/e you want to go to your schedule, and a tape of you?

[Gongshow11 1]

yes

[hockechamp14 0]

i played against these schools:

Avon Old Farms

Canterbury

Choate-Rosemary Hall

Kent

Salisbury

Taft

Trinity Pawling

and from what i remember Canterbury and Salisbury were the best teams i have ever played against, other than Lawrenceville Prep in NJ. but that was about 10 years ago...things may have changed.

canterbury is pretty good, they're one of the better schools. I'd recomend going to Cushing if you're going for hockey but you're not recruited. Even thier varsity B kids get recruited pretty often by colleges if you never end up getting to varsity. A lot of the northern schools are good which aren't mentioned here, such as Nobles, Thayer, Exeter, Andover, and of course Cushing.

Vermont Academy is D2.

find me a B team guy who went anywhere, only playing B, and remember, cushing wont take canadians, as I was told, we can find the same talent in the US. im sure a crosby would change this, but i'm saying

I'm talking D3... and we had two or three kids just last year who went DIII from our varsity B team. Were they even legit schools for hockey? I have no idea, I know jack about division three.

[Gongshow11 1]

what schools they go to?