|
Q-I see you have already touched on the importance of grades in your recruiting process, I just have one minor question. Does it make any difference how much better a players' GPA is than he needs to have it to get into your school? Or is it that once you see that a player has the minimum grades to get into your school, you no longer focus on grades in that particular case?To summarize, I am basically asking does it matter if one player has better grades than another player if they both have good enough grades to enroll at your school, in terms of how you will recruit them?
A-To our program grades are the most important. For several reasons. 1. If a player is a questionable student in high school the probability of that student being able to pull their weight in college is not as good as a player who has good grades in high school. Any player whom we identify as a "prospect", if that players are grades are questionable they usually will be ranked on our depth chart for recruiting lower. The academic standards at our University are always relatively high. Getting into school is merely half the battle. You then need to stay in school, stay eligible, and be able to contribute academically.
Q-Where do kids in the WSHl, MNJHL, AJHL, and NORPAC now stand in terms of recruiting in College coaches minds'. Also, how does the EJHL compare to the NAHL in terms of college coaches minds'. A-I would say personally, the AJHL usually works best out of the four for us. This is not to say that the other three do not have terrific players and great organizations. The AJHL is just easier for recruiting purposes geographically. I think an untapped resource these days is the WSHL. They are really starting to branch out in terms of coverage and in the past few years they have taken a vested interest in making sure the players are taking SAT's, have transcripts ready etc etc. We do not spend much time recruiting in the NorPAC or MnJHL. Again, this is more for geographical purposes if nothing else. In my mind the EJHL and NAHL both have great players that can play the game and all want to play at the high level of hockey.
| 
