Goalie Recruit For This Fall (Omar Kanji)

Reported by BRP a few days ago. Kanji probably won't see any ice time, since he'll be behind Scrivens and Garman.

Nice save, on the set of TX-1138.

This kid looks pretty good. Was his recruitment unexpected?

What does the rest of the freshman class for 2009-2010 look like? Can someone point me to the correct thread?

Thank you.

Highlights from his


58-save shutout win, posted by one OKanji786. UCC won 3-0 despite being outshot 58-13 (22-2 after 1 period, it looked like - yikes.)

Definitely looks solid - good positioning, and good reflexes on some tough second saves.

Welcome to the Big Red!

ebilmes
Reported by BRP a few days ago. Kanji probably won't see any ice time, since he'll be behind Scrivens and Garman.

We've heard that before.

Toronto Star May 5 article:
[www.thestar.com]

jkahn
Toronto Star May 5 article:
[www.thestar.com]

For what it's worth in juding the level of competition: Kanji is the only player on this all-star team who will be on an NCAA roster next year. One player will be playing Junior A, three will be at Canadian colleges, and one is taking a lacrosse scholarship at Jacksonville University (which next spring will become the first school in Florida to offer a D-I men's lax program).

Toronto Star May 5 article:

Two thoughts:

1) This kid is a lot smarter and/or hits the books a lot harder than the rest of the 'all-stars' listed. Good for him.

2) If I can infer as much from his surname, does anybody else find it refreshing that there will be a little bit more diversity in the program?

mnagowski
If I can infer as much from his surname, does anybody else find it refreshing that there will be a little bit more diversity in the program?

So he's Jewish?

If he can stop the puck, I don't care if the guy's the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

mnagowski
2) If I can infer as much from his surname, does anybody else find it refreshing that there will be a little bit more diversity in the program?

High level athletics really is about as close to meritocracy as you'll find in America. As long as the kid is wearing carnelian and white I don't care in the least what race or color he is.

Josh '99

jkahn
Toronto Star May 5 article:
[www.thestar.com]

For what it's worth in juding the level of competition: Kanji is the only player on this all-star team who will be on an NCAA roster next year. One player will be playing Junior A, three will be at Canadian colleges, and one is taking a lacrosse scholarship at Jacksonville University (which next spring will become the first school in Florida to offer a D-I men's lax program).

I'm not sure what your point is. If it's to say the quality of the all-star team is not that strong, let me point out that some pretty good Cornell goalies have come from the Greater Toronto area.

Trotsky

mnagowski
If I can infer as much from his surname, does anybody else find it refreshing that there will be a little bit more diversity in the program?

So he's Jewish?

His name ends with a vowel. He must be Italian.

Swampy

Trotsky

mnagowski
If I can infer as much from his surname, does anybody else find it refreshing that there will be a little bit more diversity in the program?

So he's Jewish?

His name ends with a vowel. He must be Italian.

But it's an "i" instead of an "o," so he could be Polish...

Robb

Swampy

Trotsky

mnagowski
If I can infer as much from his surname, does anybody else find it refreshing that there will be a little bit more diversity in the program?

So he's Jewish?

His name ends with a vowel. He must be Italian.

But it's an "i" instead of an "o," so he could be Polish...

You're on to something. 40% of his last name is J's and K's.

Swampy

Josh '99

jkahn
Toronto Star May 5 article:
[www.thestar.com]

For what it's worth in juding the level of competition: Kanji is the only player on this all-star team who will be on an NCAA roster next year. One player will be playing Junior A, three will be at Canadian colleges, and one is taking a lacrosse scholarship at Jacksonville University (which next spring will become the first school in Florida to offer a D-I men's lax program).

I'm not sure what your point is. If it's to say the quality of the all-star team is not that strong, let me point out that some pretty good Cornell goalies have come from the Greater Toronto area.

Obviously there is plenty of hockey talent coming out of Toronto and the surrounding area, but it doesn't mean the top-level talent is playing in that high school league. (If these are really the six best hockey players coming out of Greater Toronto this year, is one of them really going to play college lacrosse?) I'm not able to find much on Brian Cropper's background but Dryden played two seasons in juniors before coming to Cornell.

if you want to play college/nhl in canada you play junior. in the states you can make the jump from high school to college/nhl. kudos to omar for being one of the few to make the leap.

High level athletics really is about as close to meritocracy as you'll find in America.

That's why so many hockey players were born in January and February.

If he can stop the puck, I don't care if the guy's the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

I imagine most of the spectators in Lynah would think otherwise.

tretiak
if you want to play college/nhl in canada you play junior. in the states you can make the jump from high school to college/nhl. kudos to omar for being one of the few to make the leap.

Right, that's basically what I was getting at. Kanji could certainly still be a wonderful hockey player who's simply going the route less traveled for Canadian players because academics are very important to him.

mnagowski

High level athletics really is about as close to meritocracy as you'll find in America.

That's why so many hockey players were born in January and February.

Yeah. Kids born earlier in the year are probably bigger and stronger in their age groups and therefore perform better. This is merit based. The fact that the merit may be more coincidence of the calendars than inherent talent doesn't change that.

Josh '99
Kanji could certainly still be a wonderful hockey player who's simply going the route less traveled for Canadian players because academics are very important to him.

Colin Greening is a first-rate student, too, and he played in the BCHL in between UCC and Cornell. I suspect one reason Omar Kanji won't be spending next year on Vancouver Island is that Cornell had a goaltending roster spot to fill. If Cornell did not, he probably would either have gone to an Ivy that had a slot for him or played a full year of Junior A hockey.

cbuckser

Josh '99
Kanji could certainly still be a wonderful hockey player who's simply going the route less traveled for Canadian players because academics are very important to him.

Colin Greening is a first-rate student, too, and he played in the BCHL in between UCC and Cornell. I suspect one reason Omar Kanji won't be spending next year on Vancouver Island is that Cornell had a goaltending roster spot to fill. If Cornell did not, he probably would either have gone to an Ivy that had a slot for him or played a full year of Junior A hockey.

It's also pretty difficult to predict how a goaltender will adjust to moving up levels. We've had U-18 National team goalies not make a dent in the lineup, and found Australians and Texans who were award-winners. Even beyond college, it often takes years and years for the best college goalies to crack the NHL. (See Thomas, Tim)

KeithK

mnagowski

High level athletics really is about as close to meritocracy as you'll find in America.

That's why so many hockey players were born in January and February.

Yeah. Kids born earlier in the year are probably bigger and stronger in their age groups and therefore perform better. This is merit based. The fact that the merit may be more coincidence of the calendars than inherent talent doesn't change that.

Only merit based in relation to the arbitrary break point in the year. If a youth league or school system divides its levels using August to July, the kids born in August and September have the advantage.

Looks like some people here are keeping up on their Malcolm Gladwell readings.

[www.behindthenet.ca]

Looks like some people here are keeping up on their Malcolm Gladwell readings.

You betcha.

Only merit based in relation to the arbitrary break point in the year. If a youth league or school system divides its levels using August to July, the kids born in August and September have the advantage.

Exactly. If the difference between making the All-Star team at the age of eight and subsequently being given more attention and training to make the travel team at the age of 12 is largely driven by such a random factor, I have a hard time arguing that the sports world is a strict meritocracy.

Now, I'm not trying to suggest that our athletes don't work incredibly hard towards their goals. Because they do. All I'm suggesting is that our notion of 'merit' should be re-considered.

A great book to read, by the way, is this pseudo-academic/science fiction book called 'The Rise of the Meritocracy'.

amerks127
Looks like some people here are keeping up on their Malcolm Gladwell readings.

[www.behindthenet.ca]

Malcolm Gladwell recently spent the day at ESPN and did a few segments on the Colin Cowherd show. I heard some of the interviews and it was very interesting, especially about the age divisions with respect to the calendar influences "success rates".

This link should connect you to the podcast archives for some of his radio interviews.

Rita

amerks127
Looks like some people here are keeping up on their Malcolm Gladwell readings.

[www.behindthenet.ca]

Malcolm Gladwell recently spent the day at ESPN and did a few segments on the Colin Cowherd show. I heard some of the interviews and it was very interesting, especially about the age divisions with respect to the calendar influences "success rates".

History has been made, ladies and gentlemen. For the first time ever, something interesting has happened on Colin Cowherd's show.

mnagowski
1) This kid is a lot smarter and/or hits the books a lot harder than the rest of the 'all-stars' listed. Good for him.

IB1 student Omar Kanji is such a player. He has been given the St. Michael’s Majors Minor Midget ‘AAA’ Scholarship Award that is presented annually by the Greater Toronto Hockey League, which is the largest minor hockey league in the world.

“The scholarship is a one-time award of $1,000 and it is given towards my tuition at whichever university I attend,” says Kanji. “The award was presented at the Hockey Hall of Fame, where I got the chance to meet former Toronto Maple Leafs legend Ron Ellis.”

The criteria for winning the award was that the recipient had to have a high standard of excellence in hockey and at school. Kanji’s College average is 91, and he’s also involved in a lot of other UCC activities.

This past school year, he was a member of the Community Service Council at the College, a member of the investment club, a plenary head for the World Affairs Conference and he received a bronze medal for the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

[www.ucc.on.ca]

Josh '99

Rita

amerks127
Looks like some people here are keeping up on their Malcolm Gladwell readings.

[www.behindthenet.ca]

Malcolm Gladwell recently spent the day at ESPN and did a few segments on the Colin Cowherd show. I heard some of the interviews and it was very interesting, especially about the age divisions with respect to the calendar influences "success rates".

History has been made, ladies and gentlemen. For the first time ever, something interesting has happened on Colin Cowherd's show.

And someone was actually tuning in and heard it!

Fascinating stuff about the birthdate disparities among hockey players, and a reason to keep browsing eLynah in the off-season.

RichH

Josh '99

Rita

amerks127
Looks like some people here are keeping up on their Malcolm Gladwell readings.

[www.behindthenet.ca]

Malcolm Gladwell recently spent the day at ESPN and did a few segments on the Colin Cowherd show. I heard some of the interviews and it was very interesting, especially about the age divisions with respect to the calendar influences "success rates".

History has been made, ladies and gentlemen. For the first time ever, something interesting has happened on Colin Cowherd's show.

And someone was actually tuning in and heard it!

Hey, I am trying to have some "balance" in my life, it can't just all be NPR.

Sometimes the guests on the Diane Rehm Show and Fresh Air are not of interest to me. Not much choice when driving around Lafayette... NPR, ESPN, country music or the "God" Stations. Thus what 2 stations would you be flipping between?

Here's today PSA: Sunday is Mother's day, so make sure you call your Mom, especially if she ever got up at 4 am to take you to a 6 am hockey practice!

mnagowski
Exactly. If the difference between making the All-Star team at the age of eight and subsequently being given more attention and training to make the travel team at the age of 12 is largely driven by such a random factor, I have a hard time arguing that the sports world is a strict meritocracy.

Now, I'm not trying to suggest that our athletes don't work incredibly hard towards their goals. Because they do. All I'm suggesting is that our notion of 'merit' should be re-considered.

It is still merit based. There's no grand conspiracy to advantage kids born in January. Is there a possibility (likelihood?) that some good players will be passed over or not develop based on the vagaries of the calendar? Sure. Is this short sighted? Maybe. But the kids are still being evaluated based on how they perform on the ice and at least to some degree by objective measures.

No where did I say that the sports world is a strict meritocracy. It's just closer to one than most other things I can think of in American society. Plus, when I wrote "high level athletics" I was not referring to eight year olds. There's nothing high level about pre-teen athletics (whether they can outskate or out-stickhandle me is beside the point).
I was thinking about adults - college, the pros.

There's no grand conspiracy to advantage kids born in January.

I never suggested there was. And I agree with you that sport is more merit-based than most realms of our society.

I was really just trying to ruffle your feathers by offering a hockey-related anecdote suggesting that a lot of accomplishments in life happen with some confluence of random chance.

As to my original point -- that of a visible minority on the hockey team next year -- I simply think it is good for the sport that individuals from differing backgrounds are being exposed to hockey. Just like it is good that youth lacrosse is exploding in inner-city Baltimore.

Who knows, maybe it will even bring some more student fans into Lynah, introducing even more to the sport.

mnagowski

High level athletics really is about as close to meritocracy as you'll find in America.

That's why so many hockey players were born in January and February.

If he can stop the puck, I don't care if the guy's the bacterium Yersinia pestis.

I imagine most of the spectators in Lynah would think otherwise.

I would think that the office staff at Sucks and princeton already think the faithful are a plague.

billhoward
Fascinating stuff about the birthdate disparities among hockey players, and a reason to keep browsing eLynah in the off-season.

Yeah, but not such a revelation. (I was, however, happy to find such strong statistical support.) When I coached house league youth sports, which did not have a real draft, one of the first things I looked at was the birth month of the kids. Our league went August to July for a birth year (corresponding to the school grades in the local public school), and when we had a bunch of August-September births, I knew we were going to have a good season, even if the skills and athletic abilities of the players were evenly distributed throughout the league.

In fact, our psuedo-draft relied on the kids' ranking given by their coach at the end of the previous season. Kids were assigned randomly to teams in tiers: so many #1 kids, so many #2's, etc. Because coaches would take into account a kid's skills and athleticism and discount things like size, knowing that kids grow at different rates, the skill and athleticism of the players was pretty even throughout the league by design. Birth month, on the other hand, was completely uncontrolled. Hence it was possible to have a team heavily weighted with older or younger kids.

CowbellGuy

mnagowski
1) This kid is a lot smarter and/or hits the books a lot harder than the rest of the 'all-stars' listed. Good for him.

IB1 student Omar Kanji is such a player. He has been given the St. Michael’s Majors Minor Midget ‘AAA’ Scholarship Award that is presented annually by the Greater Toronto Hockey League, which is the largest minor hockey league in the world.

“The scholarship is a one-time award of $1,000 and it is given towards my tuition at whichever university I attend,” says Kanji. “The award was presented at the Hockey Hall of Fame, where I got the chance to meet former Toronto Maple Leafs legend Ron Ellis.”

The criteria for winning the award was that the recipient had to have a high standard of excellence in hockey and at school. Kanji’s College average is 91, and he’s also involved in a lot of other UCC activities.

This past school year, he was a member of the Community Service Council at the College, a member of the investment club, a plenary head for the World Affairs Conference and he received a bronze medal for the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

[www.ucc.on.ca]

Does the fact that they repeat the same paragraph about the amount the scholarship is worth mean that he actually got $2,000?

Also, what's with "I have decided that I will play varsity hockey for UCC and leave AAA hockey in order to pursue a Division 1 hockey scholarship to an American university."? I thought Canada is in America. Silly me.

Swampy
Also, what's with "I have decided that I will play varsity hockey for UCC and leave AAA hockey in order to pursue a Division 1 hockey scholarship to an American university."? I thought Canada is in America. Silly me.

Yes, silly you.

[Drift] We just passed out of the pre-HS youth lax and hockey leagues, and I could see some psycho sports father / coaches (win at all costs) who'd want to consider birthdate stats in drafting a team if they had the info.

Aside: We're on to HS now and one such outspoken dad was right under the open press box window and the game tape camcorder's mike picked up his rants against the regs, the coach, and all the other players who weren't feeding his son the ball.