From: Colorado Springs Gazetteby Kate Crandell
(left) DU's Keith Seabrook by passed the Canadian Junior A hockey to play college hockey in the US and was drafted by the NHL's Washington Capitols
Only 16 years old and still a junior in high school, Mike Dorr faced a sudden dilemma.
Minnesota-Duluth had offered a scholarship to Dorr, who dreamed of playing in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association — even if Duluth wasn’t his first choice — while growing up in a Minneapolis suburb.
Dorr, who had been sidelined because of a wrist injury, worried he might not receive another offer because, he said, “no other school was talking to me as in-depth as Duluth.” And “most” of his 16-year-old, hockeyplaying friends who had been offered scholarships had committed verbally to a school.
The Duluth coaching staff wanted an answer so it could pursue another player if Dorr declined.
Dorr said yes despite not having taken a college entrance exam.
“My dream was to play WCHA hockey,” said Dorr, days before the WCHA’s North Dakota plays in the Frozen Four. “It was right there in front of me, so I took it and I was set.”
Or so he thought.
Dorr is an example of the changing recruiting landscape for hockey players and coaches. More top players are eager to choose a destination sooner, some as early as freshmen or sophomores. In the past year, 21 players age 16 or younger made commitments to WCHA schools for future seasons.
ADVANCED NOTICE
Jordan Schroeder, a 5-foot-7, 155-pound sophomore in the U.S. National Team Development program based in Ann Arbor, Mich., was 15 last July when he announced he would attend Minnesota . . . in 2009 or 2010.
“I grew up in Minnesota, I’ve been a Gopher all my life,” he said. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was little. I considered other schools, but it was the only school I ever wanted to go to. . . . Nothing would really change my mind right now.”
Not all players and coaches are prepared to make such decisions, yet promises can be made and accepted on a whim.
“Everyone’s in a big rush,” Michigan Tech coach Jamie Russell said. “You’re seeing schools that are committing to kids so early and they’re not panning out and they’re not the top-end player they were two years ago. Kids have caught up to them with a growth spurt and are passing them in talent. . . .
“It’s a huge jump from junior hockey to college and if you go too soon, you spend two years eating popcorn and watching games from the stands. In our situation, you could be playing against 24-year-old men every day in practice. If you’re 18 and you’re not physically mature, it’s going to be a long year.”
Some WCHA schools are better able to adapt to that trend because of admissions requirements and location. Colorado College, which just completed its worst season since 1999-2000, is not one of those schools.
RECRUITING ROADBLOCKS
NCAA recruiting rules apply to hockey as they do basketball and football, but other issues exist. College hockey coaches recruit not only against their peers but Canadian junior teams, which aren’t governed by NCAA rules and draft players at age 14. The Canadian junior teams produce most of the players in the NHL, but the percentage of players from U.S. colleges is increasing. That has prompted Canadian junior teams to recruit — even if they hold the players’ draft rights — so the competition for talent is at an unprecedented level.
Also, coaches say, more top players have family advisers, who are, theoretically, unpaid agents. If a player becomes a professional, his agent expects to be hired and collect returns on that free advice.
Many college recruits play in the U.S. Hockey League after high school. The USHL — unlike the Canadian junior teams — does not pay players, so recruits can retain their college eligibility.
College coaches used to identify top players and track their development through high school and one or two years of junior hockey before offering a scholarship when the player was 19 or 20.
Whereas junior hockey was once reserved for high school graduates, high school sophomores are now leaving home to accelerate their development so they can enroll in college at 18.
Four years ago, 50 percent of the WCHA’s freshmen were 20 or older and less than a fourth were 18 or younger.
But players are committing younger and showing up earlier. During the 2006-07 season, just 39 percent of the freshmen were 20 or older and onethird of the class was 18 or younger.
The younger the player, the more projection and prediction are required by the coaches.
“You’re placing your livelihood in the hands of 16- and 17-year-olds,” CC coach Scott Owens said.
Owens faces two enhanced challenges — academic requirements and location.
CC recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its last national championship team. Plenty, including the school’s academic requirements, has changed since 1957.
“It was fair to say that the college was in a period of transition from a ‘safety school’ to a more rigorous, prestigious school,” said Jessy Randall, curator of special collections at CC’s Tutt Library.
CC now requires more, including entrance exams.
The middle 50 percent of this year’s freshman class scored between 1,280 and 1,430 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and 73 percent of the freshmen graduated in the top 10 percent of their class.
Owens cannot offer a scholarship until a recruit satisfies certain academic standards. At 16, many recruits haven’t taken the SAT or begun Advanced Placement classes.
CC’s campus lies hundreds of miles from the traditional recruiting areas — Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and some parts of Canada — that are convenient for most WCHA schools. The potential for being homesick is a factor, but the distance also comes into play because NCAA rules don’t allow schools to pay for “official” visits until a recruit is a senior in high school.
Pushed to make a college choice earlier, recruits and their parents tend to pay their own way and some trips are much more feasible. Dorr, for example, was within a five-hour drive of six WCHA schools.
In a typical “unofficial” visit, a recruit will attend a game or practice and then meet with the coach, who will offer a full or partial scholarship or a walk-on spot.
“In the old days, you had a recruit come visit in the fall of his senior year, attend a game, tour the campus,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “Kids aren’t taking official visits anymore.”
Up until the summer before their senior years, recruits are responsible for initiating contact with coaches through phone calls, letters, e-mails and unofficial visits.
Aside from allowing coaches to call foreign recruits once after their sophomore years, the NCAA prohibits e-mail contact before the junior year of high school and does not allow coaches to call until the summer before the recruit’s senior year. By that time, it might be too late.
UNCERTAINTY REIGNS
With professional offers looming, some Canadian and American recruits find themselves “in the position where they have to make decisions,” Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves said. “The kids have to make a decision between major juniors and college and it’s trickled down into college recruiting.”
Without a sure bet from an NCAA Division I school, it’s difficult to tell an agent or general manager “no” when drafted by a major junior program, Denver freshman Keith Seabrook said.
A native of British Columbia, Seabrook was drafted by the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League when he was 16. He watched his brother, Brent, jump to the NHL after four seasons with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Despite receiving only the limited amount of allowed recruiting attention from Denver — a letter of interest and a questionnaire — Seabrook decided to forgo major juniors and protect his NCAA eligibility.
Even though his decision panned out, Seabrook said it felt like he was taking a major risk by trading the sure for the unknown.
“It’s just hard to make a decision if you like where you’ve been drafted for major juniors and it’s a good team and if the organization’s great,” Seabrook said. “I was 16 and I was young and I didn’t know what hockey would have for me. I talked to players who had been to college. I just thought it was the right thing to do, to come and play hockey and do school at the same time.”
The best players are offered full scholarships and can start school when they want. But because college teams have about 26 players and only 18 scholarships, some players will see where they stand with more than one school. They find out whether the school is offering a full or partial scholarship and when the school would like them to arrive.
“You can offer them for down the road, like the fall of 2008,” Owens said. “If by chance we feel you’re not ready, could be 2009, assuming that all academics are in order and that you’ve been accepted to the school.”
ADJUSTING ON THE FLY
Ideally, coaches and players agree on an enrollment date — sometimes as distant as three years after high school — that allows the player to develop.
But the best-laid plans of players and coaches can go awry when holes in the lineup need to be filled or a scholarship opens because a player unexpectedly turns pro.
Last season, 16 WCHA underclassmen departed for the NHL and already this season seven WCHA underclassmen have signed contracts.
Under the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement of 2005, signing young talent is cheaper because entry-level contracts have a lower maximum salary.
Draftees will become free agents if they are not signed by the end of the summer after their senior years, pushing NHL clubs to sign underclassmen and bring them into their system rather than face the risk of losing them to free agency.
Early departures prompt coaches such as Lucia and Eaves — who lost a total of six underclassmen last summer — to lock up extra commitments in order to offset losses.
Owens’ strategy is to find a mix of older and younger recruits who aren’t as likely to leave early and can provide stability.
“You can win having kids for four years,” Owens said. “Sometimes all the big hotshots, by the time they’re ready to help you, they’re ready to sign.”
A BIG DECISION
Turnover occurs in every program. As a result, a recent high school graduate, who might not have committed, can go straight to college.
CC freshman Addison DeBoer broke scoring records at Spring Lake Park (Minn.) High School but was hardly recruited. DeBoer had planned to try out for a USHL team, but Owens offered a scholarship.
“He was a true freshman, a younglooking kid and really could have used some extra time but we wanted to bring him in,” Owens said. “There was something about him as a staff that we liked. He had great offensive numbers and he played hard.”
Sometimes the jump is too much for developing players to handle.
“There are plenty of kids that are coming in early that coaches are just living with,” Owens said. “You’re just playing them anyway and just trying to develop them, knowing that they can’t give you a heck of a lot.”
Generally, coaches stick with such players to honor their side of the verbal commitment.
If a coach doesn’t deliver on a scholarship that he’s promised, the player is left hanging and the school’s reputation is damaged.
The verbal commitment is “a handshake, it’s a look in the eye,” Owens said. “I’ll say, ‘Let me know in three weeks. If you’re not interested, that’s OK. But otherwise we need to move on.’ But it just depends on what kind of rush we’re in and it varies from kid to kid.
“We’re not a high-pressure place. If the kid says, ‘I need another week,’ I usually grant that. But you can only wait so long because sometimes you’re offering to an A kid, but B, C and D are committing to other places. . . . The longer it goes, the more Bs, Cs, Ds and Es you lose, but you’ve got to be fair because it’s a big decision.”
With players making those decisions at increasingly younger ages, more mistakes are bound to happen. Players are going to change their minds.
Eight months after committing to Duluth in January 2006, Dorr realized his decision was hasty.
“It’s the fear of not getting looked at, so you’re going to take what you have at the time,” he said. “That’s what I did.”
With his wrist healed and his play improved, Dorr put himself back on the market by e-mailing coaches from other top schools.
Dorr garnered interest from Wisconsin, CC, St. Cloud State, Minnesota State-Mankato and Notre Dame, but the 18-year-old committed to Minnesota in February.
He said 16-year-olds should not be allowed to commit verbally, but he understands the colleges’ perspective.
“You don’t know too much when you’re that age,” he said. “Now, I’m 18 and I’m mature enough to understand this is the next four years of my life.”
Minnesota-Duluth had offered a scholarship to Dorr, who dreamed of playing in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association — even if Duluth wasn’t his first choice — while growing up in a Minneapolis suburb.
Dorr, who had been sidelined because of a wrist injury, worried he might not receive another offer because, he said, “no other school was talking to me as in-depth as Duluth.” And “most” of his 16-year-old, hockeyplaying friends who had been offered scholarships had committed verbally to a school.
The Duluth coaching staff wanted an answer so it could pursue another player if Dorr declined.
Dorr said yes despite not having taken a college entrance exam.
“My dream was to play WCHA hockey,” said Dorr, days before the WCHA’s North Dakota plays in the Frozen Four. “It was right there in front of me, so I took it and I was set.”
Or so he thought.
Dorr is an example of the changing recruiting landscape for hockey players and coaches. More top players are eager to choose a destination sooner, some as early as freshmen or sophomores. In the past year, 21 players age 16 or younger made commitments to WCHA schools for future seasons.
ADVANCED NOTICE
Jordan Schroeder, a 5-foot-7, 155-pound sophomore in the U.S. National Team Development program based in Ann Arbor, Mich., was 15 last July when he announced he would attend Minnesota . . . in 2009 or 2010.
“I grew up in Minnesota, I’ve been a Gopher all my life,” he said. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was little. I considered other schools, but it was the only school I ever wanted to go to. . . . Nothing would really change my mind right now.”
Not all players and coaches are prepared to make such decisions, yet promises can be made and accepted on a whim.
“Everyone’s in a big rush,” Michigan Tech coach Jamie Russell said. “You’re seeing schools that are committing to kids so early and they’re not panning out and they’re not the top-end player they were two years ago. Kids have caught up to them with a growth spurt and are passing them in talent. . . .
“It’s a huge jump from junior hockey to college and if you go too soon, you spend two years eating popcorn and watching games from the stands. In our situation, you could be playing against 24-year-old men every day in practice. If you’re 18 and you’re not physically mature, it’s going to be a long year.”
Some WCHA schools are better able to adapt to that trend because of admissions requirements and location. Colorado College, which just completed its worst season since 1999-2000, is not one of those schools.
RECRUITING ROADBLOCKS
NCAA recruiting rules apply to hockey as they do basketball and football, but other issues exist. College hockey coaches recruit not only against their peers but Canadian junior teams, which aren’t governed by NCAA rules and draft players at age 14. The Canadian junior teams produce most of the players in the NHL, but the percentage of players from U.S. colleges is increasing. That has prompted Canadian junior teams to recruit — even if they hold the players’ draft rights — so the competition for talent is at an unprecedented level.
Also, coaches say, more top players have family advisers, who are, theoretically, unpaid agents. If a player becomes a professional, his agent expects to be hired and collect returns on that free advice.
Many college recruits play in the U.S. Hockey League after high school. The USHL — unlike the Canadian junior teams — does not pay players, so recruits can retain their college eligibility.
College coaches used to identify top players and track their development through high school and one or two years of junior hockey before offering a scholarship when the player was 19 or 20.
Whereas junior hockey was once reserved for high school graduates, high school sophomores are now leaving home to accelerate their development so they can enroll in college at 18.
Four years ago, 50 percent of the WCHA’s freshmen were 20 or older and less than a fourth were 18 or younger.
But players are committing younger and showing up earlier. During the 2006-07 season, just 39 percent of the freshmen were 20 or older and onethird of the class was 18 or younger.
The younger the player, the more projection and prediction are required by the coaches.
“You’re placing your livelihood in the hands of 16- and 17-year-olds,” CC coach Scott Owens said.
Owens faces two enhanced challenges — academic requirements and location.
CC recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of its last national championship team. Plenty, including the school’s academic requirements, has changed since 1957.
“It was fair to say that the college was in a period of transition from a ‘safety school’ to a more rigorous, prestigious school,” said Jessy Randall, curator of special collections at CC’s Tutt Library.
CC now requires more, including entrance exams.
The middle 50 percent of this year’s freshman class scored between 1,280 and 1,430 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test and 73 percent of the freshmen graduated in the top 10 percent of their class.
Owens cannot offer a scholarship until a recruit satisfies certain academic standards. At 16, many recruits haven’t taken the SAT or begun Advanced Placement classes.
CC’s campus lies hundreds of miles from the traditional recruiting areas — Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and some parts of Canada — that are convenient for most WCHA schools. The potential for being homesick is a factor, but the distance also comes into play because NCAA rules don’t allow schools to pay for “official” visits until a recruit is a senior in high school.
Pushed to make a college choice earlier, recruits and their parents tend to pay their own way and some trips are much more feasible. Dorr, for example, was within a five-hour drive of six WCHA schools.
In a typical “unofficial” visit, a recruit will attend a game or practice and then meet with the coach, who will offer a full or partial scholarship or a walk-on spot.
“In the old days, you had a recruit come visit in the fall of his senior year, attend a game, tour the campus,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “Kids aren’t taking official visits anymore.”
Up until the summer before their senior years, recruits are responsible for initiating contact with coaches through phone calls, letters, e-mails and unofficial visits.
Aside from allowing coaches to call foreign recruits once after their sophomore years, the NCAA prohibits e-mail contact before the junior year of high school and does not allow coaches to call until the summer before the recruit’s senior year. By that time, it might be too late.
UNCERTAINTY REIGNS
With professional offers looming, some Canadian and American recruits find themselves “in the position where they have to make decisions,” Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves said. “The kids have to make a decision between major juniors and college and it’s trickled down into college recruiting.”
Without a sure bet from an NCAA Division I school, it’s difficult to tell an agent or general manager “no” when drafted by a major junior program, Denver freshman Keith Seabrook said.
A native of British Columbia, Seabrook was drafted by the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League when he was 16. He watched his brother, Brent, jump to the NHL after four seasons with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Despite receiving only the limited amount of allowed recruiting attention from Denver — a letter of interest and a questionnaire — Seabrook decided to forgo major juniors and protect his NCAA eligibility.
Even though his decision panned out, Seabrook said it felt like he was taking a major risk by trading the sure for the unknown.
“It’s just hard to make a decision if you like where you’ve been drafted for major juniors and it’s a good team and if the organization’s great,” Seabrook said. “I was 16 and I was young and I didn’t know what hockey would have for me. I talked to players who had been to college. I just thought it was the right thing to do, to come and play hockey and do school at the same time.”
The best players are offered full scholarships and can start school when they want. But because college teams have about 26 players and only 18 scholarships, some players will see where they stand with more than one school. They find out whether the school is offering a full or partial scholarship and when the school would like them to arrive.
“You can offer them for down the road, like the fall of 2008,” Owens said. “If by chance we feel you’re not ready, could be 2009, assuming that all academics are in order and that you’ve been accepted to the school.”
ADJUSTING ON THE FLY
Ideally, coaches and players agree on an enrollment date — sometimes as distant as three years after high school — that allows the player to develop.
But the best-laid plans of players and coaches can go awry when holes in the lineup need to be filled or a scholarship opens because a player unexpectedly turns pro.
Last season, 16 WCHA underclassmen departed for the NHL and already this season seven WCHA underclassmen have signed contracts.
Under the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement of 2005, signing young talent is cheaper because entry-level contracts have a lower maximum salary.
Draftees will become free agents if they are not signed by the end of the summer after their senior years, pushing NHL clubs to sign underclassmen and bring them into their system rather than face the risk of losing them to free agency.
Early departures prompt coaches such as Lucia and Eaves — who lost a total of six underclassmen last summer — to lock up extra commitments in order to offset losses.
Owens’ strategy is to find a mix of older and younger recruits who aren’t as likely to leave early and can provide stability.
“You can win having kids for four years,” Owens said. “Sometimes all the big hotshots, by the time they’re ready to help you, they’re ready to sign.”
A BIG DECISION
Turnover occurs in every program. As a result, a recent high school graduate, who might not have committed, can go straight to college.
CC freshman Addison DeBoer broke scoring records at Spring Lake Park (Minn.) High School but was hardly recruited. DeBoer had planned to try out for a USHL team, but Owens offered a scholarship.
“He was a true freshman, a younglooking kid and really could have used some extra time but we wanted to bring him in,” Owens said. “There was something about him as a staff that we liked. He had great offensive numbers and he played hard.”
Sometimes the jump is too much for developing players to handle.
“There are plenty of kids that are coming in early that coaches are just living with,” Owens said. “You’re just playing them anyway and just trying to develop them, knowing that they can’t give you a heck of a lot.”
Generally, coaches stick with such players to honor their side of the verbal commitment.
If a coach doesn’t deliver on a scholarship that he’s promised, the player is left hanging and the school’s reputation is damaged.
The verbal commitment is “a handshake, it’s a look in the eye,” Owens said. “I’ll say, ‘Let me know in three weeks. If you’re not interested, that’s OK. But otherwise we need to move on.’ But it just depends on what kind of rush we’re in and it varies from kid to kid.
“We’re not a high-pressure place. If the kid says, ‘I need another week,’ I usually grant that. But you can only wait so long because sometimes you’re offering to an A kid, but B, C and D are committing to other places. . . . The longer it goes, the more Bs, Cs, Ds and Es you lose, but you’ve got to be fair because it’s a big decision.”
With players making those decisions at increasingly younger ages, more mistakes are bound to happen. Players are going to change their minds.
Eight months after committing to Duluth in January 2006, Dorr realized his decision was hasty.
“It’s the fear of not getting looked at, so you’re going to take what you have at the time,” he said. “That’s what I did.”
With his wrist healed and his play improved, Dorr put himself back on the market by e-mailing coaches from other top schools.
Dorr garnered interest from Wisconsin, CC, St. Cloud State, Minnesota State-Mankato and Notre Dame, but the 18-year-old committed to Minnesota in February.
He said 16-year-olds should not be allowed to commit verbally, but he understands the colleges’ perspective.
“You don’t know too much when you’re that age,” he said. “Now, I’m 18 and I’m mature enough to understand this is the next four years of my life.”
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