Recruiting For High School Hockey

What is the deal with high school recruiting? I do not mean the college recruiting we regularly hear about but rather the recruiting of grade school students by high schools specifically for athletics. Surely our coaches must be doing this. Many coaches no doubt still just accept whoever appears on the roster. But if that is how a program builds its team then they are doing something wrong. Granted strong programs can recruit for themselves. Ten years of winning seasons with athletes going on to play in college or even the pros makes for an immediate draw to would be freshmen. Formerly youth sports were run by civic or private organizations and if a coach wanted to scout he literally had to spend time at the rink. Likewise spectators could see the luck of the draw in a team that was good for a few years but when a key group of players graduated the team would fall to obscurity. However, a trend amongst a number of schools is to imitate other sports and develop feeder programs for hockey. Malvern Prep for example has utilized its middle school and its relationship with Ice Line, check out the web address for their hockey team, to create its own AAA farm system. With the development of new teams as suburban townships create new high schools or as institutions such as Chestnut Hill Academy restart their programs there will be a talent drain despite the dramatic increase in the number of student athletes playing. With programs like La Salle College High School, Holy Ghost Prep, Cardinal O’Hara, Archbishop Ryan, and St. Joseph’s Preparatory running additional middle school, multiple varsity, or junior varsity teams these trends will only continue. And why shouldn’t they? If a program is successful due to planning and hard work that should be and will be rewarded. In todays hockey world waiting for the luck of the draw for incoming players is not how a program is sustained, nor how one is built.